Aileron - Repair or Replace?

[Berchmans]

Replace...it will drive you crazy every time you look at it otherwise.

[joe_rainbolt]

I had a similar catastrophe with my elevator while I was painting:



I ended up repairing it with a new fiberglass tip over styrofoam. The repair is virtually invisible unless you look directly at the inside edge. I have 300 hours on the plane now and haven't thought about it since I finished the repair. At the time, I thought that I would fix it quickly now and then build a new elevator or reskin it later. Now, I have no interest in fixing it since it doesn't seem broken to me.

If you are interested in more pictures and some colorful prose, here is the blog post I made at the time:

http://roughandreadyaerospace.blogsp...-disaster.html

[snoopyflys]

I really appreciate and thank everyone for posting replies to my "hangar rash". I did contact the mothership but only asked what the cost of a replacement aileron would be. Basically, I need to come up with a parts list and quantities then order. No Sub-kit for easy ordering . I will be following up about the balance issue if one were to do a repair.

Thanks Joe Rainbolt for sharing your "disaster" as the pictures posted and blog post closely describe what happened to my aileron. Once I have confirmation from Vans on balance concerns, I may just give the repair a chance. Re-skinning may not be a good option as there are far too many rivets to remove and doing so would potentially cause more damage than the original problem. I always have the option to rebuild sometime down the line. As some have mentioned, I will worry about it when flying, along with all the other "repairs" made during the build.

Thanks again.

[sblack]

This is totally repairable. I am sure Vans will suggest something like an internal riveted doubler. It all depends on how OCD you are and how perfect the rest of your airplane is. In industry nobody would replace a skin for that, not when the clock is ticking and the operator is losing money with the airplane on the ground. I sign off on repairs on biz jets and regional jets for things like that all the time. So it is up to you, but a correctly done repair will be perfectly safe and not very visible if it is done well.

[SHIPCHIEF]

My wife Marilyn's RV-4 had hangar rash trailing edge damage from pushing too far into a Tee hangar (before she bought it) when it happened a second time, I called VANs and ordered a pair of Quick Build Ailerons for an RV-8. These pre made ailerons are the same as an RV-4 except heavier skins. I can't remember the price, but it was very reasonable. I got matched white Concept Enamel for the local PPG paint store and had her RV-4 looking good and flying better in short order.