Part of what I do

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).

DSCF0040.JPG


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.

DSCF0041.JPG


A test fit of the wing to ensure that I have not upset the geometry of the wing slot.

DSCF0042.JPG


Both wings and the tail dry fitted for alignment checks

DSCF0043.JPG


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!

DSCF0044.JPG
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Any idea what caused the wing detachment in the first place?

I get that forensics can be hard after such a wreck but I wondered if you made any changes to prevent the first episode from repeating itself.

Thank you for this post @Hai-Lee. It was a good news story I needed today. :)
I do an air-crash investigation every time a club plane goes in!:unsure: Since doing so the crash rate has really declined at the club.(y) As for what the crash cause was the answer is actually quite disturbing for retail foamies.:eek:

It appears that the manufacturer of this particular model used a liquid glue but very sparingly. The glue over time becomes very brittle and does not adhere to the foam very well. I had to remove all of the old glue before putting it all back together! Most of the glue just peeled away of fractured in to small pieces before falling off.

Add to that the fact that the user had replaced the original EDF unit with one that had slightly broader mounting tangs and the EDF mounts were putting an outward pressure on the rear glue joints of the wings. Obviously the rear of the wings had come adrift and on the day of the failure the little remaining glue finally let go of the foam at the bottom of a loop.

There was no wing spar and so when the glue let go the wing simply left the plane completely, (taking the horizontal tail with it).

Anyway the glue used for the repair definitely holds well, (when allowed to dry), and a short 6mm spar was forced into the wings with a good coating of glue. It will not come out easily at all. The owner is up for a new fan blade and will need to check his receiver etc functions before putting the bird back in service.

Sorry for the tardy response but I am building a new nose/motor mount for a clipped wing cub out of ply and bamboo as the original plastic unit is in many small and tiny pieces and the bird needs to be back in service this weekend. (A students cartwheeled attempt at a landing in high wind).

Have fun!
 

Tench745

Master member
I love to see threads like these. Glad you could get things patched up for him. What liquid glue did you use for the repairs, anything exotic?
Someday when I get the time and rejoin my old club I hope to be the go-to guy for repairs.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
The US equivalent of the glue I use is just Sullivans clear craft glue. Just make sure that the foam is clean and that the parts fit together and then use a light coat of the glue on the surfaces to be joined.

When used on a foamie like the above post, the glue when dry grips the foam so well that often the next break is in another place entirely.

I found the glue by accident when searching for a cheap alternative to POR-UHU for use on balsa and then tested in on foam and foamboard.

Rarely use much else nowadays, apart from a little epoxy of course!

Have fun!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
You sir are quite incredible. At what point do you consider something irreparable? Foam dust?
It is a hard line to draw! I have even used FB, (without the paper), to patch holes melted in wings and to fabricate missing parts of fuselages.

you can repair anything if you have enough time and determination, (and a little skill and patience). Mind you sometimes you have to take a knife to the patient and cut out the rot and do a full transplant.

You can fix anything if you put your mind and energies to it. Approach such a repair by just joining 2 pieces at a time and quickly you will find that the pieces count decreases quite rapidly until you only have 2 remaining pieces to join together, no matter how many pieces are in the bag to start with.

If you like helping those new to the hobby learning to do extreme repairs can really help. In the past I have raided the trash and saved a number of planes that were later gifted to newbie club members and even used as a basis for a club trainer aircraft pool.

Have fun!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Whilst I have yet another Plane in repair I thought I would drop this little idea or bit of info.

When buying batteries you have to be careful to get the right connector, change the battery connector, change the plug on the ESC to match the batteries, or buy an adaptor to suit.

Doing a lot of repairs and the like it seems that I am forever giving away battery adaptors, especially the EC3 to XT60 variety.

As I save all connectors from damaged ESCs and faulty battery packs I have a pool of XT60 connectors, both male and female.

If you look closely the sockets in the XT60 and the EC3 are somewhat identical so what I do now is to solder a male and female connector together back to back and cover the exposed joints with a little heatshrink. Next I carve down the XT60 female to the same outline or shape as the EC3 and suddenly I have an XT60 to EC3 adaptor.

Here is one that is being used in the repair currently underway.

A side view
DSCF0045.JPG

The Female end profile
DSCF0046.JPG

Fitted to the EC3 ESC connector
DSCF0047.JPG

The adaptor never needs to be removed as the EC3 female connector, (on the battery), fits quite well into the XT60 male connector.

With one fitted the owner can now buy her batteries from a wider range of suppliers without having to worry about getting the connector correct.

It works for me, (and our club members).

Have fun!
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
OK, the next repair is a clipped wing cub that has had a hard life already. Firstly the plane was a "First" plane for someone who is effectively self taught. He managed to crash it quite a few times even though it had "SAFE" mode.
Safe mode did not keep it out of the tree and it did not stop the rough landings destroying the landing gear, (many times), and then either nosing over or cartwheeling up the runway.

I replaced the undercarriage in an earlier repair as well as tried to repair the plastic motor mount but sadly it was fragile and a single cartwheel destroyed it totally so repair time again. Mind you I could buy a replacement fuselage but where's the fun in that?

Here is the destroyed motor mount, (a few pieces missing).
DSCF0040.JPG
Here is a plywood and bamboo substitute in construction with the original
DSCF0041.JPG
Motor test fitted - Front view
DSCF0042.JPG
Side view
DSCF0043.JPG
Top view
DSCF0044.JPG
The fuselage nose area
DSCF0048.JPG
The dummy motors mounted.
DSCF0050.JPG
Test fit of the battery hatch
DSCF0049.JPG
Motor fitted, (with prop) ready to have thrust angles adjusted after maiden. The motor mount was just dropped into position and glued in with epoxy.
DSCF0040 (2).JPG

So ready for maiden and adjustments as required. I can bring the motor backwards a little but then I will wait until the owner buys a new motor and prop adaptor as both are somewhat bent.

Here is a pic of the earlier mods to the undercarriage
DSCF0038.JPG

Anyway it will fly without a doubt and getting it back in the air is what this thread is all about.

Have fun!
 

Tonero311

Well-known member
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).

View attachment 156156

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.

View attachment 156162

A test fit of the wing to ensure that I have not upset the geometry of the wing slot.

View attachment 156163

Both wings and the tail dry fitted for alignment checks

View attachment 156165

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!

View attachment 156168

Well done. You have probably made that kids day after having the wind knocked out of his sails by another member. I can see your support is clearly invaluable to the club and younger members. Your club is lucky to have you.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Another day another strange request!

I have a student who is moving to New Zealand and he is sorting through his planes, selecting that he wants to take with him and those he is getting rid of. OK so I did receive a couple of planes to be playing with:giggle: and I also received a special/strange requesto_O.

He owns a "V" tail motor glider, (Balsa and fibreglass), that was given to him in a slightly damaged state, (the wing tips damaged), anyway he asked if I could do the repair. Of course I said yes knowing the very short time frame required and then he dropped the bombshell. He asked if I could cut the wings in half and make them so that they could be packed for moving and then plugged in/together when he receives them in his new country. The wings were epoxied together:eek:. Again I said I would try.:cautious:

Here I lucked out! I found that using nail polish remover the epoxy would become jelly like and easily removed. So a careful hour later I had managed to remove the epoxy only to discover that the wings had a tubular CF spar that I was able to easily extract from one wing and presto the wings were separated.

The wing TEs already can be attached to the fuselage separately and so now I just need to add a couple 3 mm Bamboo skewer pieces into the wing LEs and of course mating holes in the fusleage.

The wing tips are now white and the wing centre portion is also white as I did not have any matching red solafilm.

Here is the wing separated into 2. The stains in the red covering were caused by the nail polish remover, (shown in the pic), as it soaked under the covering film.

DSCF0044.JPG


here is a pic of one of the damaged wing tips in repair

DSCF0041.JPG


Just another day at the office:rolleyes:.

Incidentally, it was received about midday and the plane should be ready to maiden tomorrow!:unsure:

Have fun
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Here is the finished job!

Disassembled for transport.
DSCF0043.JPG


Top view when assembled
DSCF0041.JPG


Bottom view when assembled
DSCF0042.JPG


That turned out to be easier and quicker to complete than I first assumed.

It is good to have a win occasionally.

have fun!