Hi there,

I recently bought a Phoenix Funstar. Looks quite good. I have read at several places in this forum that the fuse sides are week between firewall and the trailing edge and that it should be strengthened. I also feel the same looking at the fuse in my hands. Now, as I see it, it is easy to epoxy in a lite ply doubler in the area between leading edge and trailing edge. But how do you do it from the leading edge to the firewall. There seem to be two problems. The first one is that the formers come in the way. With that, the doubler can not be one-piece from TE to FW. It can only be in pieces - one piece from TE to LE and then another from LE to FW. But doesn't it mean less strength as compared to a single piece of doubler? The other problem is the reach. How do you reach inside the fuel tank compartment to measure the size of the doubler? And do you think that the doubler must "cover" the entire height of the sides. I mean will it be okay to have the doubler a few cms. short (in height) as compared to the fuse side that it is going in on?

Cheers !

I simply epoxyed a thin layer with a thin plywood piece behind the former at the leading edge of the wing. I shaped it so it would contour around the wing and inside of the fuselage. I have had a few rough landings and everything has held up fine.

thats sure that in the first crash it will break in that place....dont think it..just graba piece of ply wood and stick in the way you want its extremetly necessary to do it. do not only refoced that place, you also have to reinforce the shape of the wing in the fuse.