conradj87

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Recently I took my newly built Dazzler out for soem fun. I went to the field, and started up, everything working fine. About 15 feet off the ground, the engine cuts out. Me being the idiot that I am, tried to get it back ot the runway. I got it there, but 6 inches off the ground, it tip stalls. The landing gear took most of the impact, but it gave out very quickly, breaking off the bottom of the gas tank compartment. Soon after, the right wing goes in, snapping off about 2 inches from the fuselage. The engine failure happened because of a mis set needle valve. When i picked up the engine, it broke off the plane, it burned my hand easily, after maybe only a half a minute of running time. This happened to me once before, with a different plane, but i was able to get the plane back in one piece. Someone else there said that the needle valve was set too low, causing not enough oil to get into the cylinder, making it very hot. The heat caused the piston to expand, therefore, locking up the engine.
after all was done, I came back home, and glued the wing back together with a bit of reinforcement, not nearly enough according to some other people i know. It is now covered, but i am havign second thoughts about my repair job. Should I take the covering off again, reinforce it more, or leave it be, and see how it goes? My option would be to see how it goes, but if it means saving the plane i will gladly do any repairs necessary short of rebuilding the wing completely. Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated.
I tried to put a pic in here, not working apparently.

Chunkylad

The Dazzler is a very agile and capable aerobatic 'plane. It has a very thick wing section, giving it the glide ratio of a house brick!

Mabe next time you won't try to stretch the glide so far; or if you do, keep the nose DOWN to keep some airspeed.

You say the wing has snapped off close to the root. This is a very highly stressed area, and needs careful attention in any rebuild/repair situation.

It sounds like you may have only a little experience at this type of repair. So as far as any recommendations about your repair are concerned, I'd take the UNCOVERED wing to someone senior in your club (whose advice on build quality and strength you trust) and ask their opinion.

Good luck with the repair!

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

I sent some pics to a guy that does that sort of stuff, and he said geta new plane. Not an option. I am 16, with barely any money. Its either i fix this or back to the trainer. I would rather fix this

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

Virtually any crash damage is repairable. At least the type you've described.

The one thing you need to do is make sure that the broken wing panel is very well secured to the root rib area, and to the other wing.

If you want to try to send me pictures I'll see if I can make recommendations.

Good Luck,
Dennis-

( [email protected] )

Combat Addict

How did you repair it? What parts of the wing were damaged?

They were right about the engine, it may not have locked up, but lean engines do get much hotter than rich. It is better to run them rich then lean. Otherwise you run the risk of burning up your engine.

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

The wing broke off right after the second rib. The third one was broken into 3 pieces. Originally I just glued it back together, excatlly how it was, with some scrap balsa/ply reinforcement. Over teh past 2 nights i have taken the covering off teh wing, taken the trailing edge apart, where it was broken, cut teh broken balsa sheeting off teh leading edge, and added some spars across the cracekd area. Today i am going out to get more wood, so i can replace part of the 3rd rib, recover the leading edge(some other time) and getting more stuff to glue on it to help stabilize it. If anyone has seen what the framing of a dazzler's wings is, it is very simple, too simple for my taste. It has 2 main spars running the length of the wing, with ribs every so often. In between the ribs are either ply or balsa sheets glued in. Then on the leading edge, probably about 3 inches back on teh wing, there is very small balsa sheeting. If i knew the wing was like this, i probably wouldn't have bought it. There is no surprise that it broke off. I am still trying to add pics in here, but its not working. I'm pretty sure i can repair it, but I'm still looking for ideas on how to reinforce it.

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conradj87

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Agreed. The first day i almost broke the nose off. Nothing alot of epoxy and some plywood can't fix. I have the ARF. I would rather get a new plane, but until i get some money im sticking with this. You hafta admit it flies ok though(FLIES, not glides)

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conradj87

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Yea I was pretty mad, but when i was building it, I figured that would happen. One of my friends had a Dazzler, wind blew it off the table, it landed square on the wingtip, with the engine on there, it broke. He fixed it up and flew the nose off the next time he went out there, lol. After its all done a good, im prolly going to tear the covering off the other wing and make my own design, No way i could repaint the one that was on there, It felt pretty heavy taking it off.

Balsa Master

ive never had one (and from the air of this thread, i never will) but i think that if you add a couple pieces of light fiberglass cloth around the crack and accross it in a cross then sand it nice and smoth, the weight shouldent be too much and this shuld strengthen the joint, id love to see some pics of this wing assembly, it sounds piss poor...

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for all your replies, I fixed it, took it out last sunday, i haven;'t flown in a month, so i was kinda out of it, ended up taking of across the field, not down the runway, got up, and it tried to bank right reall bad, almost nailed the parking lot. I got nother guy at our club, a better pilot to land it, then take a look at it. I build the wing with a twist in it, one trailing edge was about 1/2 an inch higher than the other, it looked like it was just the part i fixed was bent. I adjusted teh aileron trim, went up again, same thing, couldn't land it. Once my friend got it onto the ground again, i was done. I came home, cut apart the trailing edge, and some of the twist came out i think. I moved all of the parst out of that into my trainer. still trying to decide if its worth it, trying to fix it again, in the meantime im flying the trainer again, it flies just a bit better
Can't put pics in here yet, need an email adress, thanks

Balsa Master

y u need an email address for pics dont you have one since you obviously registered??

anyway. i think its time to start a fire... its getting cold in these early winter months after all... *evil grin*

conradj87

My Feedback: (1)

I need YOUR email adress, yes i have one