It looks like I will be fabricating an angle from .040 thick 2024-T3 material. See below...
Response from Ken at Vans:
Good news...you don't need to scrap your rear spar but you definitely need
to do a repair.
Repair: Fabricate an angle from .040 thick 2024-T3 material. The bend
angle must match that of the spar flange.
The leg of the angle that will mate-up to the damaged area on the spar
flange must be the same height as the spar flange (or maybe overhanging
by 1/16) and the other leg of the angle must be high enough to allow one
row of rivets to be installed through the repair angle and the spar web and
have sufficient edge distance for 1/8 inch rivets.
The repair angle length must be such that it shares at least 2 rivets inboard
of the damaged area and at least 2 rivets outboard of the damaged area. I
would try to grab 3 rivets each direction of the damage if possible...4 rivets
each direction would be overkill.
Use one row of 1/8 inch rivets spaced approximately 1 inch apart to attach
the repair angle to the spar web. Use the existing skin to spar attach holes
to attach the repair angle to the spar web.
Please get back to me if you cannot achieve this repair because the
damage is less than two rivets from a rib, thus making the required repair
angle length impossible to achieve without modification to a rib.
Follow Van's instructions, with the following additional item that was not mentioned. Blend smooth the damage to get rid of any sharp edge.
Greg.
Yes indeed. I would also think it good practice to drill a small relief hole at each damaged end to help prevent "potential" cracks from developing and "potentially" migrating hither and yon. Perhaps they thought the extra step unnecessary or merely overlooked mentioning it?
__________________ Rick Galati
RV6A N307R"Darla!"
RV-8 N308R "LuLu" EAA Technical Counselor
Rear spar damage
Linear Mode
