>
> Hi,
> Haven't been here for a week. I see that there are a few people who have asked about the cracks. Most unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them before doing a repair. This would have been an obvious thing to do. The description I made of their location is pretty much accurate. They were irregular, shaped like lightening bolts. The metal immediately next to them was elevated which might suggest the problem is one of compression rather than tension.
> My reasoning on the repair was to increase the amount of metal in the area, at least doubling and even tripling the strength. I've learned in the past that a repair can be stronger than the original componant and that's what I'm shooting for. Using adhesive would bond all three layers together and would presumably prevent any recurrance.
> The hangar owner where I'm at once had a Thundergull that had the rivets break in the same location. The tails of these two planes (as far as I know anyway) are identical or nearly so. He replaced the rivets with Cherrymax rivets which apparently give much greater shear strength. I intend to do this as well thinking that the increased strength of the sheet metal I now have will move the stresses elsewhere, ie. the rivets.
> The original construction had the sheet metal glued to the boom tube and I will do this as well.
> I continue to think this has happened because of my regular use of grass strips where it would seem that the lateral shaking/jarring of the tail section would be much sharper than that encountered in the air. Comments from those who also have found cracks??
> Bob
>
> > > I recently discovered 2 cracks in the vertical stabilizer on my Tornado II. Each is at the lower aft corner where the sheet metal is cut at a 120 degree angle. The cracks are about 1-2". I have repaired them with a double layer of .025 aluminum, one inside and one out, and have fixed them with epoxy. It seems this would be sturdy enough to prevent the cracks from recurring. The metal of the tail seems to be .016" or perhaps .020".
> > >
> > > My big concern is why these might have happened in the first place. I've followed this group through from the first message ever posted and don't recall anyone else mentioning this kind of problem so I'm inviting any input there might be about this.
> > >
> > > Construction of the kit was supervised and assisted by Mike and Jeromy in Richland WA so it was probably done right. About the only thing I can think of is that I operate mainly out of a slightly rough grass strip and perhaps the jarring on the ground is causing the cracks. This seems kind of unlikely but it's the only thing that comes to mind.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any input, Bob Coombs
>
I just viewed the tail cracks pictures, and they look like skin only issues, with seemingly apparent corrosion, or that's what looks to be in the photos. I checked my hangar mates Titan and my Gull that are always inside and saw no evidence of issues. An earlier response mentioned shaking or wiggling the verticle stab on pre-flight, which seems like a good item check, and always a good visual check. The pictures as shown didn't seem to indicate an eminant tail failure, but it's always good to stop those kind of things.
Kess
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