Ed, It is worth finding out why you had the delaminations. My first thought
about your elevator trailing edge was to wonder if the internal compartments
had inadvertently become sealed. It any compartments inside your stab,
rudder, wings, etc., are not vented to the outside ambient pressure, then
they will overpressure as your altitude increases. This invariably leads to
a debonding failure somewhere. Trailing edge bonds are a likely victim. I've
seen this on several airplanes.

As for the aileron counterweight BID delaminations -- although it's hard to
know without seeing them firsthand, a possible explanation is that there may
have been a contamination problem on the forward face of the aileron prior
to completing the reinforcing BID layups. It's unusual for fiberglass to
delaminate along the entire length of a layup - even in a highly loaded
application - if the surface prep is adequate prior to making the secondary
bond. Sanding, then wiping with acetone (wet rag then dry rag immediately
after) should do the job for most secondary mechanical bonds.

Best,

Larry Graves

----- Original Message -----
From: <edechazal@comcast.net>
To: "Lancair Mailing List" <lml@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 4:32 PM
Subject: [LML] Delaminations