From Road Kill to Flyable

[Tim Stagg]

For those that saw the awful result of what happens when a car meets a Chipmunk in the pits at Brodak this year. I thought I would let everyone know....the Chip lives again.... and if you didn't know it had been run over....you would have a hard time telling. It gained a 1/2 once but that's not too bad.

Pictures show before and after

I will hopefully get to do some test flights tomorrow night.

Tim

[Phil Spillman]

Hi Tim, Way to go! You DA Man man! If looks are any indication I'll bet this bird flies just as well as it did before; for sure I do hope so! As I said before you really handled this whole thing superbly, an inspiration for all of us.

Phil Spillman

[Tim Stagg]

Thanks Phil.

From the words of a great American..... Forest Gump....sh*t happens.

It was a fun rebuild Challenge 

[goozgog]

Well done Tim.
In more ways than one.

Cheers!

[Paul Taylor]

Wow Tim
I did not know about the snafu. Nice repair work. Looks as good as it did before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dennis Adamisin]

GREAT job Tim!  Did you re-install the original pieces or did you have to graft a new nose onto it?

[Tim Stagg]

Thanks Paul and Dennis.

Paul, that picture was snapped about 20 minutes before the incident.

Dennis, I had about 70% of the pieces and used about 1/2 of those in the rebuild process. Some of it was just too smashed to bring back to shape without a lot of filler...i.e. weight being added. so I grafted in new sections where the sheeting was just too gone. Most of the top deck is new. The carbon Fiber cowl took the crunch quite well, I just had to fix a few cracks and dings.

All in all I was pretty lucky the structure was back together in an evening and the rest was just paint and finishing time.

[john e. holliday]

And what is the story with the plane and car.   I was not at Brodaks, sorry to say.

[Tim Stagg]

Doc,

Someone chose to drive a car where it didn't belong, and ran over my plane while it was in the pits next to 15 other models...mine just happen to be on the end 

I didn't get a chance to put in my second flight before it happened

Tim

[Tim Stagg]

Test flew the chipmunk last weekend before I had to travel for work.

Flies better than ever, I switched to a new custom carbon 3 blade prop I bought from Bob Whitney.

It made a huge difference.

[David M Johnson]

Way to go Tim, I'm a fan of the Chipmunks and your is and was a fine example.  I am curious what engine your using in yours?  I have one that I am bringing back from having the other end crushed in a dry storage container. 

[Tim Stagg]

David,

Thanks for the compliments.

I am using an e-flite 15 with a castle edge lite 50 and a 4 cell 2600 mah battery.

This is a nice combination but the battery is on the edge of being a little small for longevity. I have had my current backs for 2 seasons now and they are starting to get a little tired. From my point of view the trade off is worth it. 120$ for 3 packs and 2 seasons of flight....I take it 

[Scott Richlen]

Dang Tim!  You're like the Flash!  How do you build (repair) so fast???

Congrats on doing such a nice job!

Scott (the slowpoke...)

[Tim Stagg]

Once I get on a roll it just flows Scott.

 It really looked much worse than it was and since I fly electric, there is way less vibration and torsion stress on the airframe, so putting it all back together takes less pieces.