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QuickTalk 12 - REPAIRING A TAILSPRING

/Bob had the misfortune of breaking a tailspring on his Q2 with only 7 hours into the flight-testing. Below is his report for installation of the new part. -Ed./


1. Rough the tailspring rod with 60 grit sandpaper.

2. Cut 2" BID tapes and lay up three plies on wax paper. Squeegee and blot with paper towels. Get it dry.

3. Lightly coat the rod with epoxy and spiral wrap all three layers simultaneously. A little edge overlap on the tape won't hurt. It will look messy with frayed glass edges much in evidence. The next step will fix that.

4. Spiral wrap peel-ply over the glass lapping the peel-ply about half width. Wrap in the same direction as the glass tape.

5. With tissue or paper towel pads in your hands, twist and milk the peel-ply to tighten and absorb all excess epoxy. Tape the peel-ply at the ends to retain while curing at room temperature.

6. After cure, post cure in a 150 degree oven for an hour.

7. Install per plans.

8. After installation flox has cured, make a flox transition and lay up another spiral BID wrap starting well back on the fuselage and ending about 3" aft of the fuselage tip. Lay up a second BID wrap with the same starting point but ending 2"-3" aft of the first wrap. A third BID wrap ending at the forward edge of the tailwheel weld assembly (QTW3 for the Q2) completes the layup except for the peel-ply wrap and milking as described in #5 above.

9. If it was necessary to substantially sand the rod end to insert in the socket of the QTW3, a short sleeve consisting of four layers of BID lapping about an inch on the tail spring and about half an inch aft of the rod mounting hole (of QTW3) will provide a beef-up. Use a parting agent (i.e. warm paraffin) on the steel to permit subsequent removal and install the bolt through the BID sleeve, tailspring and QTW3.



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