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Antenna mounting issues with a wooden aircraft (Robin scrapped due to an antenna mount)

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From here

Pilot mark

Very quickly can you tell me how an antenna badly installed wrote of the aircraft ?

Robin/Jodel is wooden fuselage, so any cutting be done with care.

Last Edited by at 20 Feb 16:53

A_and_C wrote:

Very quickly can you tell me how an antenna badly installed wrote of the aircraft ?

hope this helps:

[ keep this on topic pilotmark ]

LFCL, France

I’m sorry but I still can’t see why this should write off the aircraft, turning the antenna 180 degrees can’t be too much of a problem and I take it the antenna mount is glued to the rear spar web.

I heard about a case of a Robin which was scrapped because an antenna was attached to the wing spar with screws i.e. holes were drilled into the spar.

This was some years ago and I don’t know if it is the same case as mentioned above.

Obviously, if replacing a wing costs more than the plane is worth (easily the case in very many cases of “old” planes) then the plane will be scrapped.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

If it is the case that screws had been driven into the spar web then clearly an aircraft woodworker was not engaged to inspect the damage.

Robin have a very practical view to structural repair with almost all repairs having to be in accordance with AC43, it’s rather difficult to see from the photo what type of repair could be made but my gut feeling is that it could be done in two to Three days and with spending less than £150 in parts.

I would have to see more photos to go firm on my gut feeling but this whole situation has the look of a metal engineer making metal decisions and applying them to wood as the damage done to a metal spar by drilling into it would be of an entirely different magnitude.

Last Edited by A_and_C at 20 Feb 20:35

The wingspar on our DR1050 was broken and properly spliced long before we bought her. We knew she was a rebuild using parts from 2 crashed aircraft, done 20+ years before we bought. I’ve flown about 1,000 hours in her. Our inspector commented on the good standard of the work when the wing was stripped of fabric recently, for an unrelated woodwork replacement.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

A told ‘scrapped’ aircraft may well only the description of a commercial total loss in an insurance case. Repair cost estimate of a shop beyond reasonable do cause such. If the insurance gets the owner of the remains by regulating, there may well be an aircraft repairable being scrapped by the insurance. But, some just get in the hands of a skilled and authorized for repairs owner and later appears back again.

Yes, exactly. Lots of accident planes are “written off” (“totalled” in US English) by the insurer, who pays out the hull value and then sells the plane to somebody who repairs it. It happens with all sorts of other products too.

However if an installer damages a plane in this way, the insurer is not going to pay out. I very much doubt “ground risks” will cover it too; that cover is supposed to cover accidents, on the ground, outdoors or in a hangar. This is not an accident; it is poor workmanship, or whatever. It will be covered (or not) under the installer’s business insurance…

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

There is something here that we are not being told because the apparent damage does not add up to 75-80 % of the value of the airframe.

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