ejett
Sep 09, 2004, 09:29 PM
CG Eaglet named "Patch":
About 3 weeks ago one of my friends from N. Louisiana came over on business. He is a new flyer and he brought the Eaglet with him. He had a minor mishap at his home field breaking the right side of the horizontal stab and the elevator and one CA hinge on that side.
I patched it up (this wasn't it's first rodeo) in a few minutes and after work we went out to our local field to fly. Everything went fine and we flew 4 or 5 times before daylight started to become an issue.
Anyway the next afternoon, he was so pumped he wanted to fly again, so we went back to the field to fly. On the first flight, he made a long downwing pass at a pretty high altitude and I thought he was just making a circuit, but he chopped the throttle and turned toward the runway from the south end of the field before I could warn him that he was past the treeline at the end of the field. Anyway he stuck it about halfway up an 80' tall oak tree.
We went to town and bought some PVC pipe to try to get it out of the tree. We were successful, but in addition to the damage from hitting the tree, the plane hit the ground directly on the tail, busting the horizontal and vertical stabs and tearing the elevator and the vertical fin completely off the plane.
The right wing was significantly damaged, the leading edge dowel was broken about halfway out, all of the ribs in front of the spar were destroyed and one rib aft of the spar was also destroyed. There was damage to the left wingtip as well.
I am posting some intermediate photos of the repair work and the final product.
About 3 weeks ago one of my friends from N. Louisiana came over on business. He is a new flyer and he brought the Eaglet with him. He had a minor mishap at his home field breaking the right side of the horizontal stab and the elevator and one CA hinge on that side.
I patched it up (this wasn't it's first rodeo) in a few minutes and after work we went out to our local field to fly. Everything went fine and we flew 4 or 5 times before daylight started to become an issue.
Anyway the next afternoon, he was so pumped he wanted to fly again, so we went back to the field to fly. On the first flight, he made a long downwing pass at a pretty high altitude and I thought he was just making a circuit, but he chopped the throttle and turned toward the runway from the south end of the field before I could warn him that he was past the treeline at the end of the field. Anyway he stuck it about halfway up an 80' tall oak tree.
We went to town and bought some PVC pipe to try to get it out of the tree. We were successful, but in addition to the damage from hitting the tree, the plane hit the ground directly on the tail, busting the horizontal and vertical stabs and tearing the elevator and the vertical fin completely off the plane.
The right wing was significantly damaged, the leading edge dowel was broken about halfway out, all of the ribs in front of the spar were destroyed and one rib aft of the spar was also destroyed. There was damage to the left wingtip as well.
I am posting some intermediate photos of the repair work and the final product.