by Guest » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:49 pm
There was an almost new, very early series 1 Lazair in the mid-Atlantic area, with the "light" spar skin, that sustained very similar damage to the one pictured above. The owner cut out the damage, made new nose ribs, and pop riveted a large patch over it. Sometime later I witnessed this plane being flown in a very aggressive (all right - downright f***ing dangerous) manner for the better part of a day by an ex-military pilot relative of the owner. At the end of the day, when the plane was tied down for the evening, I got a chance to examine it.
All along one side of the patch there was about a 3/16 inch black border. I walked out to the wing tip and lifted the wing, and movement at the patch was quite evident. I went and found the owner, and showed him the movement/marking. He grounded the plane, and when he got home drilled out the rivets and removed the patch. What he found was that most of the rivets on the side of the patch with the movement had missed the spar skin! To this day, I still can not believe that pilot, no matter how hard he tried, - and believe me, HE TRIED - didn't manage to fold up that wing.
Chappy