ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

HAIL !![color=red][/color]

Among the things that can be most devastating to a fabric covered wing is hail. It must rank right up there closely behind crashing.

For the past 18 years I have been able to avoid such damage. Not last week though, my luck ran out.

The open hangar my plane is in leaves the right wingtip about even with the hangar opening. Thus it is most vulnerable to wind, dust, rain, and hail. Unfortunately, during an earlier windstorm, the outer wing cover was destroyed.

During the interim of having a new wing cover made, we got a hailstorm. Of course, as luck would have it, that was when the wing was not protected with anything. Yesterday I discovered hail damage during a pre-flight inspection.

There were four holes such as the one shown, and two slits, each about two inches long. As a temporary repair, I made patches from "500 mph tape."

The new wing cover is finished and I installed it yesterday. As added insurance against wind blowing the cover off, I had two end straps sewed in place to prevent the tarp from sliding down the wing like a sock that has lost its elastic.

Additional insurance against hail is provided by sliding a thick piece of cardboard under the wing cover to act as a cushion if it gets hit with hail again. I should also do something to protect my wingtip lights. Any ideas?

Paul D. Fiebich

I hope it did not damage the ribs.

Monte

Ace,
That looks like flak damage and as usual as soon as the AirBike rolled to a stop after landing you headed for the Officer's club and didn't notice the damage until the next mornings mission.

Hi Paul,


I cant believe your run of bad luck...

so that 3 now...

now for the turn around.

best wishes Paul

cheers Arthur

The hail did not damage the wingtip lights this time so I suspect that the lens are stronger than most anything you would probably use to protect them. I don't know that;  I'm just guessing.
Based upon one experience with hail damage to my daughter's car, I would say the round lens is extremely hard to break.

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

Yikes Paul, your having an awful run of luck. I hope it changes real soon. Best wishes from Maine.

Paul:I also had fabric rupture when I hit tree branches 3 years ago, it also involved a broken rib... fortunately not mine.
Patching and sewing was very simple and today, after painted is hard to find where the damage occurred.
I'm sure, very soon, you'll have your Airbike back in the air.

Perhaps the sun is not so strong at your latitude as here on the Gulf Coast, but I would think that if your wing tip is exposed most of the time then it will soon fade and the finish will become brittle.

Almost 3 years ago I bought a 1989 Dakota Sport Convertible pickup. The top was bad when I bought it and to make do for a while a made a cab cover that I attached when parked on rainy days. I cut a piece from a sheet of medium weight polypropylene sheet, folded it and taped it with Gorilla Tape. It is still serviceable, although I installed a new top last October. It would be very simple to make a sock to fit over the wing tip. Perhaps you could glue velcro to the sock and to your wing cover.

I had good luck building a bridge for my Lionel layout using styrene sheet and Zap-A-Gap glue. That could be used to make a very light weight box to cover the lights. I guess if the hail was forceful enough to break the wing fabric then it would break 0.015in. styrene, so maybe 0.040in. would work, especially if bent into a cylinder to fit over the big light. Just throwing an idea out there.

I warn you that I am not concerned about the appearance of service items that are not a part of the airplane. I figure that no one is going to see them but me, and I don't care; I plan to leave those things on the ground and get flying.

Good luck.