Originally Posted by
DrScoles
Maidened mine on Saturday. One of the main gear blocks broke out when I was moving the plane on the ground! It ripped the sheeting off behind the block, zero glue anywhere on the backside of the landing gear mounting plate or the ribs… :-( I CA'd the hell out of it and got one flight in. PLanning to strip the sheeting around the main gear and reinforce. Almost wish they would leave the mounting blocks out so we could do it ourselves…..
Dr. You have just experienced the start of "total wing" failure. Once those gear mounts go, it means the shear webs on the spar box are beginning to fail.
First photo is a total wing failure on it's second landing. Conclusion, shear webs installed with the grain parallel to the spars. Also glue did not hold.
This is a problem with all TF P51 wings. I have now fixed 5 sets of wings. All have the same problem.
Second photo show the shear webs or lack of them near the servo box.
Third photo is the fix to the wing. Also replace gear blocks with hard wood. Run the blocks into the spar box. This will help distribute the load.
This fall I had a TF P51 Mustang engine failure and stall. The plane went straight down into concrete. The only thing left of the wing ( that I had fixed) was the spar box gear mounts intact from servo hole to servo whole.
Also when fixing the wing use Hysol epoxy 9462
http://www.dreamworksrc.com/catalog/Hysol-9462