ORIGINAL: timothy thompson
glassing the center adds tremendous shear strength. the wood undulates as a sine wave in fligt. the glass helps hold it together
i have gp lanc and never had a problem. hitting a wing on landing will cause damage. the wing spar could have been damaged. the wing can be fixed as well as the fuse. might need new windows
No doubt. Our wings are exposed to just about every form of dynamic load. Compression, shear, torsion, tension there is no argument there… But glassing the center inch or two of an ARF wings’ sheeting is just going to help any potential failure move outboard by that amount. A properly mixed and cured epoxy joint is NOT going to fail on these models, THE ADJACENT WOOD WILL. If it makes you sleep better at night knowing the center 2 inches of your wing won’t break, it’s all good.