leadsledfan
New member
Good Morning All!
I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful flying weather (and heat
)
I got the Skin Removed from one of the flaps to inspect the "Bent Up" inboard corner. The plane either had a gear up landing long or gear collapse on roll out long ago, listed as a "Prop Strike" in the logbooks. Not a huge deal in my opinion, as it got me the McCauley Prop.
The #1 Inboard Rib is scraped down roughly 1 inch from the end, and the bottom of the trailing edge was ground off completely, allowing the top of the trailing edge to push up against the fabric, giving the appearance of the "bent up" tip. Apparently, when the flap was repaired after the landing incident, they just repaired the fabric over the mess, instead of actually repairing it.
Also, the rib is slightly bowed in from the tension of the fabric (Expected).
Gotta love old Airplanes!
I am going to easily assume that the left flap matches the right.
I was somewhat worried about being able to repair the rib, and see a new rib as the only repair that I would be happy with.
On that train of thought, I called the Factory in Alexandria to get their opinion.
Low and behold, the #1 rib is the same for the CruiseMasters through the Viking line, and the Factory still supports them!
The Factory is going to build me a new #1 rib for both the Left and Right Flap, and they also have the notched trailing edge pieces. The Rib's are $160 each, and the Trailing Edge is roughly $175 for each flap (for both pieces). Well worth it in my opinion to not have to worry about building the Rib incorrectly.
As an aside, the guys at the Factory are really, truly, nice guys. They all seem to really love the Bellanca, and it was nice to shoot the breeze with them for 15 minutes or so.
So I will be getting the new ribs and trailing edge in the next week or so, and then I will embark on installing the Rib to the Flap, and then on to cover.
-Adam
I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful flying weather (and heat
)I got the Skin Removed from one of the flaps to inspect the "Bent Up" inboard corner. The plane either had a gear up landing long or gear collapse on roll out long ago, listed as a "Prop Strike" in the logbooks. Not a huge deal in my opinion, as it got me the McCauley Prop.
The #1 Inboard Rib is scraped down roughly 1 inch from the end, and the bottom of the trailing edge was ground off completely, allowing the top of the trailing edge to push up against the fabric, giving the appearance of the "bent up" tip. Apparently, when the flap was repaired after the landing incident, they just repaired the fabric over the mess, instead of actually repairing it.
Also, the rib is slightly bowed in from the tension of the fabric (Expected).
Gotta love old Airplanes!
I am going to easily assume that the left flap matches the right.
I was somewhat worried about being able to repair the rib, and see a new rib as the only repair that I would be happy with.
On that train of thought, I called the Factory in Alexandria to get their opinion.
Low and behold, the #1 rib is the same for the CruiseMasters through the Viking line, and the Factory still supports them!
The Factory is going to build me a new #1 rib for both the Left and Right Flap, and they also have the notched trailing edge pieces. The Rib's are $160 each, and the Trailing Edge is roughly $175 for each flap (for both pieces). Well worth it in my opinion to not have to worry about building the Rib incorrectly.
As an aside, the guys at the Factory are really, truly, nice guys. They all seem to really love the Bellanca, and it was nice to shoot the breeze with them for 15 minutes or so.
So I will be getting the new ribs and trailing edge in the next week or so, and then I will embark on installing the Rib to the Flap, and then on to cover.
-Adam