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is this wing spar serviceable?

Radioflyer

Well Known Member
I was looking at a partially built RV6A recently which had some booboos in one of the spar ends where it goes into the fuselage. I don't know if this was done during the build or during disassembly for storage. The following pictures show the wallowed out holes in the fuselage center section and wing spar. In a perfect world, this is not what one would want in their project, of course, but is all hope lost?. Can this wing be used as is or repaired with bushing inserts or does the project need a new wing?
 

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Looks like a diesel mechanic on a bad day tried reaming the spar to fit into the plane!! Yikes!! ( Didn’t mean to offend all the diesel mechanics out there)
 
run run run

I’m curious what the carry through in the fuselage looks like?

Photo 1 shows the aft side of the carry through under the seats. The top bolt holes are damaged.
There appear to be some other holes drilled through for the clear vinyl tubing, note that location is not permitted by Vans.
As others have indicated, it's not really feasible or sensible to repair because new wing spars and centre bulkhead would be required (these were match drilled at the factory).
 
Yes, that spar is junk. There is not enough 'meat' in the spar caps to tolerate up-sizing those holes at all.

The matching holes in the "carry-thru" bulkhead in the fuselage don't matter, it is kind of a nothing-burger. What really matters there is the spar and the mating holes in the steel splice plates. Those do all the work.

The bolts in the fuselage "carry-thru" bulkhead that DO matter are the two 1/4" holes that go through the shear web of the spar out near the side of body. Those two, plus the row of three AN3 (3/16) holes just above the two 1/4 bolts and the row of three AN3 (3/16) holes just below -- those are the bolts that carry all the vertical load from the fuselage into the wing.

All the rest of the nearly 50 other bolts do only two things. (1) they hold all the leaves of the spar caps together, and (2) they hold the spar to the floor structure aft of the spar that consists of the belly skin, the floor skin, 6 (?) seat ribs, and the "carry-thru" bulkhead. That box structure supports the spar by keeping it flat in a plane, preventing it from buckling or "crippling" out of the bending plane.
 
If it were one hole maybe. But with all 4 primary bolts involved no, it’s toast. Repair is going to be replace spar. And you may be able to put a patch on the bulkhead. But check with mother ship. If you’re not good at drilling out rivets you have a real problem. Might need to farm the repair out. Bulkhead should be replaced.
Just my opinion.

RD
 
i would be very very worried about the rest of the work/build, this is one of the most critical thing in the build. i think i would run from the whole thing.
 
There's a lot of hidden booboo stuff that happens out there in builder land. The rest of the plane is reportedly fair to good.
I've heard often that the spars are pre-drilled at the factory, but never really understood exactly what is done. Is it just the spar, the matching joiner plates, the spar and the joiner plates, also the carry-through structure? Just wondering how such a thing could have happened.
 
That's what I was thinking too...
How can this happen, and why?

I would speculate that the splice plates got mixed up. The match drilled steel splice plates will only fit in their specific matched location. If a top plate was placed in a misaligned bottom location... you can see what probably happened here.


Unfortunately, the only fix I can see for this project (if everything else in the build looks excellent - I wouldn't accept fair to good) would be to change out the affected assemblies with a new or good used matching set of wings & center section, adding a huge amount of extra effort to the build. In the end, would any 'deal' be worth this amount of extra effort?
 
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Given how bad the spar is and the poor build quality of just the few parts we can see in the photo, I would bet the rest of the build is trash as well (if done by the same person). Do not even consider that thing, it is just future beer cans.
 
For The Gods see everywhere.....

That kind of work makes me feel good about my kind of work.

I took some grief about the 6.5 years it took me to carefully put SuzieQ together, back in The Slow Build days. Having worked on airplanes for years, I knew what a well-constructed airplane should look like. I saw some RVs being put together at the same time that were a little.....well, unnerving: not how I would have done things. I also saw things coming out of Wichita that were not like I would have done it. As it is, I have a straight, good-looking, well-built RV-4 that flew hands-off the first flight. Elevator perfectly in line with the horizontal. Is everything perfect? No; but the minor imperfections have not affected how the airplane flies or how it looks.

I have to just amaze myself when I am doing my Condition Inspections how well I did all those years ago. Makes me smile! How did I know how to do that?

If I may quote Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from his poem (on my mind during my build....)

The Builders:

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.

Those words should be hanging in every shop and on every Builder's mind.....
 
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If you have it, maybe post the serial number of the kit so it comes up in future searches. If that does happen to get bolted together into a complete airframe, you'd never see the condition of those holes and would never think to remove the bolts to look.
 
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