A remos G-3 instructor and pilot owner flying at 200-250 ft AGL struck a steel cable strung across a...

Narrative:

I and a student were doing a checkout flight in a remos G-3. We departed ZZZ airport around XA00 am and headed to the north. This area is very desolate. After about 1 hour of maneuvers; we followed a river at about 700 ft AGL to ZZZ1 airport and worked on landings for a while. At approximately XC00 we decided to head back to ZZZ airport following the same river at about 200 ft AGL. After about 15 minutes; we began to reach some high mountains on both sides of the river so we slowly began to climb. At about 200-250 ft AGL; we suddenly came up on what looked to be an old trolley cable that someone had stretched across the hillsides. I grabbed the controls and shoved the stick full forward. We managed to miss the propeller and wings but struck the cable with the vertical stabilizer. The aircraft veered to the left and the left wing stalled and fell into the beginnings of a spin. I applied full right rudder and full power. The plane fell about 100-150 ft then slowly recovered to level flight about 20 ft from the ground. I eased the aircraft into a slow climb and gained altitude. The aircraft didn't show any signs of unusual flight characteristics; so we continued and landed safely. When we inspected the aircraft for damage; we found a scrape on the vertical stabilizer and a crack in the fiberglass on the bottom of the aircraft. My state of mind: this was an extremely desolate area with no homes; farms; roads or power lines of any kind for many miles around. The student indicated to me that the reason he bought an lsa aircraft was so he could fly lower and not have to talk to ATC. We had just flown along the same river on the way at about 700-1;000 ft AGL and saw no obstructions of any kind in the path. The student stated that he believed that what we struck was an old trolley cable that had been left by thrill seekers or deer hunters to ride from one hillside to the other.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Remos G-3 instructor and pilot owner flying at 200-250 FT AGL struck a steel cable strung across a river between two hills. After the vertical stabilizer struck the cable; the instructor recovered from a stall and flew to the destination with very little damage.

Narrative: I and a student were doing a checkout flight in a Remos G-3. We departed ZZZ Airport around XA00 AM and headed to the north. This area is very desolate. After about 1 hour of maneuvers; we followed a river at about 700 FT AGL to ZZZ1 airport and worked on landings for a while. At approximately XC00 we decided to head back to ZZZ airport following the same river at about 200 FT AGL. After about 15 minutes; we began to reach some high mountains on both sides of the river so we slowly began to climb. At about 200-250 FT AGL; we suddenly came up on what looked to be an old trolley cable that someone had stretched across the hillsides. I grabbed the controls and shoved the stick full forward. We managed to miss the propeller and wings but struck the cable with the vertical stabilizer. The aircraft veered to the left and the left wing stalled and fell into the beginnings of a spin. I applied full right rudder and full power. The plane fell about 100-150 FT then slowly recovered to level flight about 20 FT from the ground. I eased the aircraft into a slow climb and gained altitude. The aircraft didn't show any signs of unusual flight characteristics; so we continued and landed safely. When we inspected the aircraft for damage; we found a scrape on the vertical stabilizer and a crack in the fiberglass on the bottom of the aircraft. My state of mind: This was an extremely desolate area with no homes; farms; roads or power lines of any kind for many miles around. The student indicated to me that the reason he bought an LSA aircraft was so he could fly lower and not have to talk to ATC. We had just flown along the same river on the way at about 700-1;000 FT AGL and saw no obstructions of any kind in the path. The student stated that he believed that what we struck was an old trolley cable that had been left by thrill seekers or deer hunters to ride from one hillside to the other.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	823365
Time
Date	200902
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Sport Aicraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40 Flight Crew Total 3800 Flight Crew Type 50
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A remos G-3 instructor and pilot owner flying at 200-250 ft AGL struck a steel cable strung across a river between two hills. After the vertical stabilizer struck the cable; the instructor recovered from a stall and flew to the destination with very little damage.