Cumulus crash & repair
pictures
Of course,
everybody will ask, how this did happen, so here it goes :
I had just launched the Cumulus, it was climbing nicely, and I was trying to
hook up my TX to my neckstrap. While doing this, and keeping my eyes on the
plane, and
flying it, I somehow managed to drop it !
Of course, the TX did not like this at all, and quit.
Meanwhile, the Cumulus was on full power, doing all kinds of weird maneuvers,
until it eventually crashed into a tree, causing some major damge to the wings
but
repairable. All in all, I think it was the tree which made it a repairable
crash, I think the damage would have ben much worse, had it crashed into the
ground.
As it is, all 4 wing panels have more or less damage on the D-box, the fuselage,
however, has only one very minor compresion crack, and the wing joiner ( carbon)
of
course snapped and has to be replaced.
r/h outbd. panel l/h outbd panel r/h inbd panel, this was the one
with the least damage
The l/h inbd panel was not as fortunate, in 2 locations the sheeting was crushed almost all the way back to the spar.
Since the damage on the l/h inboard panel was the most extensive, I'll document the repairs here, the repairs on the other panel were pretty routine.
For starters, I made a rib template from plywood, which I used to cut the new ribs from 1/8 balsa. Once the repair area was cleaned up, I installed the new ribs and new
leadinge edge . After installing doublers from 3-32 balsa, the new sheeting was brought on, fillered and sanded :
