raron455

My Feedback: (38)

Hello, I was hoping someone could help with this,,
i was flying my 40% and on take off the left aileron Jammed in the upposition, locking it, (matchbox wassmokedbelieve it to be the original culprit) tried to correct but could not, addedfullright rudder that helped, but was not enough to overcome the aileron pull, ended up in a full vertical about 10 feet off the ground when it came down.. landed right on the tail the whole front of the plane does not have a scratch on it, but the rear of the fuslage got the crunch,, as far as the damage, the rudder hinges broke, but not the rudder or vertical stab, the right horizontal stab took most of the hit, busted pretty good, that can be replaced or fixed,,,

-WHATIam not sure of is this damage on the fuselage,, I would really appreciate any help as my only idea is to try and take it to a body shop or fiberglass shop and see what they say,, not sure if its worth the time or money to fix it,, I loved the way this plane flew, and would love to get it back, I am just not sure if this is an easy or super hard $$$ repair,,
any help or advice is appreciated
Ronnie Dean
Waco Texas

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

It's not as bad as it looks. You will have to pull what is there back to being strait. Sometimes a little heat from a heat gun will help. It there are tears in the glass you will need to run a cut off disk through the tear. If you don't remove this material you will not be able to compress the area back to original shape. What I have done with repairs like this is to CA wood pieces on the exterior to hold the structure and then lay some new glass inside to repair the structure. The difficult part with your repair I'd gaining access. You will want to cut an access hole in the bottom of the fuse, do the repair and the replace that bottom section. Once you get started post pictures and I will check back on a daily basis and offer you any help that I can. Good news is that it Dosent look like you have the honeycomb version. I repaired a couple of those and it was a pain. If you don't already have some, you will want to obtain some epoxy laminating resin, 4 oz fiberglass cloth and some 3K carbon fiber tow. I am repairing a Comp ARF Extra right now and will post some pics that will help you out.

raron455

My Feedback: (38)

Thanks, i was scared it would be a total loss, some pix will give me some confidence.

sensei

I agree, the fuse looks like a pretty easy fix.

Bob

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

OK here is a pic of the inside of a Comp ARF. Once the structure was supported on the exterior the interior was sanded and cleaned with acetone. i wet out some 1.5" lengths of 3K CF tow and put in an X pattern over the structure. Next was to wet out some 4 oz cloth on butcher paper and then apply over the fracture and CF. This will pretty much bring the structure back to being sound but for some additional insurance I also apply a layer of 2 oz to the exterior also. If there are gaps, cover them with packing tape on the exterior and fill with epoxy mixed with cabosil from the inside and apply the cloth while still wet. If you need to replace any of the core material do so after the work on the interior is done. I use lightweight spackle for this and then cover it on the exterior with the 2 oz cloth.