Hai-Lee
Old and Bold RC PILOT
Monday was a public holiday and so another lengthy flying day. During the days flying one of our young club members had a rather upsetting experience when his beloved Vampire had a wing detach in flight and at high speed. The result was a rain of foamie pieces across a rather wide area and of course a power on dive for the fuselage.
I handed him a garbage bag and got him to collect all of the pieces, (he found most of them).
Here is a pic of the pieces, (minus the horizontal tail which was left on the field and required a return to the field to locate it).
He was most upset, especially when one of the senior club members told him it was irreparable. I told him to just give me the bag of pieces and I will put it back together. He did so of course or I would not be raising this post. Here are a few pics of the progress - NOTE: No hotmelt glue was used in this repair at all though a fair bit of packing tape was used to hold the bird together while the liquid glue set.
Here is a pic of the fuselage in traction and the remainder dry assembled to check for geometry and any other unseen damage.
A test fit of the wing to ensure that I have not upset the geometry of the wing slot.
Both wings and the tail dry fitted for alignment checks
All glued up and the glue set awaiting the return to the owner.
The Ailerons had been removed and pin hinges fitted so that they are near invisible.
I had an old 3D printed pilot that I added just for fun, he can paint it if he wants to when he gets the bird back.
The paint has been damaged but if he wants to paint it that is the owners prerogative.
Part of my role within the local club is membership support and so this is part of what I do and a fair number of such, "Write-offs", can be seen on any club flying day!
Onto my next resurrection!
Have fun!
I handed him a garbage bag and got him to collect all of the pieces, (he found most of them).
Here is a pic of the pieces, (minus the horizontal tail which was left on the field and required a return to the field to locate it).
He was most upset, especially when one of the senior club members told him it was irreparable. I told him to just give me the bag of pieces and I will put it back together. He did so of course or I would not be raising this post. Here are a few pics of the progress - NOTE: No hotmelt glue was used in this repair at all though a fair bit of packing tape was used to hold the bird together while the liquid glue set.
Here is a pic of the fuselage in traction and the remainder dry assembled to check for geometry and any other unseen damage.
A test fit of the wing to ensure that I have not upset the geometry of the wing slot.
Both wings and the tail dry fitted for alignment checks
All glued up and the glue set awaiting the return to the owner.
The Ailerons had been removed and pin hinges fitted so that they are near invisible.
I had an old 3D printed pilot that I added just for fun, he can paint it if he wants to when he gets the bird back.
The paint has been damaged but if he wants to paint it that is the owners prerogative.
Part of my role within the local club is membership support and so this is part of what I do and a fair number of such, "Write-offs", can be seen on any club flying day!
Onto my next resurrection!
Have fun!