Sport Pilot Talk

Safely back home. After experiencing driving a lightweight high-sided U-Haul down I-10 through the New Mexico gales, I think it was more dangerous than flying! And I’d like to know what New Mexico is spending its federal highway funds on. It certainly isn’t the maintenance of I-10. I’ve never seen so many potholes on an interstate before. I’m hoping there was no damage to the airplane.

Thanks for the suggestions on the next step. Hopefully it’s not as serious as it seems!

Good to here you arrived safe and sound on the ground, both by air and land.

I'm happy to hear you made it home safely in spite of the headwinds and the cautionary decision to truck it on I-10 for the last leg.
This has been quite an adventure for you and for those of us living it vicariously through your posts.

All tucked away in the hangar in Tucson! Looking forward to getting airborne again. We have some great A&Ps here who are going to help me out.

Yay! All’s well that ends well!

Looks like a good home for the airplane. Glad you made it. Let us know what you find in the wings.

Congrats on making it home and the beginning of new adventures!

You might find this book inspiring:
https://www.amazon.com/Fly-Airplane-Mer ... 0615736491

Will get some better borescope photos tomorrow, but I'm still thinking there is a compression failure in the front spar (the squiggly vertical line at the bottom left in the attached photo of the back of the front spar). And it may have already been there when I bought it. Looking back at another photo I took before I bought it, I think I can already see raised nails on the leading edge. I really didn't know what I was looking for, and I was anxious to begin the adventure.

So more lessons learned:

1) Get an unbiased third-party expert to do the pre-buy inspection. I should've listened to you, Paul!

2) Don't be so eager to make the purchase without a thorough professional inspection, despite how much time and cash you've put into it to get this far, or how long you have to wait.

3) Don't be pressured into a quick purchase because the seller "has another person lined up to buy it now".

Sand the spar face bare in that area and then spray a little water on it. The water may soak into a crack differently than the grain and make it more visible if there. I’ve usually seen a light or dark line that jumps. Or in this case the grain waviness I would expect to see some light vertical lines 90 degrees to the grain where the varnish has flexed. But I’ve seen where people sanded and varnished over the cracks during a recover so anything is possible. Have someone rock wingtip up and down and look for movement between the bonded cap strip on top and the spar showing they are moving at different rates in that area.

Update: Baby Ace is still sitting in the hangar. I'm going to get the insurance company to look at it. As I said before, I'm not sure if the firm landing could have caused a possible spar issue, or whether it was already an issue when I bought it. And maybe the spar is fine, and the only problem is the leading edge metal and fabric lifting up.

Will report back when I find out more!