Storch crash and repair
Here is a link to the short youtube video of one of the crashes that day (the one that broke the tail off). I was experimenting with two small parks to fly in and quickly realized that small parks surrounded by trees are not good for larger planes like the Storch (probably ok for micro planes like my Taylorcraft).
https://youtu.be/eFV-tJwGKGs
Here is a pic of the main damage.
There was also damage to the nose and a hole in the fuse (not concerned about the small hole). The wing had 0 damage amazingly...
Here is a pic of the repairs I made. I pretty much injected hot glue into the severed areas, reinforced with foam board, then also cut out a section of the bottom of the tail/fuse area and installed new foam board and paper over the top using hot glue. I also used a Dremel to sand down the paint to bare foam board so the hot glue would stick better.
It is kind of ugly, but very strong now. I also upset the weight and balance a bit, but when I reinforced the nose with bbq sticks and foam board, it balanced out better. Still nose slightly tail heavy though, what is the best way to add small amount of weight to nose? The battery is already all the way forward.
I don't have any pics of the new fuse yet, I have made some improvements with tips off the forum and going to install a Dubro tailwheel. I also made a few improvements of my own and will post pics when I finish it. So far the wing is holding up great so no new wing yet.
Overall, the repairs made the plane much heavier, but it will give me more use of the fuse while I improve my flying skills (that is the main purpose of the plane and also to learn building foam board). When I finally destroy this fuse completely I will use the new improved one.
Funny thing though, I have not actually crashed the plane with my flying skills, all my landings are perfect. The trees that keep jumping out in front of the aircraft have caused all the problems. It is like they don't like airplanes or something...
