Another broken flaperon hanger

34 posts in this topic

Posted

My hangermate moved my plane out of the hangar to remove his fuselage which he had sold. My Avid was parked as far right inside the hangar as possible to give room to the workbench area. He only opened the hangar doors as far as needed to get my plane out. When he put my plane back in he the hangar he centered my centered my plane. We was not paying attention and ran my wing into the hangar door. It hit the outboard aileron hangar and broke the very end of the hangar. I was so mad when he called and told me that I didn’t even go look for theee hours. 

I have decided to patch the hanger. There is still a lot of rib and I feel I can execute a solid fix. 

I went down tonight and started marking out how I wanted to cut the old hangar. I have some wood left over from Jimchuk but it’s 1/4 inch thick. I put the calipers to the current rib end and it’s 7/32. I looked in the A/S catalog and it does not show anything that thickness. 

What can you guys tell me about this thickness issue? 

This thing is ready to fly and I didn’t really need this right now. 

:wacko:

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Posted

I did mine with 3/16 from Spruce. Measures about  0.195

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Posted

To late now, but I would have cleaned up the splinters in the crack, and glued that part back together. Then sandwich 1/4" plywood on both sides.  I have a couple like that and they work just fine.  I would think they are twice as strong as the original single piece of rib tail.  Remove about 1/32" on the insides of the 1/4" plywood sides so there is room for the flaperon hangar to fit, and then use longer screws to hold it all together.  JImChuk

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Posted

First off, you're a much nicer guy than I am.  I think kicking the crap out of my hanger mate would have been my first order of business.  I think you've already received some pretty good advice, so on your repairs, I'll keep my 2 cents to myself, and wish you good luck.

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Posted

Thank you. I am nice to a point. I stayed away from him for three hours before going to the hangar to see the damage. I know I would have lost my shit with him and he really is a good guy. 

I have some Scotch weld on the way and I’ll stop buy a big modeling store tomorrow that has a great selection of specialty plywood’s. The Machinist and I are kicking around some ideas using aluminum. It will get done property. 

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Posted

Bummer...but it does look like it broke in a place that can be fairly easily repaired without removing fabric.

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Posted

Thank you. I am nice to a point. I stayed away from him for three hours before going to the hangar to see the damage. I know I would have lost my shit with him and he really is a good guy. 

I have some Scotch weld on the way and I’ll stop buy a big modeling store tomorrow that has a great selection of specialty plywood’s. The Machinist and I are kicking around some ideas using aluminum. It will get done property. 

I used gorilla glue on mine in 06 when I replaced all the rib tails and again in for a field repair around 2013 or 14 maybe??

I did tests with hysol, T88 and 30 minute epoxy and the gorilla glue won hands down. 

:BC:

 

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Posted

The Scotch weld came yesterday so I went to the hangar and glued in my rib tail. 

I have been thinking about making aluminum covers for the rib tails for some time so I drew up a template and bent one up. I like the way it turned out and might make a whole set to attach to each rib end. I have not made up my mind how I want to attach them yet but for this application I will glue it on as a patch over the newly installed rib end. Here are some photos. 

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Posted

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Posted (edited)

Vance....Sorry to hear about your mishap!  Well I guess not really yours but for you to deal with!  I guess at least the guy was honest enough to tell you rather than finding out the wrong way like in the air or something.  Looks like you are well on your way to getting it operational again though.  

This brings up a Great point since I'm hoping to start my wings in the next few weeks.  I guess it would be a Good idea to do the ribtail reinforcement/cover while doing the actual build to strengthen that area ahead of time?

Wish you the Best at getting the bird back in the air!  Cheers Randy 

Edited by Avid Randy

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Posted

Randy, yes the rib tails are a point of concern on all the early Avids and Kitfox planes. If I were building a new wing I would go with aluminum rids or set it up like Kitfox did with the metal bracket. 

Thanks Randy

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Posted

Update: I got the new aluminum cover installed today. I really like how this reinforces the whole rib tail. I will attach a few pictures. I buttered the rib tail and the inside of the aluminum cover with scotchweld 2216. When I installed it plenty of glue came out. 

Question....do you guys think the glue is going to be enough or would you install a bolt through the main rib body as well?

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Posted

I would install a bolt, just for peace of mind.  But then again, I'm no expert.

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Posted

I think the 2216 is 3000 psi rated.  One would think that would hold more than the aluminum and plywood.  You will be bolting it on with the flaperon hanger bolts as well.  But then, maybe a couple of # 6 or  8 machine screws couldn't hurt anything either.  Your call.  JImChuk

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Posted (edited)

Thsnks Jim chuck. I will see how it feels when I remove the clamps. If this stuff holds the aluminum to the wood as well as it held the two pieces of wood together I feel more hardware would be overkill. That is some impressive adhesive. 

 

Edited by NorthIdahoAvidflyer
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Posted

As mentioned in my post in another thread I used one small hard rivet thru the aluminum forward of the break area.  I also clad all of the tails when I fixed the broken one.  Not sure if the rivet was necessary but I have not had anymore problems and would use the rivet again if I built another plane.

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Posted

From a appearance stand point this is a well executed repair from what I can see of it. If it looks good chances are it is good. As long as the aluminum is properly conditioned prior to gluing it all together should never bother again. How thick was the aluminum you used to build this reinforcement? 

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Posted

Thank you. I used Alclad 6061 T-6 .032. The reason I chose this was because It was near the same thickness as the 1/32 modeling plywood I was going to use on each side for the repair initially. This thickness still allows the flaperon hanger to fit over top of the repair. You might get away with .040 also but I stuck with the .032 because the bend radius was pretty tight. After bending it up its very rigid and I see no reason to go any heavier. If someone is going to use these mounts they should rough up the inside and clean with acetone prior to applying the glue. 

I cant wait to get to the hangar and see how it set up. I may have to work a double shift today so i wont get back out to the airport until Tuesday afternoon. I'll post the results.

 

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Posted

I ended up not working this evening so I went to the Airport to see how the new rib tail came out. I have to say I’m very happy with the finished product. I drilled and installed the hanger. Pics attached. 

 

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Posted

Only 9 more to go Mr.  I think .024 aluminum would be more than enough building them like that.

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Posted

Only 9 more to go Mr.  I think .024 aluminum would be more than enough building them like that.

Thank you Tjay. I like this so much I believe I will do the rest of them for sure. I will wait now until winter. 

I agree that you could easily decrees the thickness of the metal.  This added a ton of rigidity to those flimsy ends. I feel this is a great option and I would be smart to install them on the whole wing before I have another problem. 

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Posted

After listening to you guys talk about the tail ribs, I went ahead and bonded alum strips to mine as a added precaution. All the tail ribs were in good shape but a little extra strength wouldn't hurt. It does make them stronger and very stiff. No flexing anywhere. I also used .032 strips 1"X8". But I also added about 4 rivets per hinge along with the bonding.

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Posted

thinking I would drill and pin the bracket forward of the splice somehow.  Either rivets or a dowel glued in there to pin it.  After the way the aluminum peeled off my rib tails I wont trust just the glue to hold it in place. 

I do really like what you came up with though I think I need to make some too and put them on this winter.

:BC:

 

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Posted

Agree. I will install one more bolt forward of the repair. That will give me plenty of piece of mind in the repair. 

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Posted

For what it is worth I made these printouts in Autocad. I chose to go around the trailing edge on my model one kitfox. I included two files, one with the notch and one without. I found that each ribtail had to be fitted seperately, mainly because making the 90 degree bend perfect is difficult ( I think thats why atleast). I can also send the dxf file if you choose to send it to a Waterjet. let me know if ayone see's a problem with these. I havent put them in yet. 

ribtail hangar pdf 2.pdf

Ribtail hangar without notch PDF.pdf

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