sc_pilot
Active Member
Well… through a dumb bonehead move, I dropped the folding leg of my engine hoist into the tailcone on my rv12. 
This was just after we finished riveting the tailcone onto the fuselage and was cleaning up. I’m assuming this skin needs to be replaced? The scratch is almost half through the metal and the dent is pretty deep as shown.
I’m willing and inclined to drill out all the rivets and replace the side skin rather than do some sort of patch that I have to look at. Would the underlying structure be ok if I drilled out and replaced? Or too great a risk in oversizing holes? This skin rivets to the stabilator bracket and the longeron. I kinda don’t want to have to deal with waiting on vans to have to crate a new side skin as I’m sure that’s not in their standard online web order process.
Since I’m building EAB and not ELSA:
I’m also willing to try hiding it by cutting it completely out and putting an access panel there. I just have to be careful how low I cut so I don’t get into the J stiffener on the bottom corner skin. People at my airport tend to think an access panel wouldn’t structurally compromise the tailcone. One person suggested trying to tap out the dent and leave the scratch for filling with paint. I was worried about it cracking and spreading over time.
I have an Email into tech about it but wanted to know if anyone else has ran into major dings like this? Talk about taking the wind out of my sails after what should have been a very happy day of joining the tailcone
Page: 10iS/U-08
Skin: F-1280-R. Dent between frames F-1208 and F-1209.
Thanks
Jacob
This was just after we finished riveting the tailcone onto the fuselage and was cleaning up. I’m assuming this skin needs to be replaced? The scratch is almost half through the metal and the dent is pretty deep as shown.I’m willing and inclined to drill out all the rivets and replace the side skin rather than do some sort of patch that I have to look at. Would the underlying structure be ok if I drilled out and replaced? Or too great a risk in oversizing holes? This skin rivets to the stabilator bracket and the longeron. I kinda don’t want to have to deal with waiting on vans to have to crate a new side skin as I’m sure that’s not in their standard online web order process.
Since I’m building EAB and not ELSA:
I’m also willing to try hiding it by cutting it completely out and putting an access panel there. I just have to be careful how low I cut so I don’t get into the J stiffener on the bottom corner skin. People at my airport tend to think an access panel wouldn’t structurally compromise the tailcone. One person suggested trying to tap out the dent and leave the scratch for filling with paint. I was worried about it cracking and spreading over time.
I have an Email into tech about it but wanted to know if anyone else has ran into major dings like this? Talk about taking the wind out of my sails after what should have been a very happy day of joining the tailcone
Page: 10iS/U-08
Skin: F-1280-R. Dent between frames F-1208 and F-1209.
Thanks
Jacob
