I just like many out there are sooner or later going to have to see the dreaded crash of some sort. Either a simple stall, roll over and dive into the ground on take off, or just clipping a pole on a slow low pass. Accidents happen, but this being my first repair I thought I'd share some things with other beginners out there that may look at a wing or firewall that's damaged and just decided to give in.

First, my brother the 40 y.o. kid decided he's going to try and fly a trainer without my help.... mistake, none the less, he crashed it. Took off the tail section, clean break, broke some support around the stab, and clipped a guy wire and took out a section of wing up to the spar.

Now, as p*ssed off as he was, he picked it up and gently brought it back, cursing his head off all the way.

We looked at it, and decided that repair was well in order.

Now, for those that are timid about fixing a wing section, all I have to say is EPOXY, CA, Balsa, and Monokote!

With just a few pieces of balsa sheeting 1/16 inch, some CA, Epoxy on the tail section, wood filer, sand paper, a dremel tool to remove the broken sections and to square off tatered pieces of Balsa... the plane is just as good as new.

Does it look new.. heck no! A splatch of white Monokote covers some of the nice trim (Avistar). But, it's in one piece, solid, and ready to fly after about 4 hours of work. And the best part was I got to spend 4 hours with my brother actually not arguing about stuff, but working together.

So, if you cracked up your trainer, or otherwise, and it looks like you can save most of the pieces of what you have left, and it looks somewhat repairable... Don't chuck that mess in the garbage. Take your time to evaluate how to fix it, ask you local hobbyshop for help, someone here, or take on the task yourself and enjoy the idea of getting that bird back up in the air.

We are now waiting for a decent day in New England to try and get it back up (this time with me at the controls first).

All is not lost because of some damage, all is lost when you give up or you've driven it 6 inches into the ground and it looks like tooth picks though!

I wish we took some before and after pictures of the repair... I'm really proud of getting it back together, more so because it gives my brother another chance, and was some quality time.

Now go out and fix that plane you have sitting around with a broken wing, and get it ready to fly!!

Man, what would we do without a dremel,epoxy and CA! I too had a crash about 2 months ago..Was going to trash the plane but decided to rebuild...Look at my Four Star now! She still flies beautifuly![&:]

Be sure you re-balance after a repair: front-to-back and side-to-side.

A major wing repair can add a lot of weight to one side; making your loops drift to one side and complicating most manouevers, and a tail repair can shift weight back far enought to make a plane unstable without otherwise compensating.

Great advice.

But I'm wondering... considering that I'm adding about 3 grams to both the tail and wing, I don't think I would be changing the CG enough to notice it even on trying to rebalance.

But, you are correct! Any major repairs where your adding anyting more than what would already be there would change it. Fortunately for my brother, he's got a brother that doesn't glob in the epoxy into a lump... just enough to hold the pieces together and a smidge more.

Thanks for the great advice!!!

A little bit of weight in the tail goes a long way toward throwing off the CG. And the further out on the wing that you add your "repair weight" the more it will be noticed also. Think "MOMENT ARM".