SR-22 Damage Near Baggage Door?

I sold my Cirrus around this time last year and got a message from the new owners today that they found some damage just behind the baggage door that not only removed the paint but looks like it may have damaged (gouged) the composite.

Has anyone here had experience with this kind of damage? Anything special needed to repair this? Any recommendations for who to take it to? The aircraft is in the OKC area. There was also a huge dent found on the elevator.

At this point they are not sure how the damage occurred. The people they have managing the aircraft also seem to be in the dark about how the damage happened. Any insight and advice on repairs would be appreciated. Thanks.

Zig

Do they have a camera in the hangar?

To do this kind of damage would take a pretty good hammer hit. Maybe something fell off the hangar ceiling (that weighed 20 pounds).

Nope…no camera unfortunately. The only thing in the hangar is the plane. The elevator damage looks intentional to me. There are no scratches on the elevator…just the dent.

Both of those bits of damage look to be awful round to me…looks like the head of a hammer.

I would be asking … Who hates him and owns a hammer… that Composite damage is a hit as well by the mark next to the bog in the paint…

.

Man…my heart sunk when I saw the damage. Ross and the guys at Midwest Aircraft Refinishing did the paint in 2014 while I owned it. To see it be damaged this way breaks my heart.

" The elevator damage looks intentional to me"

My first thought as well

Very wild guess here Ziggy but I can imagine a foreign object being launched sideways and up from the main gear tire on landing. After bouncing off the fuselage it sailed over the HS and impacted the elevator (which would be nearly all the way up during the flair). It does not look like hammer marks to me.

Drone strike?

Very possible Ron. I hadn’t thought of that.

This airplane is one of your neighbors there at PWA.

Yeah, It’s a beautiful plane. Makes me sad to see this.

Stupid question, but were there any action cams attached that aren’t anymore?

No cameras have ever been attached anywhere outside of the plane that I or the current owners are aware of.

Never went off the runway and hit a light did they??

I did get a little more information today. I found out that on the last flight this aircraft me to Texas the pilots door popped open. Instead of landing and closing the door they decided to stuff a jacket in the crack to keep the cold air from coming in. The jacket got sucked out of the airplane. I’m thinking this is possibly the cause of the damage. Anyone think a jacket flying out of the aircraft at 190 miles an hour could cause this kind of damage?

Was anything in the jacket pockets?

That I’m not sure of.

A few months ago the same thing happened to me, the door popped open and I continued on my journey, the noise was one thing but it was really cold, I got my jacket from the back seat and blocked the wind. After reading this thread I now realise it was a silly thing to do as my pockets are always full of all sorts of things, thankfully nothing happened, but if the jacket had got blown out I can imagine damage may have occurred.

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I know the airplane is flyable but should it be flown with that big of a hit to the elevator? What would the protocol be for the gouged composite? Is it just a cosmetic repair or does it need to be looked at more closely? Just trying to help them figure out first steps. This airplane was flown from OKC to Colorado yesterday and is scheduled to come back to OKC Thursday.