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LC Stabilator Spars Now Red!

Brantel

Brantel

Well Known Member
Be aware that the LC RV-12 stabilator spars have been moved to the Red category!

Personally I believe tearing apart a stabilator far enough to replace the front and rear spars will create way more risk of future failures than leaving the LCP’s alone.

If I were going to replace them, I would just start over with mostly new parts!
 
I can't imagine tearing the whole HS apart to replace those, it would just be quicker and easier to build from scratch. What a mess.

I got super lucky with only one LCP that is listed as green.
 
Brantel said:
Be aware that the LC RV-12 stabilator spars have been moved to the Red category!

Personally I believe tearing apart a stabilator far enough to replace the front and rear spars will create way more risk of future failures than leaving the LCP’s alone.

If I were going to replace them, I would just start over with mostly new parts!
Click to expand...

Given the way the main skins in essence laminate to form the trailing edge "spar" and the number of holes in the AST hinges I figure both main skins would be tough to salvage, gussets might be tough too. About half my ribs were laser cut. Next project, put together list of what I think is really required to rebuild. Then decide the risk benefit at a point I am comfortable with.

JJR
 
I'm in the same boat; fully assembled stabilator with two red spars. The email from Van's today says that with some assemblies they recognize that the surrounding structure may be damaged in disassembly, and they will therefore supply the surrounding structure at no charge. I'm hoping they view the RV-12 stabilator in this way. There might not be much that is salvageable from the disassembly process.
 
Same here. I'm comfortable drilling out rivets if I can get to the back side but this would be a complete disassembly without much if any access. Also many parts in the structure are match-drilled and not sure if they can or should be reused.
 
Sorry for the dumb question, but I have no idea what this is all about. I am flying my legacy Rv-12 and have 650 hours on it. What are LC RV-12 Stabalor spers? My guess is that this relates to the RV12is models. And whaat does moved to RED mean. I've seen nothing about spar issues and I find no SBs, SLs, etc. on Van's web site Sure would like to have some idea about this. Thanks... Tom
 
Laser cut spars. You don’t have to worry about those with your plane.

todehnal said:
Sorry for the dumb question, but I have no idea what this is all about. I am flying my legacy Rv-12 and have 650 hours on it. What are LC RV-12 Stabalor spers? My guess is that this relates to the RV12is models. And whaat does moved to RED mean. I've seen nothing about spar issues and I find no SBs, SLs, etc. on Van's web site Sure would like to have some idea about this. Thanks... Tom
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Brian, I was just surprised that I was unable to find any information on Van's aircraft support site. Oh well, it's not an issue for me anyway.
Just as an admission of a huge build mistake that I made. As the plans stated, I carefully marked the spar "top" and "bottom", but somehow was still able to install the spar assembly upside down. Naturally it would not fit on the tailcone. I remember that there were over 200 rivets to remove, in order to fix my build error. It worked perfectly and I had no issues with the fix. It just caused me an extra solid day to fix a dumb build error. Lesson learned the hard way. Tom
 
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