Photo Gallery

After a ground loop accident the root end of your wings are quite likely to suffer compression / tension damage such as happened to this Open Cirrus.

Repairs around wing root ribs are particularly challenging because large loads are transferred through the structure in all stages of flight.

Particular care is needed to ensure all parts align perfectly or the glider will be difficult to rig afterwards.

 

A few gliders such as the Libelle use Balsa core as the sandwich material in the wing structure. Most modern gliders use a PVC foam such as Dyvinicell made by Diab.

 

 

 

Leading edges are particularly venerable to damage as indicated by this picture of a K13 wing damaged by a collision with a vehicle.

Quite often the damage looks far worst than it really is and when all the broken bits have been cut away the major structure can be un-damaged.

 

 

Following any sort of accident it is important to check the structure of the glider thoroughly on this occasion damage to the support structure of the undercarriage was found. This shows up as an area of whiten glass fibre around the shaft. When damage of this sort is found the local area has to be scarfed back to allow new material to be laid up. When finished and sanded flat the repair will be as strong as the original structure and insignificantly different i

 

 

 

What ever the job we have the facilities and expertise to carry out the necessary repairs and return you glider back to it's pre-accident state or better.

Over the course of years we have repaired many gliders with this sort of damage. Careful jigging and an eye for detail ensure very little additional weight is added during the repair.

 

 

 

 

This picture show damage to a spar tang as a result of impact damage further out along the wing. Along with repairing the damage shown here, we had to repair both fuselage, tailplane and wings. Big repairs of this nature are our bread and butter.

 

 

 

These are just a few pictures from an extensive library of broken and damaged gliders we have. Each time we carry out estimates or repairs we take picture of the damage to help when it comes to re-assembling the glider.  Many a time we have been able to help customers over the phone with a problem by referring to picture we already hold on file.