Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob's RV9A
This is my first post, and I want to advise what I found removing the panels and fairings for my condition inspection.
While doing the Condition Inspection on my RV9A I found this fault on the vertical stabilator attach plate F-981. For the RV9A this part is visible after removing the vertical stabilizer fairing. It is the top right bolt on F-981. You can see the crack is prevalent on the right side of the bolt and extends left of the bolt about a 1/16. In addition, you can see all four-attachment boltholes are elongated. It is obvious at some point the attachment bolts holes had been re-drilled and to move the vertical stabilator boltholes upwards thus lowering the whole assembly. You can also see the bushing for the manual trim cable is missing. The repair is to remove the whole empennage and carefully drill out the rivets, replace F-981. Both parts $6.83 from Van?s. Hours to repair??.. a few. So while the tail is off I will be looking for other obvious anomalies.
The original builder completed the airplane in 2001; I am the third owner after the builder. Total airframe time is 815 hours. I want others to see taking off that fairing and not just for a quick look deserves the attention to really inspect the attach points.
The pictures are at the following link if I goober the picture post here. http://s1254.photobucket.com/albums/hh616/RV9aer/[/IMG]

|
Rob:
Have you received an response that you are satisfied with?
Here is what I see:
1 - The crack is in line with the bold diameter.
2 - The crack is horizontal.
3 - There is a bend/curve the bracket RIGHT at the C/L of the crack.
4 - There is no washer under the head of the bolt.
5 - Question: How much clearance did you have between the bolt and the metal?
6 - Question: How much torque was applied to the bolt?
All these things put together, especially the curve would cause a crack.
Barry