Phoenix Spitfire .40 repair: help required along the way

[gEcky]

Lost control of this bird and crashed it upside down. Cause of crash is unknown, not ruling out pilot error since we don't really know how we react when facing a emminent crash.

Anyway, here's some pic of the damage. I'll post pic of my repair progress here if anyone's interested

Will also seek your opinion and guidance here along the way since this is my 1st balsa plane repair. Thanks in advance!

[gEcky]

One side of elevator was reaped out from the horizontal stab. The dangling hinges were epoxied back to their slots. Addition pins were driven through to hold them in place.

[gEcky]

One side of elevator was reaped out from the horizontal stab. The dangling hinges were epoxied back to their slots. Addition pins were driven through to hold them in place.

Here are the pics

[gEcky]

Vertical stab was broken off since the plane landed upside down

Surprisingly, only the softwood portion snapped off. Hardwood forming the shape of the vertical stab (still not used to the terms used in balsa builds ) remains intact.

Holes are drilled and fitted with bamboo skewers to give the joint addition strength.

[P4cm4n2000]

wah nice plane bro....its the time and effort to repair, hope you get over it soon man...keke.... C U.

[gEcky]

Right wing..... I think this is where it gets tricky....

The 2nd and 3rd ribs (from the centre) are broken.

The balsa sheeting on the damaged part is removed.

Can someone advice on how I may get the shape of the broken ribs to cut out a replacement?
The broken ones are in pieces are impossible to put back....

[gEcky]

wah nice plane bro....its the time and effort to repair, hope you get over it soon man...keke.... C U.

Thanks John! All part of this hobby

[P4cm4n2000]

bro, put a piece of paper on the good rip, trace the outline, then transfer it to balsa, ensure the grains consistent direction as rest of rips.

if your wing is tapered (thicker mid-wing rip, taper to thinner wing tips) then use a long steel rule to put over rip 2 and 4 (assuming rip 3 needs repair),
put the paper cut out rip in the middle to see if any trimming needed.

opps..... havent been building balsa planes for over 15years, at that time, I practically eat,sleep,breath balsa until kanna phneaumonia warded 2weeks in TTSH.

anyway, have fun, repairing balsa sheeted planes is an art. though time consuming.

rdgs
John

[gEcky]

I'm in the midst of repairing the wing. Using P4cm4n2000's method i got the rib for the mid wing part duplicated. Left with 2 broken ribs near 1 of the wing tips - the method dun work since much scaling is required and i'm not really good at drawing Any one has other methods?

Also, does any LHS sell small sheets of covering? JH used to have but no longer see it when i need it Will it be the same if i just coat the wood with resin and then put packing tape?

Thanks!

[I-Aquatic]

I don't think that if the scale is a bit off it would effect it that much. I might be wrong.

Hopefull will be ready this week end

[gEcky]

I don't think that if the scale is a bit off it would effect it that much. I might be wrong.

Hopefull will be ready this week end

Thanks Bro! Think I'll just hantam la...Only reason i asked is that this is the wing tt got damaged near the tips..afraid tt any inconsistency in airfoil here will be "multiplied".

Unlikely I can get it up this weekend, can't find much time to repair and I still have lots of sanding to do since the wings were resheeted with balsa 0.5mm too thick!

[gEcky]

left wing...

The broken ribs and wing sheeting were cut out. New ribs were cut out and a half dowel was glued in to form the LE. The wing was then sheeted.

[I-Aquatic]

Looking good! Since the wing was open, did you add epoxy to the landing gear for extra strength?

[gEcky]

Looking good! Since the wing was open, did you add epoxy to the landing gear for extra strength?

too late!!!! both wings sheeted! I actually woke up early today to sheet the other wing

But it's good to see how they do the lg slots...there are hard wood surrounding the area as it is. So it should be strong la... (If it's not broken, don't fix it mentality applies here )

What's left is further reinforcement of the firewall, wing mounts and the all so troublesome part of covering the exposed wood! Will prob see if Collin can spare me some scrap pieces of covering tomorrow

[gEcky]

wing: sheeted and sanded down