AA5BY

During a recent repair, a technique was used I've not seen before. Ten inches of the center of the right wing half including four spruce spars and leading and trailing edge was completely gone after hitting a tree limb. The bad news continued as there was no wing kit and the plane was discontinued and couldn't be replaced and it was my favorite plane in the hanger. The only good news was that flaps and ailerons had survived as well as the wing end including two rib bays and the wing tip.

I'd considered the wing totaled but when discovering that rebuilding was the only option, my first thoughts were to simply build a new wing. Then an idea came that made repairs seem possible and it was given a try and it worked very well hence why its being reported here as a good technique.

The technique is to use temporary hardwood rails to align and join the broken off wing section to the root section. The rails are tack glued to the outside of the spars and trailing edge. Doing this aligns and marries the two wing sections firmly together to greatly ease the task of splicing spars and leading and trailing edges. The repair took some effort but was something that most builders should have no problem with.

I consider the technique considerably easier than securing the wing sections to a building board for repairs.

Some ARFs that hit the trash could be saved using this technique.

I'll refer those interested to the repair thread that is nearing an end.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8502392/tm.htm

KitBuilder

I also lay CF tape on the top and bottom of the spars approx 3 inches on each side of the break as well as behind the leading edge and top ./ bottom of trailing edge. Almost bullet proof for very little add'l weight assuming the underlying structure was properly put back together.