Just to keep everyone up to date, Greg Ratajski and I returned from reworking our ES left wings this weekend. It was a bit of a push but we managed to open, repair the skin and re-close two wings between 8am Monday and 5 pm on Thursday.  We had to close by then to allow us to pull the wing off the jib and load it Friday at 4 pm. In case you’re wondering, when we put the wings in the jig the trailing edge at the tip stood ~ 3/8 inch off the jig. Afterwards, with the weight removed, they lay flat. A lot of work for 3/8 inch, but I believe worth it.

 

With two builders and great fulltime support from Arnie it was a push to rework two wings in 4 days. At times we had two to three others in the shop helping, including Chris the builder center lead. I was told the normal time to do one wing is three days.  You should expect there will be some damage to the skin, particularly toward the tip where the inside skin is a 1 BID, when you strip it off. Mine had less then Greg’s, but both required some removal of core and replacement and re-skinning with a 2 BID. We proved many times what I was told in the EAA composite class - -a properly done bond can be stronger than the material. We had many places where the first BID layer stayed attached to a spar, and the skin had to have new lay ups added.

 

I was asked at least three times during the week by Joe how it was going and did we need anything. We also got regular visits and support from Kim and Tim. While it was a week out our lives (and 1900 miles of driving) Lancair did provide the facility, material and people to fix this problem. While we would have preferred to not have the problem I feel Lancair stood behind the product and was willing to do what was needed to correct it. By an unofficial count these were wings 7 and 8 to be repaired, and they are doing another one this week. As far as I can tell this offer is open to any other ES builders who have this problem (6 more?).

 

Paul Bricker

N63PB

Back in sanding hell