Wood spars really that bad?

7

72thumper

New member
I spent the past 3 hours reading posts on here. Isn't there a search function?

I'm looking at buying a '72 7KCAB. The plane appears to be in really good condition but the covering is 12 years old (paint still looks quite nice) and the wood spars are original. I'm not to pleased about the AD and inspections (also the ease at which it appears the Citabria can be grounded).

What is the real deal with the wood spars? Is this really an issue I should worry much about or are the incidents fairly isolated?

Thanks!
 
There is an interesting thread on Wood vs Aluminum over on the Citabria Pilots Group on Yahoo; http://www.groups.yahoo.com search for Citabria pilots.

There is also some great information on the Wing Spar AD on this club home page.

You have to be a member for the search function to work.

Ron
 
I spent a LONG time looking for the right Citabria. I agonized whether I should go with the wood or metal wing. In the end, I found arguments both ways and no definitive answer. However, I spoke to one airshow performer and IAC champ who gave his advice this way: he said you MIGHT be okay with the wood wing. or...you MIGHT not. You might snap a wing off, you might have to spend twenty five thousand repairing a broken wing. Or, you MIGHT not. Are you willing to take that risk? There is no certainty either way.

In the end, I considered the risks and determined that even if the risks were slight, the gravity of those risks were not worth it to me. Therefore, I went with a brand new metal American Champion installed metal wing. Now I fly akro with a stronger piece of mind. It was worth the extra money for me.
 
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