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Wing tip Holes elongated


Madoldlad
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Hi,

     looking for some help.  On one side of my rev xx the holes that the bungee passes through on the lower wing tip have elongated by about 8mm.  Now I wan to repair this to stop it getting any worse.

The  sail material has given as well as the reinforcing / fairly rigid sheet plastic on the back side of the sail.

My thought is to try and find some of the same material that reinforces the wing tip and glue (CA) this over the damaged area, then make a hole in the correct place and pass the bungee through the repair.  Any thoughts / advice?

 

I think this may have happened on a very clumsy high speed leading edge impact landing that snapped the vertical spar on that side. The tension isn"t excessive in the bungee.

 

Any thoughts let me have them, cheers .

Edited by Madoldlad
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  • 2 weeks later...

Image?

You might be right about it having come from an impact. It also commonly means you've been flying in strong winds. It's tough to know or guess at the cause without an image.

They're just a hole melted into a bit of reinforced fabric. The bungee should also have a washer on top, and much like a button caught on a button hole, even if the hole rips/stretches a bit and turns into a long hole, the washer should prevent it from sliding through. You can cover it up like you described to reinforce it and melt a new hole, and that doesn't need to be the same material. Any light and strong fabric that you can secure to it can work, with Mylar, Dacron, and Kevlar all being commonly used strong fabrics. Glue and stitching both work. 

Reinforcements can help but probably aren't strictly necessary if the fabric is otherwise intact. 

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Hi,

  thanks for your reply.  I haven't been flying in excessive winds for the kite but she has had a few bumps.

I have fixed this now with the help of another forum member oapbillf. 

They very kindly sent me some dacron and I have made 4 patches and reinforced both sides of both wing tips. 

I have added a picture of the original damage.

All the washers etc are in place

IMG_7942.heic

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/21/2022 at 6:00 PM, John Barresi said:

Yup, that's impact damage.

most secure fix is probably to remove the bungee, etc, then sew a heavyweight Dacron patch over on both sides, then re melt appropriately sized holes in the same places.

That’s exactly what I ended up doing, got some Dacron of another forum member, all good for now.👍

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