During one of the last flights, while landing, a member floated his SV11 over to the area were we had been launching from. The plane ballooned just a tad and came in hard, on the nose. We heard loud crack and all assumed it was the prop. Nope, it was intact, but the leg of the out board landing gear had a crack just above the pant. No biggie, but we also noticed an angled crack between the two ribs above the gear in the top LE sheeting. Didn't seems like a big crack, the kind a touch of super glue repairs. Nothing else seemed out of kilter. Next flight he mentioned it seems to have gone out of trim. Later during the last flight, at the bottom of the second outside loop, it twisted to the left and went straight in. The outboard wing was 15 feet away from all the litter. Engine in the mud deep. Plastic tank, less plumbing was 25 feet away. Lots of tiny pieces and the sudden silence and the look of dismay and shock on the flyers face. Not a pretty scene and that plane was a very nice flying SV11.
We figured out what happened by the way the sheeting was ripped and the fact the rear joining spar just pulled out and had very little to NO glue at the ribs sites. The impact caused the bad joints to fail to the point the wing ripped off the plane. Out side loops put a ton of stress on our tiny planes.
Moral is, if you go through the trouble to install proper controls, while at it check ALL glue joints on that ARC.
Hot glue just does NOT do the job. Also if you come in hard and hear a crack, STOP flying and go home and investigate every glue joint/spar you can possibly get to. Remove the covering, use a mirror, eyeball stuff. Hidden damage has cost me three planes in the last five years, so I know this happens to others. This wasn't mine, but I felt the pain. FWIW I very seldom take photos of other guys wrecks. It seems insulting in a way, so none on here..
Topic: A different wing cracking. (Read 1387 times)