ChuckW

My Dad came over this weekend with an airplane he picked up for $5 at a garage sale. It is complete with engine and servos but has some damage and seriously needs re-covering. He asked me to get it to flying condition so it can be re-sold.

Since the damage is typical of what happens through rough landings and hangar rash, I figured posting the process might be helpful for people beginning in the hobby who have dinged up their airplane and need to do similar repairs themselves.

I don't mind takign photos and posting everything but I only want to bother with it if people are interested. If it is something you might find helpful, post here and let me know.

abaser

Sound good to me. Always looking for a learning experience.

batdog

My Feedback: (1)

I am interested and will follow the thread

noveldoc

My Feedback: (2)

Gofer it!

Would love to see how you do it.

Tom

Charlie P.

I can watch other people work for extended periods. 

It is always informative to see how a problem is tackled and the tools & techniques used.

I wanna see!  I wanna see!

G.Barber

My Feedback: (1)

Looks like you'll have an audience, Chuck!

jeffie8696

My favorite kind of plane. You done lots better than me, Ipicked up a Duraplane at the last swap meet for $10 complete ready to fly with a Thunder Tiger GP42, near new. The plane is up in the rafters currently.

ChuckW

OK, sounds good. Iwill try to start tomorrow night but it will more likely be this weekend. The airplane is a World Models Skyraider Mach-2. So far, based on a quick inspection, the list of things to do includes:

1. Repair the damaged leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer. Some of it is actually missing.
2. Repair the broken elevator.
3. Replace a missing balsa block on the wing tip.
4. Find out what is rattling around in the wing and repair as needed.
5. Completely strip and re-cover the airplane. Going to try and use remnants of coverign I have on hand if possible to keep the cost down.
6. Replace the missing canopy.
7. Clean up the engine and inspect how well it is mounted.
8. Clean out the fuel taqnk and re-plumb the fuel system using new line.
9. Inspect all the servo mounting and re-do if needed.
10. Fix the birds-nest wiring job.
11. Charge and cycle the receiver battery to what conditon it is in and replace if necessary.
12. Test the power switch.

There could be more problems revealed once the covering is off.

abaser

Hope yours flies better than mine does. Ive got a os 40 on mine and it flies like someone put a wing on a brick and tied a motor to it. Once you get it up its ok buttakeoff and landing are another story. I have to come in hot and fast or she falls like a rock. Good luck with it.

mike109

Ah the Duraplane. After many crashes I bought one and added ailerons. I put a second hand OS SF25 on it which was perfect. It flew OK but not great. I once gave it to an instructor and he decided to see what it could do. The result was a spectacular flat spin which resulted in no damage. I asked him what he did to get it into the spin (as I figured it was deliberate) and he just looked at me and walked off. I don't think he though it was much good. I sold it. The SF 25 was brilliant though.

noveldoc

My Feedback: (2)

Duraplane. Mine was an Eaglerock. Looked like an Eagle and flew like a rock.

Tom

abaser

I have experienced the flat spin myself. The guy standing next to me asked me the same question. My response? well, Ill keep it "G" rated. I simply let a little birdy fly and informed him that all pilots who are of any count could do that (knowing the whole time I was lying my butt off and wondreing myself howit happened). Unfortunately my experience ended up with a busted wing. I think what happened was I lost a rubber band or two on one side at the bottom of a loop. Who Knows?

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

let's see what one can buy for $5 !

ChuckW

Ok, got started today. Here are a few pictures...

1-The airplane
2- Damage to the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer
3- Damage to the elevator
4- Damage to the wing tip

The covering is beyond saving. The top layer is coming off in numerous places.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Heck Chuckles, that looks to be in better shape then most of the planes I'm flying right now!!! Your dad scored pretty good.
Gene

ChuckW

Time to fix the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. Luckily this airplane has a bolt-together tail so it is just a matter of removing a couple screws to get the stabilizer out on the bench. The lousy covering came right off with very little effort.

1- This picture shows what was left of the stab underneath the covering. All the wood was there but it was crushed pretty bad so I opted to just install a new leading edge.
2- What was left of the old leading edge got cut out with a razor saw.
3- The stab is then pinned to the work table over some wax paper.
4- The original leading edge was likely some metric dimension but I had some 1/4 x 5/8 balsa in my scrap that was very close.
5- I used the other leading edge half and a straight edge to mark the angle for the inboard edge of the new LE.
6- The new LE is cut on the line with a razor saw.
7- The fit at the inboard end is pretty good. I also used a straight edge to mark the cut for the flat area at the front.
8- The angle on the end is marked and the new LE is cut to length.

There are a lot of different ways to fix things and everyone has their own way of doing it. This is the method I chose but most methods will probably work just fine.

Once the new leading edge was fitted properly, it was pinned in place and secured by a drop of thin CA at each joint.

ChuckW

Not sure why that first pic showed up full size instead of a thumbnail.

You can also see part of the center section that was cracked. This was just put back together with CA.

ChuckW

Continuing on the horizontal stabilizer...

1- One of the cross braces had to be replaced. I did not have any balsa that matched the dimension of the original. I could have cut something that matched with my bandsaw but I am feeling a little lazy today. I had some scrap 1/4" square balsa so I used it instead. Nobody will ever notice once the covering is on. To get a good fit I marke and cut the piece a little long. Then I slowly adjust the length and the angled end with a sanding block until it fits with nice tight joints. A drop of thin CA on each joint holds the cross braces in place.
2- To fix the cracked elevator, I just held it flat on the building table and flooded the cracks with thin CA.
3- There was also a chuck out of the corner of the elevator. I marked a square notch that was cut out with a razor saw.
4- A piece of scrap balsa was CA'd in the notch then carved and sanded until it matched the elevator.
5- Finally the stab was sanded and ready to go. The LE corner had to be rounded to match the opposite side and the LE itself received a round profile. This is a piece of cake with a sanding block and 80-grit paper; it goes though balsa like a hot knife through butter. You can also see a close-up of the elevator corner repair.

The stab repair is basically done. It just needs to have a few dings filled, final sanded and covered.

ChuckW

There go those giant thumbnails again.

I also got the wing repaired today but I am tired of sitting on front of the computer for now. Once I get the pictures cleaned up & re-sized I will upload them. Maybe tomorrow night; gotta fly in the morning.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

One of the servers gives us full page and one gives us a very fast time out. It's nothing in your puter.

cutaway

Used Skyraiders with LA's are a dime a dozen.

Don't get your hopes up on this being a big score on resale. $5 for a running LA ain't a bad deal, but the airframe itself has little value unless you plan to fly it. You'll probably have more $$$ invested in new covering and time than you'd get for the airframe.

ChuckW

Not looking to score big bucks; I've been around plenty long to know what a used airplane is worth, especially one that started out at $69 when new. Just want to have fun getting the thing back in the air and maybe even make a couple dollars to boot.

summerwind

Jeeez.....you do realize that Chuck is doing this to give inside tips to beginners on how to repair and maintain their planes right?
he is being quite generous with his time. anyone who has done a build thread can tell it takes almost as much time to do the thread as it does the build.
Chuck is also the kind of guy that he is likely to give this plane to someone for free and has no interest in making money on it................

jeffie8696

That Duraplane is STAYING in the rafters. Good for parts.