Help with repairs

[Andy Linney]

Hi everyone - I've had an 'interesting' trip to the field today and managed to rip the undercarriage out of my Black Horse Travel Air. It's a relatively clean break so I was wondering if I can simply cook up some 2 ton epoxy and re-assemble the area or do I need to go in and put a new bearer in?

Also I've managed to ding my Citabria's tailplane and have cracked (and bent) the left hand side of the tailplane's leading edge about 5 mm from the fuselage. It's bending down but when I push it back up to line up again there's a fair bit of force required so I don't think I can simply inject some cyano to shore it all up - how do I go about straightening it back out again?

[Phil Meredith]

hi andy,, without seeing the extent of the damage its difficult to suggest how the repair should proceed,, if you have a chunk in each hand and they are a good fit when put backtogether then do just that,, pull out the tank and fit a couple of pieces of triangular balsa to strengthen, as for the tailplain get your covering iron and warm up the covering carefully peel it back from the leading edge and have a looksee how bad its bust, any dents in the wood can be removed by applying water to the balsa and warming it with the iron

[ntsmith]

I had one. Its not your landings - well  hope so. they rip out on the first slight bump. try to fit another bearer in. dont just tack it back to the bottom else it sure will come off again.

[Owen Hailey]

hi Andy.

Some times its a blessing if things are not to strong. as I has a trainer 60 inch and the same thing happend so in my nieve sort of wisdom I made the repair a lot stronger and as you do, this will not brake now. I was right in one sens but rong in anouther as nexed time it happend it smashed the bottom out of the fualarge so not to strong this is my 2 penith worth if you no what I mean. 

happy days Owen.