In an Annual last week they discovered compression cracks in the spars of the wings of my Citabria.

New wings = 20 grand plus painting, shipping and installation. These are metallized wings.

Repair = don't know yet - maybe 12 to 14 grand plus painting, shipping and installation but have wood spar again.

Any opinions of what you would do? Any ideas or references as to who would do the work?

Airplane might be worth 50 grand if no problems with it. Its a mint low time 7KCAB with inverted fuel and oil.

Insurance policy says they do not pay for normal wear and tear - just accidents. I asked mechanic what caused it and he said they were overstressed at some point.

Sorry to hear that. Twenty large seems steep. You might want to GOOGLE aircraft slavage and see if you can locate some used items.

Thanks Clem,
I will try that

Trade a plane lists a few vendors in the Aeronca & Citabria sections-

Univair 888-433-5433 Aurora CO

Rainbow Flying in WA 509-765-1606

American Champion Aircraft WI 262-534-6315

Milman Engineering WA 800-782-7737

Great information Mark. I will call them tomorrow. I already talked to American Champion. They have metalized wings for about 20 grand. I wonder if the extra cost over wood repairs would be worth it at sale or trade in time.
Thanks a lot for the research.

Can one build new spars, copy the rib shape/design or reuse the old ribs and get the plane recertified as a modification of the original.

The original is wood spars and ribs with doped fabric as I remember??

LouisB,
Thats a good question. It might be a less costly way out of this.

Allen,

Just a cautionary tale--

my father once flew with a club (Piper Cherokee or Arrow???). Then one day he went to land and got 2 of 3 green lights.

Long story short--someone had earlier popped rivets by "hitting a pothole," and bent the wing. Club replaced the wing, but used the original gear.

Turns out the "pothole" had also cracked the locking mechanism in the strut.

Dad quit flying with that bunch after that little episode!

Whatever you do, go the whole 9 yards!

Good luck and God bless,

friar

Palmer

You probably already know this, but the 7 series (champs, citabria and I think some 8 scouts and decathelons with the wood spars) has an AD to inspect the wood spars at each fitting for those cracks. This requires an inspeciton ring between each rib on the underside and I think 4 openings on the top of the wings. This is not required with the metal spars. see http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/applications/AWD-CN/documents/US2000-25-02R1.htm

You might call American Champion and check prices again. An friend bought one wing already painted and ready to install for his citabria with flaps in March for $17k, complete with metal spars. Maybe he got credit for a "core" by sending in the old wing?

Because your plane has inverted capability, I personally would not use wood spars when metal are available. Someday you or the planes future owner will be learning aerobatics and really loading those wings.

For historical refernce, I rebuilt my champ wings (no flaps) in 1999 with 4 new spars, new leading edge and a landing light (from a pa18) for just under $4k for the pair. It took me 4 months working nights and an ton of help from an understanding and patient AI who thought I was nuts. I thought he was being picky, but he had to sign the 337, so we did things to his standard. He knew that AD was comming, so he had me put in the extra rings properly placed for the inspection.

Good luck

Roger

Friarmeier and RogerR,

Good advice, deep down I know the metalized wings would be the right thing to do and am starting to lean that way - assuming my friendly banker will support the idea.

Thanks

I got to thinking (I know it can be dangerous, but at least it is not habit forming), you did not say how long you have owned this plane, but was the plane surveyed before you bought it?
What about the last AI?

Did you perform any maneuvers that would have induced stress cracks?

Thinking (there is that word again) maybe someone should share the replacement cost with you.

If all else fails think of value now, and then the value after the wings are replaced. Plus you are stuck on terra firma til it is repaired.

TCLouis,

You and I have been thinking along the same lines. Glad I am not the only weird one out here.

Yes, the time that really sticks out was when the screwdriver under the floor board (unknown to me) went aft as I was practicing hammerheads and got stuck between the pulley and cables that control the elevator. Long story but it was kind of messy at the bottom.

The insurance inspector came by last week and according to my local mechanic is going to call it normal wear and tear (read not covered) however I have yet to officially hear from him.

The last AI did not uncover the cracks and I have not flown it much since that AI due to being busy at work - maybe 8 hours. How could those 8 hours result in normal wear and tear cracks when the thousands of hours until then did not?

I do not know in reality what caused the cracks or when they occurred. Obviously all the AI's before this year failed to detect them for some reason - probably because they did not have a good enough scope to see them after the screwdriver incident.

My mechanic this year just bought a good one and he discovered the cracks. I am glad he did but do not know how to convince the insurance company that it was discovered only because he had the right instrument this year - so I will probably have to eat it.

It's no wonder so many people hate insurance companies. They always seem to find some loophole to get out of any liability. I told my rep over the phone that I have paid aircraft insurance for more than 33 years without a claim but he seemed to have no sympathy for that remark.

This is about companies, NOT individuals:

Insurance companies are in business to make MONEY, NOT paying claims is one part of the formula to accomplish the goal".

Just an opinion, and we know about opinions . . .

Some years ago the military switched from JP4 to JP8 and a C130 outfit I have heard about found significantly more wear on turbine blades after the switch in fuel.

Come to find out the wear was found to be a result of better inspection equipment, not JP8.

I always wonder what gets missed during various types of inspections. We each seem to have the one or two things that we really look at closely and then just kind of look at whatever is left.

Back on the Ramp!



Oddly enough the insurance company did me some good. No they didn't pay for new wings but after I harassed them enough they sent in an expert from Arkansas who looked through the bore scope and decided the spar was not cracked after all.

His theory was that it was a glue drip line from where the fabric was glued over the spar. The reason was that it was vertical. He explained that a crack caused by overstressing the wing would be parallel to the grain lengthways along the spar not across the grain.

My local mechanic eventually agreed with him. Looking through those bore scopes at a spar is not as easy as one would think. Its hard to tell what you are seeing. I tried it myself.

Now I need to patch up some of the holes they made.

This is great news! Its also good to know that your Maintenance Tech is actually inspecting your aircraft and not just writing in the log books!

PS-Thats my favorite Citabria color.

Allen, Glad to hear you are back in the air. I dropped hull insurance a few years ago and have been using the premiums to buy the Supercub Jeff built. It is almost paid for and I have a complete new plane (that I already own) immediately standing by in case of an accident. From now on all my insurance premiums go back into my pocket. (well Rocky's anyway)

Insurance is organized crime.

Phil,

Very interesting....I was just thinking the same thing.

My 33 yrs of wasted hull insurance would account for at least the cost of a plane - at least those I can afford.

I think you are on to something here.

I'm an AP/AI. Been doing it since 1962. I refuse to do any Annual on any Champ because of the spar AD. It is impossible to see the entire spar with a bore scope.
Yea right, sue the last AI that did the last Annual. You'll lose. The Inspection sign off is "At the time the plane was in my hanger", I have no control over what you do with the plane after it leaves my hanger."
You did mention, you did "Hammer Head Stalls?"

My advice, with a fresh Annual inspection, find some unsuspecting dude, and sell it. The Spar AD Inspection next year, and every year after, will cost you about $500, if you can find some dumb AI to do it.

Great news!