Airplane Triage

[Grossman56]

There comes a time in every flyers career, usually very early in it in fact, when you are not so much a pilot as a mechanic, repair person.
A nick here, a cut there a dent a crack a lawn dart a wipe out!!!!!!!!
Easy now Grossman!!!! Control,
Well, I had one of those days, where I piled in three, a personal best (or worst if you will), now the basement looks more like a triage center than a man cave.
So what better time than now to try and make something good out of it!
So here's what I've got:
Spitfire lawn darted and broke the nose off cleanly and cracked the fuse a little further back, both in front of the cockpit as you will see. Old Crow refused to get her Iron Ass (pun intended) off the ground and shed her L/G and prop blades, we are in the midst of a serious disagreement, she feels she should be able to be a decoration, I disagree.
Came home, grabbed BBD and Pandora One and back to the field. Got 7 flights in on P_1, and wouldn't you know it?? No battery tray for BBD, which in hindsight, may have been the best thing that happened today. P-1 had an issue a few weeks ago where, for some unknown reason, I had no up elevator. It first occurred after a good flight with some aerobatics and I was coming in for a landing, all of a sudden, no up elevator!!! With a little throttle jockeying and hold in full up elevator, I managed to get her down in one piece, check her out and nothing. I attributed it to possibly a wire interfering with the servo travel, anyway took her up again and she was fine. Seven flights today, no problem, go to take off on the eighth and no up elevator, piled into the sagebrush at the end of the runway (yes sagebrush, its Wyoming grass)
So here's the result and the patchwork to get them all back in the air. A lot of Gorilla glue and some Foam tack. The Spitfire is in traction and the Mustang has her parts glued back in.
I was trying to figure out a good way to remove dents in leading edges and heard about using a wet cloth and a blow dryer, didn't seem to work, anyone have any tips to add from their wealth of airplane rehabilitation, it would be greatly appreciated from me and the masses I'm sure.
I know first hand from seeing it that guys like Warbird Charlie Brown are absolute wizzes at this sort of thing....

Grossman56

[doctormike]

Yeah...Ive had no luck with the heat method. I just fill with Elmers white wood filler, sand and match the paint. Wrinkles, dents and scratches. Works pretty well. Doc

[TiredIronGRB]

This was my trainer...I've almost got as much invested in Foam-Tac than it cost but it's still flying.

[Waggs]

This was my trainer...I've almost got as much invested in Foam-Tac than it cost but it's still flying.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n47650[/ATTACH]

Single seater I see. LOL

[Dewey H Lee]

Dan lve taken and used a thin sheet of plastic like in note book dividers and used a monocote iron to get wrinkles and depression out. Make sure you test the plastic on an older scrap piece you have laying around. I originally got the idea from a YouTube clip I saw where a guy was showing that dents and and depressions could be almost totally removed with the iron. The only catch was it was laminated foam planes. That's when I got the idea of using a thin piece of plastic. I used a plastic note book divider. It worked. I worked at it slowly playing with the temp on the iron and speed of movement. It just seems to swell the cells back out like magic. But like I said get something to test with first for speed and temp. Other than that it's the boiling water.

[Dewey H Lee]

BTW I'm sorry for your misfortunes. Didn't I tell you to get your wife to beat that monkey off your back.

[Grossman56]

Yes you did, but in a strange way it has. They'll either fly or end up as spare parts. The Pandora did surprise me I must admit as there was no need for it, she was flying fine and is my most reliable plane. I'm going to replace that servo. All the pieces are back together on them all, just going to let them set over night to dry. Even had Old Crow taxiing, she needs some cosmetic work around the point where the gear attaches to the wing, on one side it took the top of the wing with it, so a little filling and sanding...
I have tomorrow off as it my Bday great way to spend it, will go flying in the AM if the wind is down.

Grossman56

[OV10]

I know first hand from seeing it that guys like Warbird Charlie Brown are absolute wizzes at this sort of thing....

Grossman56

What Gman is referring to Squawk pilots is the reconstruction of my FL Seafury from a hawk attack that had it in 11 pieces. Five days after the attack I was at NEFI flying it and from a couple feet away the guys couldn't tell where my repairs had been done. All I can say Dan is from the pics that you've posted that the Gorilla glue(white 1 hr cure) and Foam-Tac Foam-Finish is your two best repair tools. As with Doc, I've had no luck either trying to use warm/hot water or heat. For the dents and minor gouges I use the Foam-Finish. For gaping holes I use foam that I have hoarded away from the packing used to ship the ARF's and do what I call block repair using the Gorilla and then smoothing out the crack lines of the Gorilla joint using the Foam-Finish leaving nothing more to do than the paint touchup. Remember what I said after the Seagull Skyraider went in out there........."foam bounces better than balsa".;) At least what you've shown it is all repairable so just have fun with the repairs and HAPPY B-DAY.
ps.....look at the green below in my signature.
Best regards,

[doctormike]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dan!!!! I use foam from inside the battery compartment for small gouges. I can use CA with that. I guess I could run out of foam after a while. I just crashed my ICON and filled the gouges this way. By the way I didn't dry out the electronics after a tip over...just put it back in the air. Bad idea! Doc

[Prowler901]

Happy Birthday, Dan! I hope you get them all back up in the air soon.

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys!
Repair work looks very good so far. took the Spitty out of traction and its as solid as she ever was, just a few wrinkles, not unlike her owner!
I was extremely lucky in that the wing, with the exception of the carb air scoop, had no damage. The scoop glued back on and it looks good, a little paint work and she'll be good to go.
The tip about using the foam packing is an excellent one, hadn't thought about that!. I might end up trying that on the Pandora leading edge damage.
I'm with Charlie, the one hour Gorilla Glue (The white version) is excellent, one other thing I discovered, you all probably know this already, is that water is an excellent excellerent for Gorilla Glue. I really load it in and watch for the expansion, wiping up the excess as it dries and pushing the piece back in, works great.
Charlie is right, we were all amazed at the Sea Fury,I had to look extremely hard to see where the damage was let alone find eleven glue points!!
As a general guide line, I use Gorilla Glue as the major repair glue and Foam-Tac for the minor clean ups like cracks and such that I don't want the expansion thing happening that you get with Gorilla Glue. I find the foam filler hard to sand, so I get it as smooth as I can before letting it dry, a dampened finger works well. I filled the small crack where the tail joins to the horizontal stab on My Little Gal I by starting with Foam-Tac and then filling the rest in with Foam Filler.

[Dewey H Lee]

Happy b-day Dan. Hope you have many to come.🍻🎂.

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, been a relaxing repairing kind of day, the wind is up and California is donating a bunch of smoke to the Cody Foundation for Smokey Skies!
Best to stay in with the air purifiers on. And this, where we don't have air pollution of our own with 500,000 people in the whole State!
Well, the Spitfire's back together and ready to take to the air in just over a day!!
The P51 is flight worthy again as well, just needs some cosmetic touch ups, check out the pics.
BTW, no spinners were lost during this performance, didn't even break a prop on the Pandora, she still a work in progress.

Grossman56

[OV10]

Hey Dan.........The Spitty looks great and betcha that it flies even better now.

[Grossman56]

Hey Charlie!
Yeah, she needed a slight amount of nose weight, but that's not how I wanted to do that!!
The original spinner on her, lucked out there even though I do have a spare, still...
Got another prop coming so I have a spare again as well. Was taxiing her around the drive way when up pulls the FEDEX guy!!!
OH OH! Wifes right there....
It was the incidence gauge you put me on to to measure the flap/ control throws, looks like an incredibly handy tool!!

Thanks for the tip!
BTW, didn't blame you, took the heat myself actually she didn't get upset, she's quite the gal!!


Dan

[OV10]

Quite the gal is right and also the fact that the gas you didn't use today to go to the field paid for that thrifty priced handy setup tool. :rolleyes:

[farmflyer]

They look pretty good considering. Not a bad way to spend your birthday.

[boomer108]

Happy Birthday Gman!

To bad about the bad day you had, but it looks like you have everything under control. Good luck and good flying!

Roy B.

[Lon]

Happy Birthday Dan...sorry about the bad flying day :(

[Grossman56]

Hey, just think how sweet the good flying days are going to be!
P-1 is well on her way, replaced the servo as that's the only thing I can see that it could be. I removed the push rod and sprayed some WD40 on it and slid it back in and worked back and forth, no binding there, and the elevator itself is free floating, so it HAS to be the servo, right?
The damage to the leading edge looks pretty good, a bit of sanding left and some work around the front L/G attach point and she should be ready for the air again.
That bird is tough as nails!!

Grossman56