Wing Skin Damage

Hi Folks, I had my garage door up last week during high winds, and the price for being stupid was that my wing stand got blown over. The right wing, which has only the top skins on, received damaged to the aft, inboard corner of the top wing skin. I was able to bend the skin back to a very acceptable condition, however, the most inboard rivet hole dimple, which attaches to the upper flange of the aft spar, has 2 small cracks. (the spar hole is not cracked, only the skin hole) Drilling up to a -4 (oops) rivet will not remove the cracks. I'm inclined to just drill out the rivets and replace the top inboard skin, but before I do so, thought I'd check here for alternative ideas. Thanks, Greg

I did reach out to Van's with my plan of replacing the top skin and Tony's quick response (which I appreciate) was, "that's probably what I would do too." So that's one solid vote.

My thoughts (with exactly 0% structural calculations) is the damage (loss of strength) of drilling out a hundred + rivets to fix one bad rivet is a net downgrade in overall strength.

As I build a plane I keep a list of items\areas that I feel need extra inspection during each annual. I would add this area to my list and build on. I find the grey vs black\white decisions while building are the hardest to make.

Good luck

Steve

I tend to agree with Steve. You will most likely do more damage removing the skin and then have a multitude of mishaps to fix. As long as there is no evidence of damage along the crease line in the skin, I would continue on. I would however, recommend stop drilling the two cracks around the dimple. Especially the one at the 2 o'clock position in the picture. BTW....... I think the cracks around the dimple were made during the dimpling process, not the fall.

Good luck with your build, and like Steve suggests, keep that area under close watch. My bet is you will enjoy several hundred hours of trouble free flying.

Looks like it’s the inboard aft portion of the upper wing skin. This is an area that has a doubler skin over the wing walk condensed ribs - if it’s like most earlier SBS RV’s. Seems like you could make a patch in that section, backed up by the wing walk doubler skin. On the inboard end you could make a doubler plate equal to the wing skin thickness. When you cover it with wing walk non-skid stick on surface, you’d hardly notice it. And I mean YOU would hardly notice it. Others would never notice it. I wouldn’t drill out all those rivets in the top skin. That could end up being more noticeable than a patch, and maybe look worse, possibly less structural if you end up with oversized holes in skin/rib flanges. The wing walk area gives you additional substructure. If you hog out any of those holes, you can upsize them to #30. They’ll be covered with wing walk tape.

RE:

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the replies.

Scott, I agree, a doubler is what I've decided to go with. Last night and today I've was getting it measured up. Tomorrow I'll get it cut out and test fitted. I appreciate the input!

Greg