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Filip600Sport LE dowel damage
I came in a bit "hot" for landing, just before touch down the right wing dipped (it was the wind, I swear ), and caught a piece of dirt. I wasn't so fast that I cartwheeled, but I did do a 180* turn. On closer inspection I noticed that the LE dowel had shifted, and when I took the wings of I saw that the LE was cracked.
At first I thought some epoxy mixed with bicarbonate of soda, and tightly covered with tape would do the trick. But now I noticed that the dowel broke of about half way inside the wing (the whole dowel was 2 thirds in the wing). Any ideas? |
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Last edited by Up&Away; Jun 26, 2004 at 02:36 PM.
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Sorry for this
I am sure that since you bought it locally, you should get a good service as well. It is part of the advantage (and extra price) of buying to the LHS. Where did this happen, Rishpon ? In general, for beautiful planes, I would not advise to fly in areas where landings could be an issue due to hard spots. I once had a battery down, at low altitude and had to land in emergency due to this in a very bad field. One complete wing broken due to this... Since then, I prefer to skip flying, when the place is not clean enough for easy landings. Well, unless I fly zagi type planes... Anyway, this looks like a minor thing but still, have your LHS owner check it, just to be safe. |
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If it were my plane, I'd drill the dowel in the wing and the broken peice to fit a 1/8" or similar peice of steel rod (thick pushrod stuff) down the center. Then just epoxy the rod into the dowel, and epoxy all around the break and stuff. Makes a composite that is stronger than the original dowel.
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Bad idea. Then next time, it will rip the whole LE of the wing apart.
Just clean it out, drill it a touch longer to get a good seat for the dowl, and use plenty of epoxy to get it secired and an aproximate shape for the LE seat. You could put some wax paper on the fuselage saddle, and between the wing halves, push the dowls into the appropriate holes, and fill the space with expoxy/microbaloon mix.. it'll be as strong as new, if not stronger, and will match the wing saddle perfectly! ..a |
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Patrick,
Yes it was at Rishpon. I was flying at the crossroad. There was a tractor ploughing the eastern field, so I couldn't fly at our usual spot. I had two previous landings in the sand, no problem. Just bad luck hitting a piece of real estate with the wingtip . It was very gusty, and blowing average 15Mph. I didn't want to disturb our LHS just yet. I'm sure he's very busy with the birth of his twins . I called him earlier today, and he said just to fill the area with epoxy and microballoons/bicarb of soda. I was thinking last night of clearing/drilling out the area, replace the dowel, and fill up with epoxy and bicarb. Now I've read Andy's suggestion, I'll do just that. Thanks guys! |
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Good, sounds like easy to do and will perform well.
Oded told me he found an new, and excellent place to fly, next to Glilot and old fuel containers (now emptied). Ask him, it might be worth a try. |
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Last edited by Patrick Plawner; Jun 27, 2004 at 02:39 AM.
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Very nice.
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Some more repair pics here:
http://www.geocities.com/rene_wallag..._LE_dowel.html |
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Good repair.
Same thing happend to me last week when I was trying out the spoileron+down elevator mixer when my Filip 400 was pushed to the ground by the effect from about 60 feet high. The damage was both wing dowels snapped and two cracks in the fuselage, one just in the junction between the tail and the boom and the other right under the canopy. I fixed the dowel situation by first drilling out the remainder of the broken ones and than fitting new dowels made of.......plastic screws like the ones that attach the wing to the fuselage. This way if this happens again the sheer forces would tear the plastic and not damage the LE. The body cracks were repaired using CF cloth and epoxy. This will never crack again, I assure you. the external damage was sanded and filled with car-kit (polyester based auto-paint repair agent) and it's now ready for re-painting. Flown it today - as good as new. |
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Quote:
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Deja Vu
Hi Rene
Sorry about the 'hot landing' - the repair looks good though. Well I managed to do exactly the same thing last weekend so the details on your repair have come in most useful. I also managed to split the fuselage along the top seam from the front back to the canopy. I have glued it back together and am planning to glass cloth the seam on the inside and then sand, fill and paint on the outside. I seem to be spending more time repairing than flying at the moment!!!!! Dave...> |
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