Shooter crash. Need a little carbon cloth please!

[skyboyken]

Hi guys,

sorry to tell you I had the Shooter go off the air yesterday due to water in the receiver. It went in very fast into very soft ground. Amazingly, it's repairable! I went to see Brian Ford last night and he's given me the benefit of his long experience in repairing mouldies.

The tails are undamaged, the wings have cosmetic damage in front of the spar and one crack through the spar cap and sub-spar - fortunately about halfway out along the wing. The fuse is broken off completely at the front of the wing/rear of the boat, and the tailplane platform separated from the plane completely. The critical wing seat area of the fuse is intact except for a split seam and a little crush damage where the joiner bar goes through, so as it's nicely accessible now (!!) it's no problem to fix.

What I desperately need is some carbon cloth of about 120-150gsm weight for the repairs. CG Composites are closed until next week.

All I need is 2 A4 pages in size of 120-150gsm carbon. If you can lend me that much cloth, I'll replace it with half a metre as soon as CG are open for business.

The other thing I'm going to need is some approx 4mm carbon tube for pushrods (which shattered). The tricky thing is they need to be at least 1200mm long and I don't know of anywhere that has them longer than 1m.

Please call me on 0418 692 763 if you can help with the cloth as I'm very keen to get started asap.

Thanks in Advance!

Ken.

[mikey100]

So sorry to hear about the Shooter's downing Ken. Had just been saying how that was your perfect plane. Am sure you will have her flying again soon. If I can bring my Pike's wing back to life, your repairs seem easily achieveable for you. Sorry I can't help with the carbon cloth,; don't have any left. Mikey

[ezza]

Hey Ken,

Very sorry to hear about the Shooter. Glad to hear it is repairable though. Usually when a plane goes offline, that is the end of it. I want to see some pics when it's finished as I have never seen one of these fine ships.

I don't have any carbon cloth. You could try Kamikaze Kites on the gold coast for rod. Maybe they have another shop in Brissie? I do have some nice 2inch carbon sock(heavy, light, and red glass/carbon) and shrink tube from Soller Composites in the US. I just did a repair on my Kinetic fuse with this stuff and it came out amazing, neat, and way stronger than new. I could send some up to you or I might be up the gold coast over the next couple of days.


Eric

[sean]

For the pushrods, another place to try is Kite Magic. They're in Sydney but when I've ordered from them the goods have arrived next day or two days later at the worst. I got the Brutale spars and a few other things from them and they were happy to cut them to the length I required, which was 1.5M. Any longer and shipping could be a problem.
www.kitesite.com.au/components/carbrods/comp_carb_rods.html

A couple of other ideas - you could join two pieces of carbon together using a closely fitting smaller diameter tube inside the main tube for the splice amd maybe some glass around the outside for good measure (which would only work if the tube doesn't run inside an outer housing of course). You'd want to be very careful with the glue joint, rough up the carbon etc.

On my Pike I replaced the thin metal pushrods that came with it with carbon tubes that don't run inside a housing, but are supported in the middle. They needed to be around 1200mm, but I was able to use 1M long carbon tubes with around 100mm of 4-40 wire at each end - you need something to attach the clevice anyway.

[skyboyken]

Thanks for your commiserations guys, I know you've all been there too!

Of course I would prefer not to have crashed, but it's all good really. I consider myself EXTREMELY lucky to have a repairable plane, and I'm just pumped to get it back in the air because it is exactly what I've always wanted in a plane. So it will fly again and soon, and if it ever does get written off you can be sure I'll have something similar asap!!

Ezza, thanks for the offer of the sock mate! I think the Shooter fuse may be a little larger overall than your Kinetic, does the sock have any 'give'? If it does it would be perfect for the external repairs and I'll call you to arrange a fast and equitable arrangement! Please advise.

Sean, thanks for your advice. I do in fact have 2 1m long tubes and I was thinking after my post to extend them with wire inside and kevlar thread outside, so that's what I'm now going to do. It's always nice to have advice from someone who knows what they're doing!

I still need cloth though!!!

All the suppliers are off this week and I REALLY want to get these repairs done before we move house in early Jan. Sean has offered some 200 gsm open weave that needs rolling but I really want to use the finer cloth for the wing repairs.

Onwards and Upwards!

Ken.

[bananaman]

Is it "Kite Power" near Clontarf?
They used to have various diameters of carbon tube. A splice will work fine. Best thing is to glue and pin it through the splice piece. Literally with the finest drill you can get and a pin.

The model is a sad sight for sure but, with a bit of work is certainly a fixer, the wing's spar cap damage needs a careful repair that Ken is well aware of how to do. So sad to see a new model hurt.

BUT it is a sight I am well used to unfortunately

I'll post on the MRSSA site and see if anyone there can help with some cloth.

[ezza]

Hey Ken,

The sock was perfect for my Kinetic fuse which has a diameter of 42mm. I just tried sliding a piece over a larger fuse, it made it around a part of the nose which is 55mm across and 65mm high in diameter. It has a more open weave when fully stretched. The only shrink tube I have is 2 inch diameter max so you may want to source some larger stuff or use tape instead.

Eric

[sean]

I bought some sock and shrink tube from Soller recently too. I'm going to use it on my Bird and the DSer I'm building so went with the heavy weave sock and it certainly is heavy duty. It would probably be big enough to fit the Shooter but I'm not sure (it's big enough to fit over the Bird's entire fuse, wing seat and all). The larger size of shrink tube I got though is massive and would definitely fit the Shooter. I got a bit more than I need so if you want some no worries.

[skyboyken]

Thanks heaps Ezza and Sean! Brian too for posting to MRSSA.

The sock sounds like a really good way to do one of the trickier sections of the repair. All I need is a 50mm piece for just in front of the wing seat where the boat will be reattached.

I'll call and talk with Sean and Ezza over lunch and we'll see what progress can be made. I've also had a call from Andrew vB who has a couple of different 200gsm cloths, so I'll be talking with him too.

I'm enormously grateful for the help and support guys!!

Ken.

[ezza]

Dec 29, 2009 12:08:44 GMT 10 sean said:

I bought some sock and shrink tube from Soller recently too. I'm going to use it on my Bird and the DSer I'm building so went with the heavy weave sock and it certainly is heavy duty. It would probably be big enough to fit the Shooter but I'm not sure (it's big enough to fit over the Bird's entire fuse, wing seat and all). The larger size of shrink tube I got though is massive and would definitely fit the Shooter. I got a bit more than I need so if you want some no worries.

Hey Sean,

I think you will be really impressed with how the sock comes out. Amazing how it expands and contracts so much. Mine came out with a few pinholes here and there, but really happy with the naked carbon look. Its amazing!! To have the fuse, underneath the wing, completely wrapped in thick carbon, really is satisfying, especially after the couple of breaks and repairs it has had.

Tim bought some at the same time as me. He has covered an eggshell thin, chinese fuse off of a destroyed model, with the heavy stuff. It is as strong as the MC3 fuse!! He even manged to slip it all the way around the back and up the vertical, of the t-tail. Can't squeeze it at all. ;D

Eric

[sean]

Yeah I bought a few metres and I'm amazed how heavy it is. Not for floaters! It's good to hear it comes out looking good, though I don't mind if the Bird comes out looking ugly, it's a bit past that now! Very tempting to make a cross tail for it but should probably just keep things quick and simple.

[skyboyken]

OK Guys, thanks to you all I have everything I need!!

The official patrons of my impending Shooter repair are (in no particular order):

Brian Ford for advice, instruction, encouragement and Uni-Carbon
Sean for Carbon Sock and heatshrink and advice on pushrods
Shane Spoor for advice on cloth
Andrew von Berky for 200gsm fine weave cloth for the wing and fuse repairs
Dave Anderson for offering access to his stock of cloth
Ezza for suggesting and offering carbon sock, and for being Ezza
Greg Roper for offering help (he doesn't know what he's in for!)
Nick, Graeme, Greg, Peter Loftus, Mike and all of the above for commiserations and support.

I am genuinely touched by the immediate, openhearted support from our local glider community.

Thanks Again!

Ken.

[Garth]

Ken if you need any more 200gsm i have found a place witch sells it for $65 a meter. Just not sure of the name...... Hope all goes well with the repairs....

[larrikin]

Hi Ken, what's the world coming to... You leave the computer for a few hours and it turns to bedlam and mayhem. I have some 90 gsm plain weave carbon at +/- 45 if you still need it. 0417 741 706

[thevon]

Ah go on Sean! Go for it and make a new cross-tail. Gewarn! Gewarn, gewarn, gewarn! Y'know you want to! (from Mrs Doyle on Father Ted)

from Andrew (making a new replacement X-tail for the Ditza as an ideal first opportunity to try vac bagging).

P.S. off topic, but ... if you paint the Mylars can you lay up over the paint within hours? Or does the paint have to cure for a day or so?