CTKT05

Well I was testing the approach at a new field for a landing and got a little too close to the end of the field and couldnt pull up quick enough, end result is in the pictures haha.
Took a good hour to get it out. It was hung up on the landing gear around a tree branch. Ended up cutting down the tree to get it out.
Well I dont have any clue where to begin on repairs, any suggestions or tips?
Everything still seems to work except the aileron catches a little on the outside edge unless i kinda pull out on the busted wing end.

edsland

I would strip the covering off where the wood is broken then ca glue or make new what pieces are broke. Then I would beef up the section that I fixed and then recover what you took off. Total time for someone who has done a few kits maybe an hour. If you never have done any building and covering can you go to a hobbie shop they would show you what you would need to fix her up.

bbbair

This is a case in point why I dislike ARFs.

Don't get me wrong, they work well and get a lot of people flying in a hurry.

BUT!

You don't learn how to build and fix as you open up an ARF.[]

OK ... so much for my rant.

This appears to be an easy fix, go to your LHS and buy a roll of covering, if you don't have a covering iron yet - now would be a good time to invest in one.

Cut away any mangled and loose pieces of covering. Check to see if there is any damaged wood pieces.

IF the wood is cracked allow a few drops of thin CA to soak in and strenthed the area. If there is a broken piece effect the necessary repairs.

Cut a piece of covering that is big enough to cover the damaged area PLUS about one extra inch all around.

Using the covering iron, tack the covering in place and then while gently pulling the covering tight move around the edge of the patch to seal it into place. Try to keep all of the wrinkles and bubble out - once done use a heat gun to shrink the covering tight and then trim off any excess with an xacto knife.

Good Luck!

vmsguy

Don't forget to try some gentle twisting and bending the wing, the fuse, and the tail feathers. There could be structural damage beneath perfectly good looking covering. It doesn't look like it from the pictures.. but you never know...

Make sure you do so in a very quiet place. And LISTEN! You should not near anything. But if you her scratching or tiny popping sounds that might be an indication.

Can't hurt to check this. If there's hidden damage, we'll see another post by that starts out.. "I was doing a nice (insert maneauver here) and all of a sudden (insert crash description here)." Followed by come really cool pictures of a very broken plane.

Good luck...

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

it does look like a basic repair job,minor dammage to the covering and wing tip.
when removing the covering be carefull not to add to the problem by ripping the wood apart just be gentile and only remove as much covering as needed to get at the wood that needs fixing,as posted thin CA glue looks like your friend there.
even if you needed to strip the covering one roll of silver would do to recover the wing.
also if you do have to redo the whole wing then keep the insignias so you can copy them its easy with a sharp razor blade.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Why can't that tree go back to eating charlie Brown's kites instead? Don't forget to rebalance after the repair! Its a simple detail easy to overlook but can make a big difference!

CTKT05

well it was an easy fix. the wing tip on the PTS seems to be a plastic wingtip of some sort.
after tightening up the covering that was on there still and then putting a little bit of monokote silver covering on the tears it looks good as new almost.
i guess the pictures look worse than it actually was. it only took about 15-20 minutes to patch up. none of the wood in the wing was broken so i got very lucky and didnt have to tear into the covering.

tenuhsee1975

Wow, I have one of these birds too as my first plane(have been flying for almost 3 months now), and by looking at the picture I find it a little hard to believe there is no internal wood damage. It may be hard to see, so I would look really close. I know, you don't want to find damage on your baby, but sometimes it just happens LOL. I have a couple pictures of when my left wing found a stake sticking up out of the ground off the edge of the runway-- on my 5th solo flight. If I can figure out how to load some pictures, I will. I enlisted the advice of the elder members of my club, ventured to the LHS to pick up the required repair items and some more great advice. I went home, spent a couple hours on it and it was good as new. BTW the fiberglass wingtip is apparently very sturdy.

John

CTKT05

the only damage was to the fiberglass wing tip. it was just dented in. no broken wood at all. luckily i wasnt going very fast when it went into the tree.

my father in law looked it over and helped with the repairs. the fiberglass wingtip on the damaged side is a little soft to the touch compared to the other side but other than that its fine and flies great still.

tenuhsee1975

couple pix from mine

http://image2.rcuniverse.com/gallery.../lg-109850.jpg

http://image2.rcuniverse.com/gallery.../lg-109851.jpg