It's a sad day...

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
I was practicing snap rolls at the sod fields in Kennewick, WA, and I was too close to the ground, lost orientation and cartwheeled my Sportster right onto the gravel access road and not the soft sod! Arggg, broke the empennage off, damaged the nose and power pod and now have to put it all together again. I really want to save this plane for some more aerobatic practice and hopefully I can get some good ideas here? I can fix the nose and power pod ok, but the tail section? The tail feathers survived but the break in the fuse is pretty bad, I was thinking hot glue and a lot of tape?

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PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Tooth picks to line it up nicely. Hot glue it together and if you can get access to the inside just make a strip of foam to fit in there as a doubler along the side of the fuselage.

and yes this is sad to see that beautiful plane damaged. That was one of the better paint jobs I have seen on a foamie. It was GRRRRReat!
 

ItMightFly

Active member
Ouch! I think that your glue and tape idea would work. Maybe use enough glue to get in on there good, then use tape lengthwise all around the damage. Fortunately, I have yet to try my idea, so just take it as a suggestion. It may just be your idea, in different words. When done fixing it, maybe try a different scheme. You're scheme is beautiful, but it might be the cause of crash... I would avoid patterns like that, but, it's pretty, so you have to add that factor. Keep on practicing those maneuvers! Once again very pretty plane! Hope to see what you do!
Happy Flying!
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
Toothpicks inserted in the crack between foam then push the two halves together? I was thinking about cutting an access panel in the bottom to glue in a doubler then taping the access panel in or hot gluing it. Its going to add weight though. I am hoping to have repaired before next weekend for our club's open house.
 

JimCR120

Got Lobstah?
Site Moderator
I've done many a patch job with toothpicks and hot glue. Breaks after the patch are always somewhere else afterward.
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
Repairs completed!

Well, I managed to glue doublers behind all the cracked areas without cutting into the airframe. Started by gluing all the cracks and holding the plane together and it seemed to hold pretty good, then I relocated the rear power pod skewer and use a larger one on the front to hold the power pod tight (I also had to do some repairs on the power pod), then I tape reinforced all the affected areas on the outside with 3" Uline heavy duty tape. As you can see in the picture the front of the bottom section of the fuse was crushed a bit, so I just put a layer of tape on that and called it good.

It seems pretty good, now I am going to do a stupid thing and go test fly it in the football field next door as I need to know if it is air worthy for our open house on Saturday. Lots of trees line this field, wish me luck!

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PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
That's GRRRRRREAT!


Sorry I just can't resist. Good luck on the re maiden and hope it is in shape for Saturday.
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
Tony is alive! It is windy and the field is small and my thumbs were barely working, but it fly's greeaat! Didn't even have to trim it. I also put a 10x4.5 slow fly prop on there from a 9x6 that I was using before and it fly's different. It wants to hover now as before it just wanted to go fast.