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repairing leading edge wing

Hello,

after 3 successful flights with superstar select with no instructor, only realflight G2 i finally crashed my plane. Wasn't from anything wrong with the plane or anything the simulutaor taught me. It was spatial seperation that when i joined the air force in '82 they told me that i can't tell far away objects and close objects at a distance. It never bothered me until i got into this hobby. I took off from newly constructed road ( road closed to traffic) Was flying around great with absolutely no wind until i heard engine starting to miss but was still flying ok. I decided to bring it down and hit a light pole about 50' up. Took out the leading edge out 6 inches into the wing. I thought the pole was further away then what i thought it was, does anyone else have this problem? My other question is how do you repair a leading edge problem? How do you get the balsa to make a U-shape? I bought a RTF plane so i am new at repairing the plane. Thanks, Jeff

Reply to
jeff m
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Only everyone with eyeballs. There is no getting away from it. Recently, I have been teaching my son-in-law to fly on an old trainer. We fly in a place similar to yours, an industrial area where the roads are all built, but no buildings yet. I was coming in for a landing one day, and there is a VERY large tree near the north end of the road. As I came around from base to final, I knew I was going to be close....but was I in for a surprise. What I thought was going to be 20' of clearance turned into 3' REAL quick! I'm just lucky I didn't smash the plane that day!

If the spar is not damaged, repairs should not be too difficult. Though I wouldn't use a solid block. I'd try to rebuild the foreward rib structure.

Kev

Reply to
Kevin M

I've had good results using a can of spray-in home insulating foam to replace damaged structure IF, as the previous post said, the spar isn't damaged. Strip the covering in the damaged area, straighten the damage as much as possible and reglue it into position, then LIGHTLY spray foam into the structure, since that stuff expands like crazy. Carve, then sand to shape and replace the covering.

Reply to
Geoff Sanders

What kind of foam do you mention here ? Same kind as we use for insulation between windows and walls, to seal off air leakage ? Or is it foam genuine for this purpose ? ( I too have a plane (stuffed away) somewhere with broken l.e. )

Regards Jørn Kaasbøll

"Geoff Sanders" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@hevanet.com...

Reply to
Jørn Kaasbøll

Depends. Some of them are very soft and pliable. You need something that cures fairly rigid. I prefer to cut a piece of EPS to fit and shape that.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

That sounds more controllable.. Since the foam expands to any direction. At least for my usage, I think forming an EPS block will do the trick. But then again I don't have a very big hole to fill. just between to spars. The dent itself is roughly 4 cm long, and 1,5 cm deep.

Jørn Kaasbøll

"Paul McIntosh" skrev i melding news:bnbtun$khd$ snipped-for-privacy@hercules.btinternet.com...

Reply to
Jørn Kaasbøll

You can use pieces of formed foam packing that a lot of thinges come in now days. Even glue a couple together. That foam has a little EPP mixed in. It will retain its shape a lot better than pure EPS.

Reply to
Paul McIntosh

That's an EXCELLENT IDEA!!! I had never thought of that.

Kev

Reply to
Kevin M

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