Originally Posted by
POBJOY
Not much to 'age' on a Viking, and especially if proper pre flights are carried out to include heavy landing checks. The machines have proved fine for the job intended and quite suitable for Ist solo excursions. In VGS use they have quite a cosseted existence as most of the time they are in a proper hangar and in the main flown by a limited no of people. I do hope the units that are to be 'spared' get back online with suitable staff ASAP, and that the crass 'anti civ volunteer' direction from 2FTS gets dispelled, and the H&S brigade do not throw the baby out with the bathwater with regard to operating the ground equipment.
In fact a change at the top at Syerston would be a welcome improvement for morale and leadership capability.
Accident or hangar damage aside, gelcoat cracks are one of the main issues to be addressed on gliders of this age. Gelcoat was designed for furniture, not aircraft, and, being more brittle than the epoxy/glass, it will eventually crack. After 18000 or so winch launches that the Vikings are likely to have done, landings on bumpy grass airfields and the subsequent flexing on bumpy retrieve to the launch point, cracks do appear. Most are only in the gelcoat, but once they get significant, they need to be investigated just in case they extend into the epoxy resin and glass.
At present, the only way to check this is to remove the gelcoat and look. This removal and refinishing is very time consuming.
Pages 64 to 67 of the attached document give Alexander Schleicher's description of crack inspection.
http://www.aeroclubrieti.it/w/wp-con...006-I-IVWO.pdf
Some more good info here:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ng/_aMFi3fva9o