experimentals
I bought a wreck of an amphibian homebuilt because it had a nice Lycoming, for spares, but maybe I can get it flying. I do not know much though about composites, can anyone help me with the following questions?
The airplane landed last time it flew with a fault in the nosegear, which retracted and the wheel broke off. There was damage to the hull due to rubbing on the gravel strip during the rollout, and the wheel itself came up through the hull, breaking the plies right through (it is a double hull composite fuselage with foam between the plies).
The keel seems to me to have been reinforced with a wood rubbing strip, which is now mainly gone, leaving a ragged section right in the middle. The damage here is restricted to the outer plies, I can see the inner hull and frames and there is no damage showing on the inside and I doubt water would leak through as it is right now (some people have landed this airplane with gear up on bitumen and grass with no damage, although this was a gravel strip and it has abraded the bottom chine). I would have a great deal of difficulty replacing the wood, which was set in place before gluing up, and I was wondering if I could, since it is right on the bottom of the hull and I would be working on my back underneath the airplane, fill the keel with Bondo or similar. I could make it fairly stiff to stop it falling out as it cured, and I thought it would be as tough as the wood when it was finished, especially when I put a couple of layers of glass over it. I could also shape the Bondo before glassing to restore the original sharp edge.
The other damage where the wheel punched a hole looks straight forward, I plan to cut the damaged area out and put a patch on the inner and outer hulls, faired in as well as I can on the outer particularly, to retain the smoothness for running on water. But it must be strong enough to take a landing. Maybe I can fair it with filler to make it efficient on the water, and since it is on the bottom I doubt it will affect flying characteristics. Does anyone know if I can patch a composite with fibreglass? It was built this way, so I assume so, but there is always something out there to catch the unwary.
I will have a Mechanic look at it before I fly it, but want to do the work myself, as experience as well as cost saving.
Aluminium and wood don't frighten me, but plastic is a new field. Any advice would be appreciated, as always!