Fuselage Disassembly

While Evelyn and I work on the FAA paperwork for the spar splice, the boys and I went over to Tim's hanger and started disassembling the fuselage.  Most of the damage incurred during the crash was to the fuselage but the repairs aren't as complicated as the wing.  The plans is to take off the fiberglass nose and aluminum turtledeck and replace it with fabric.  Check out Jim Phoenix's website to see what I'm talking about: www.jimphoenix.com 

Once we get down to just the steel tubes, we'll bead blast her, repair the damage, then powder coat!  That's a long way down the road as these photos demonstrate.  Thanks to the crew - Jason, Justen, and Kele for all the help!

Clearing out the damage!

We're almost done clearing out the damage.  We peeled back the wing skins to a point where we can access the spar.  Thanks to Les and Kyle Schweizer for emailing me the spar splice repair diagram!  Based on what we're seeing, the spar splice will be centered three ribs in.  That will guarantee a straight spar out to the tip.

Once the repair is done, we'll start the reskinning from the tip inward, trailing edge to leading edge.  We also looked at the right wing and it's no where near as bad.  I also found out from K and L Soaring that they can repair my damaged tip rib.  The one on the right wing isn't bad at all.  That's a big load off my mind!

Kele Fergestrom got to exercise his brand new A/P license today and helped immensley with the rivet removal.  With 3 A/P's helping me, I can't go wrong!  Mahalo to Jason, Justen, and Kele for the kokua.  Now I'm going to have to wait for the FAA to give me the go ahead on the spar splice.  Once that's in hand, we'll start ordering the parts and materials for the splice and re-skinning.

I've reserved a new N-number for her - N374AC.  It stands for Kevin's old unit - 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 4th Brigade, Alpha Company.  I'm going to have the 3rd Infantry Division patch on her tail as well.  Planning on painting her cream overall, with green trim in a pattern similar to this 1-26:
http://www.126association.org/graphics/Spiffy%20021.jpg
http://www.126association.org/graphics/Ted1-26.jpg
http://www.126association.org/graphics/1-26%20grid.jpg
http://www.126association.org/graphics/1-26%20ready.jpg

Top skin removed.  Splice will probably
be centered on that third rib.

Bent, damaged, and corroded spar.  All this will be
removed and replaced.

View of the wing with the damaged rib removed.

We fixed a little ding in the rear spar after we
removed the damaged rib.

Wing tip disassembly

The left wing was the most severely damaged.  The spar was bent and the skin was damaged.  There was a lot of dissimilar metal corrosion due to the interaction between the aluminum and the steel mounting bracket for the wing tip pogo wheel.  Not too concerned about the corrosion since we'll be replacing all of the metal in that area.  I did find out that Jason is real good at drilling out rivets!

The plan is to fix the spar and ribs without taking off too much skin.  That way when we start to re-skin her, the underlying structure should be straight.  At least that's plan!

Spar and rib damage revealed after
wing tip and skin are removed

Wing tip and some skin removed.  That rib is had it!

The internal structure doesn't look too bad.

That L-shaped aluminum and it's lower counterpart
 will be replaced.  Hopefully, the shear web is okay.

Work starts

I'm beginning to realize this will be a long, multi-year project.  Evelyn Greene of the Honolulu Community College has graciously allowed me to use her hangar, tools, and expertise to start the rebuild of the wings.  And don't let me forget Timothy Cislo who encouraged me to move the restoration to Kalaeloa Airport and to share his hangar as well with my fuselage and tail feathers!  The following pictures document Justen Taafaki and I working on disassembly of the wings prior to repair and re-skinning.

At the start of disassembly!

After we removed the corroded and damaged trailing edge.

In the beginning.....

I've always wanted to own my own airplane but just couldn't rationalize the expenses.  If I wanted to get somewhere, the airlines will always work out to be cheaper, especially with how little inter-island flying I do.  My dilemma was solved for me when Bob Carney gave me a damaged Schweizer 1-26!  It's cheap (no engine), fun and I don't have to justify the cost of getting from here to there since a glider is kind of limited to a few miles around the gliderport.  The machine's pretty beat up, and it'll be a few years before I  get her flying, but it's all about the journey, not the destination.