Composite materials on LSA
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:32 am
Yesterday I was looking around a shared hangar and noticed a nice Lancair. I noticed it has a good sized crack in the composite material midway along the left leading edge which had been covered with a good sized piece of duct tape. I don't know if this is the approved 'temporary fix' or what.
I started thinking about my own experiences with LSAs (and GA airplanes) that use composite and wondered how prone are they to these kind of cracks and what's the down-time and cost to repair? How easy is it to get someone qualified to repair something like this?
I have flown a CTLS with a crack at the corner of the baggage door, and a Remos with a cracked wing-tip. From talking to the school the Remos was going to be down quite a while whilst they communicated with Remos in Germany, which was a slow and frustrating process. The CTLS ended up sitting in the hangar a few weeks waiting the repair.
I looked at a Tecnam which had both metal wings and a composite fuselage. It was the heaviest of the LSAs I've flown.
I have an all metal RV-12, which does have fibre-glass wheel pants and top and lower engine cowling. I believe if I had the same crack in the leading edge as the Lancair mentioned above, they could drill out a panel, order a new one from Vans and install. The hardest part might just be getting the paint matched and finished. Still not cheap or a quick fix. but possibly quicker than with composite? I don't know.
I think composite is really good and of course the finish is really nice. Glasiar's new Merlin SLSA is basically a fixed Skycatcher but using all composite instead of metal.
Whilst composite is strong and supposedly lighter weight my all metal RV comes in about a 100lbs plus lighter in empty weight versus say a CTLS and more for a CTLSi, yet the Remos weight is about the same.
So what's the advantage of composite use in LSAs, and other GA airplanes? Over metal and even fabric. Cost, weight, strength?
Seeing this nice plane in the hangar with a wing crack got me thinking.
I started thinking about my own experiences with LSAs (and GA airplanes) that use composite and wondered how prone are they to these kind of cracks and what's the down-time and cost to repair? How easy is it to get someone qualified to repair something like this?
I have flown a CTLS with a crack at the corner of the baggage door, and a Remos with a cracked wing-tip. From talking to the school the Remos was going to be down quite a while whilst they communicated with Remos in Germany, which was a slow and frustrating process. The CTLS ended up sitting in the hangar a few weeks waiting the repair.
I looked at a Tecnam which had both metal wings and a composite fuselage. It was the heaviest of the LSAs I've flown.
I have an all metal RV-12, which does have fibre-glass wheel pants and top and lower engine cowling. I believe if I had the same crack in the leading edge as the Lancair mentioned above, they could drill out a panel, order a new one from Vans and install. The hardest part might just be getting the paint matched and finished. Still not cheap or a quick fix. but possibly quicker than with composite? I don't know.
I think composite is really good and of course the finish is really nice. Glasiar's new Merlin SLSA is basically a fixed Skycatcher but using all composite instead of metal.
Whilst composite is strong and supposedly lighter weight my all metal RV comes in about a 100lbs plus lighter in empty weight versus say a CTLS and more for a CTLSi, yet the Remos weight is about the same.
So what's the advantage of composite use in LSAs, and other GA airplanes? Over metal and even fabric. Cost, weight, strength?
Seeing this nice plane in the hangar with a wing crack got me thinking.