Win Green - Tuesday 8th

Superphatic glue was used to soak into the damaged wing skins - can't use thin CA on a foam wing. This was left overnight and stiffened things up considerably. I then cut a slot 200mm long just behind the existing spar and dropped another ply brace into the slot. When this is dry it will just need a light sand and maybe a small amount of filler to complete the wing repair.

And the fin is back on. Thin CA used first to make sure it was still all square. Then a mixture of more thin CA, superphatic and aliphatic to glue the pieces back in. Some ply doublers are inside all the mess. The hole that is still visible could not be filled using the fragments of balsa left over, so tomorrow I'll cut the hole a little bigger with straight edges and fit a new piece.

MikeSeale wrote: Then a mixture of more thin CA, superphatic and aliphatic to glue the pieces back in

To explain...

Thin CA is great if you have a good fit and can hold pieces in place 'at a distance'. Not so good if you have to use your fingers because they will stick well before the wood.
Superphatic is nearly as thin as CA and wicks into the fibres very well if you have a close fitting joint. Great if you're gluing larger pieces that need sliding into position. You have a few minutes working time before it properly grips.
Aliphatic is used as a glue/filler on pieces that don't fit so well

The hole in the rear fuselage was filled with a block of 1/8" balsa and then the whole lot smeared with lightweight filler

And the fuselage is glued together. Again, where there are gaps due to missing balsa flakes, just cut a block of wood and glue it in. Fuselage has been coated in filler and awaiting sanding tomorrow.

What looked like a complete mess 2 days ago is now just about ready for a final light sanding and then re-covering.

kevinross wrote: Ouch ! - Guess your revising the definition of superficial ?

I think a couple of evenings work is fairly light damage. What made it easy to repair was having all the little pieces of broken balsa to glue back together again - if you crash ALWAYS pick up all the pieces and handle the damaged model carefully in order not to create more damage.

kevinross wrote: PS - glad i'm too old for lessons with the Mike Seale school of driving this week.

Full time working since the crash. All damage repaired in my own time