Fokker: November 2009 Archives

Fokker repaired and ready for battle

|
| Comments (0)
Recap - this is what it looked like back in August...


Well it's done. Just waiting for a nice warm calm fall day. Might have to wait until spring though.

First part I repaired was the firewall / engine mount. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had not lost any bits. A full reconstruction was done.

nearly_repaired_engine_mount

To repair the wing, I started by using a razer blade to open the skin. I carefully cut along a good rib making sure to leave a good rib in the opening so the skin would have something solid to adhere to later. The mess inside was substantial.

open_wing_surgery_posterior

To ensure the wing would remain straight, I propped it up with some styrofoam blocks. Once all the pieces were glued back together (which took a few evenings), I carefully closed the skin back up - again, using thin CA to reattach the skin to the ribs.

Fokker wing repair

I strengthened and sealed the cut by applying a layer of monokote (unfortunately I only had yellow, remnants from my Hummer which I have yet to fly).

Fokker wing repair

Next it was onto the cowling. 

cowling_reassembly

What a mess. At times I felt like a federal aviation disaster investigator. I started by aligning larger pieces and holding them in place with scotch tape from behind. Once I had the pieces lined up, I dripped thin CA along the crack and let it set overnight before moving on to the next piece. In the end only a couple small holes remain in the cowling. I may buy some red electrical tape to repair those.

Fokker Repaired

Here she is. Ready for another attempt. 

The lower wing received very minor damage. The peg that holds it in place at the front was snapped off - simple repair, just glue another piece of wood and sand down to fit. The other bit of damage was one of the holes that a bolt goes through to attach the wing was widened slightly - won't worry about that as the wing doesn't move once assembled.

The prop is a higher pitch prop (10x80 vs 10x47), however, that seems to give me a better throttle curve (for some reason the old setup only used 3/4 of the throttle range - the new prop seems to expand that to 7/8). The prop came from my Sophisticated Lady which is grounded until I buy a new gear set.