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Joined the Bird Strike Club Today

Sam, For a couple of decades I worked on steel (hobby) dents on auto bodies. I read every book I could find but never could get the hammer welding down. Then I saw Kent White at OSH in about 2000 and discovered what I was doing wrong. He took the hammer and a dolly and whacked one on the other with a whale of a hammer swing - i just did not know to hit it that hard. Now, you want a hammer off dolly technique, even a wood dolly working from the edge of the dent to the center.

I wish you success, but 2024 is very hard to form compared to 6061T6. A low crown hammer would be a good start. I tried, and failed, on some scrap 2024 pieces to effectively shrink it while removing a test dent, but I never had the "knack".

Kent White might be a good reference
 
Bill, I am definitely not a tinsmith!

Here is what I've done thus far. A buck was built up from 3/4" laminations.

This was inserted into the leading edge along with some all-thread so the buck could be forced up into the leading edge. I was able to hammer the crease at the very leading edge back into alignment with the rest of the leading edge. At this point there are still two fairly minor dents.

I will not be replacing the entire skin, there are no cracks in the skin. The dents are now shallow enough that they could be filled if I wish. I'll probably just fly for a while until I decide what the final repair will be. ;)
 

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Back in the Air

Massaged the skin some more by applying pressure with hand and digits and got it to the point I'm ok with returning the RV-6 to service. If I decide to take the repair to 10/10ths the remaining ripples can be filled or a small flush patch installed then filled.

I'll may just apply a small duck decal over the wound....1st kill. :)
 

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Massaged the skin some more by applying pressure with hand and digits and got it to the point I'm ok with returning the RV-6 to service. If I decide to take the repair to 10/10ths the remaining ripples can be filled or a small flush patch installed then filled.

I'll may just apply a small duck decal over the wound....1st kill. :)

Dang Sam, that doesn't look half bad! Nice work
 
The ball bearing and magnet trick may get anything remaining smooth.

example:

https://www.instructables.com/Magnetic-Ball-Bearing-Internal-Curved-Surface-Dent/

That is an interesting technique. However, the link describes removing dents in brass and aluminum cans. The 2024 wing skin is tough stuff and once creased and stretched is very reluctant to straighten back out. What is left of the damage on my wing is due to the metal being stretched by the impact of the duck. I'm not skilled enough to figure out how to relieve those stresses.
 
Sam, yep, nice repair... keep that buck around and you will not have another wing birdstrike :D

Don’t wanna spoil the party, and not sure 100%, but is there still a crack on the left side of the flattened dent? The LE being an integral part of the wing structure, I wonder :confused:
 
Sam, yep, nice repair... keep that buck around and you will not have another wing birdstrike :D

Don’t wanna spoil the party, and not sure 100%, but is there still a crack on the left side of the flattened dent? The LE being an integral part of the wing structure, I wonder :confused:

No cracks in the skin, only in the very thin paint.
 
thanks Sam, difficult to tell with ageing eyes...
Good work and happy for you that she's all fit again :cool:
 
Excellent job Sam! I noticed you gave her a good test flight this afternoon. Congratulations on a job well done.
A plaque at Marshall Space Flight Center left by the von Braun team said, “Better is the enemy of good enough.”
 
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Thought I had a close encounter with a buzzard today on take off at CLM2. Was about to turn crosswind. On landing roll out found it laying in the middle of the runway. I didn't hear a bang but it was apparently a lot closer than I thought. The buzzard made it thru the propeller arc without a scratch, glanced off the right side of the cowl and hit the top of the wing near the root. Made a slight dent on top of the wing. I was climbing and the buzzard must have been diving to get out of the way. It could have been a lot worse for me - not for the buzzard.
 

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... I was climbing and the buzzard must have been diving to get out of the way. It could have been a lot worse for me - not for the buzzard.
Glad to see the damage was not so bad. Anything on the tail?

My home airport is surrounded by nature areas that have recently been restored to allow for more wildlife and bird nesting. Not surprisingly, we have a lot of birds. So far, we have been coexisting, but it's a rare flight where I don't come in close proximity with a good-sized bird. I'm not too worried about the birds in the Corvus family, as they are smart enough to get out of the way, and they are smaller. But the bigger, slower, less clever birds are prolific.
 
My home airport is surrounded by nature areas ...

The same at my place. Couple days ago I had 7th confirmed kill. A sparrow size birdie came through the shredder right after takeoff and made a mess on cowling and windshield no damage. It's been several years since I've met one :)
 

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5500 feet and 160 kts

Brought this one home with me. Several years ago but still can hear the bump and feel the plane yaw..

BC56F2D3-B141-4750-A160-871CF94344EF.jpeg

Update. I added Flyleds a couple months ago and had wingtip off and light bracket out and found a piece of the old lens resting against the spar.. feather remnants and all..
 
Just wondering

I don't suppose anybody is really gonna know the answer to this, but I was wondering if the WW II P-40 Warhawk ever had problems, what with that big mouth and all the teeth painted on the nose. Post 26 in here is what made me think of this. Anybody got a Grampa who was a P-40 pilot?? I've had more d----n bird strikes than I can count. (on other types of aircraft) Only one on my RV, was just a little guy, no dent in the wing.
 
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I don't suppose anybody is really gonna know the answer to this, but I was wondering if the WW II P-40 Warhawk ever had problems, what with that big mouth and all the teeth painted on the nose. Post 26 in here is what made me think of this. Anybody got a Grampa who was a P-40 pilot?? I've had more d----n bird strikes than I can count. (on other types of aircraft) Only one on my RV, was just a little guy, no dent in the wing.

Would be quite hard for a bird of any decent size to get through the propeller.
 
Having played around trying to bust large helium balloons, I can attest that 2 out of 3 make it through the propeller arc just fine...
 
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