Help! Repairing Foamboard Airframes

[Morgajus]

So my FT Spear nose dived *HARD* on a GPS test... the nose is pretty crumpled and torn in one spot. The side walls even split off a bit.

Since I will usually lean towards simple tape repairs, I am not sure how to approach fixing this one or if replacing the front panel is what is required... I would like to keep added weight to a minimum and be able to reform the nose section. Anyone have some suggestions?

My initial plan was to gently roll the nose along the ground to push the foam back into shape and then re-glue all the seams. It would be ugly, but as long as the parts still fit together I don't see why it wouldn't work...

Picture to follow eventually...

 

[KSP_CPA]

So my FT Spear nose dived *HARD* on a GPS test... the nose is pretty crumpled and torn in one spot. The side walls even split off a bit.

Since I will usually lean towards simple tape repairs, I am not sure how to approach fixing this one or if replacing the front panel is what is required... I would like to keep added weight to a minimum and be able to reform the nose section. Anyone have some suggestions?

My initial plan was to gently roll the nose along the ground to push the foam back into shape and then re-glue all the seams. It would be ugly, but as long as the parts still fit together I don't see why it wouldn't work...

Picture to follow eventually...

I had a similar experience with my FT Arrow, nose dive into terrain on maiden that crumpled the nose and center section really bad and split the plane in two. I added a paint stirrer stick at the break, hot glued it back together, cut the cover off the nose and replaced; before and after is in this post (dumb crash #1)

A couple weeks later, another crash with the arrow that split it again. This time completely de-laminating the foam on the sidewall of the center section (not easily seen in the picture in linked post). I hot glued two more paint stirrers about 4 inches down the center of the wing butting up to the center paint stirrer, hot glued the de-laminated foam in the center section, and repainted (dumb crash #2).

The thing flies like a dream and is rock solid still. Smoothing out the hot glue during a repair then repainting will really hide a lot of repair scars.

 

[Arcfyre]

Really depends on how OCD you are. I almost always scratch build and I like my planes looking perfect. If they have a bad crash, I usually end up taking the electronics out and rebuilding it.

 

[Merv]

My initial plan was to gently roll the nose along the ground to push the foam back into shape and then re-glue all the seams. It would be ugly, but as long as the parts still fit together I don't see why it wouldn't work...

That is exactly what I do with my Versa.

When building new, I usually fill the nose in front of the battery by add 3 layers of scrap FB. Each layer gets a bit narrower to approximate the curve of the wing. This makes the nose far more robust and adds a bit of protection for the battery.

I usualy get 3-4 major crashes before I retire a plane.

 

[Morgajus]

I had a similar experience with my FT Arrow, nose dive into terrain on maiden that crumpled the nose and center section really bad and split the plane in two. I added a paint stirrer stick at the break, hot glued it back together, cut the cover off the nose and replaced; before and after is in this post (dumb crash #1)

A couple weeks later, another crash with the arrow that split it again. This time completely de-laminating the foam on the sidewall of the center section (not easily seen in the picture in linked post). I hot glued two more paint stirrers about 4 inches down the center of the wing butting up to the center paint stirrer, hot glued the de-laminated foam in the center section, and repainted (dumb crash #2).

The thing flies like a dream and is rock solid still. Smoothing out the hot glue during a repair then repainting will really hide a lot of repair scars.

OOff, compared top that my spear is lightly rumpled... Though a paint stirrer might help keep the shape after I repair it. Thanks for the input!

Really depends on how OCD you are. I almost always scratch build and I like my planes looking perfect. If they have a bad crash, I usually end up taking the electronics out and rebuilding it.

If I hadn't shelled out for the speed build kit I might agree with you, my concord is on the verge of suffering this same fate.

That is exactly what I do with my Versa.

When building new, I usually fill the nose in front of the battery by add 3 layers of scrap FB. Each layer gets a bit narrower to approximate the curve of the wing. This makes the nose far more robust and adds a bit of protection for the battery.

I usualy get 3-4 major crashes before I retire a plane.

I will look into stacking some scrap in the nose. My setup is waay to nose heavy to slide my batteries all the way forward, so they sit laterally in the cargo area, and rip lose in crashes...flying into the vtx... I only run one at at time though, haven't gotten more xt60s to make a parallel harness yet.

 

[GingerFly]

I just nose-dived my corsair straight into the ground and crumpled the front end. (on the maiden flight ) I am wondering if any of y'all have some tips on how I can straighten the nose back out. (pictures attached)

 

[JasonK]

one solution would be to cut it back behind the crushed section and rebuild that bit
another would be to reinforce it with something else or another layer of foam inside.