Broken wing - what should I do to fix it?

[ntaylor360]

Hello,

I was just out flying my E-flite T-34 Mentor and took a little bit of a rough landing in the grass. To my surprise I actually broke the wooden piece of the wing that fits into the main body of the plane. Picture attached. Does anyone know if it's possible to easily fix this or do I need to go buy a new $120 wing set from E-flite?

Thanks for helping out a beginner!

-Nick

[Nitro Blast]

Bro, you are totally over-thinking that.

Get some thin ca. Hold the broken part straight with your finger, flood it little, and let the thin CA soak in. Then hit it with some instant cure accelerator, and be done with it.

[tom1968]

I'm not an expert on the E-Flite T-34 but this looks very fixable.

A look at the assembly manual shows the broken piece is not structural. It doesn't serve to keep the wing on the plane. It's just a locating tab. It doesn't need to be very strong, just straight enough to position the wing. Push/pry the broken area in till it's straight then wick in some thin CA glue.

Actually a piece like this is best if it's not too strong. By cracking on a hard landing, it lets the wing shift a bit. That prevents high forces from breaking other parts that are more critical and harder to repair.

If you don't have thin CA, it's only about $6. Much better than a new wing set.

[road king 97]

I would bend it more and then put epozy in the gap then camp it . I think it slides into the fuse to sucure the front of the wing if iam right . Show us what it slides into first. joe

[rcers]

Nitro has ya solved. A 20 second fix with thin CA.

[firemanbill]

another vote for CA and be done with it.

[ntaylor360]

Thanks for all the fast responses, you guys are great! Attached are a few more photos just to make sure that the CA glue trick will be sufficient.

Thanks again.

-Nick

[JetPlaneFlyer]

ok.. it is structural as it holds the wing in place. Epoxy may be the best option but CA would do the job too. Personally I'd use medium CA as the thin stuff soaks into the wood and wicks away from the joint.

Either way it's an easy fix, the sort of thing that could be done in the flying field if you had some glue in your flight box.

[road king 97]

Even tho most of the mods say ca i still think this a job for epoxy . Epoxy does not get brittle like ca does and its much stronger when cured . My 2 cents. joe

[rcers]

Yes epoxy will be stronger. Maybe even enough on the next less than perfect landing to damage the fuselage structure and take that out with it.

So "strong enough" might have some wisdom. Just sayin'.

We used to hold wing fronts down with hardwood dowels. When you crashed they destroyed the structure they were mated with. Now the ply has some "give" so that it won't take out the structure. Great design to have an easily repaired piece of ply break rather than harder to fix structural elements.

Mike

[stuart]

i agree with the epoxy,also wouldn't worry using the ca apprach .it's an easy repair and i'm glad you asked the question before ordering a new wing set.

now you'v saved enough cash to buy another plane..lol,thats what i would do.

remember the correct steps of the repair....glue first....new plane on order. of coarse this is my way of fixing things.

[1320fastback]

Mmm. So the wings aren't epoxied together?

[Nitro Blast]

Originally Posted by 1320fastback

Mmm. So the wings aren't epoxied together?

Nope, they are held together with those two little nylon straps.

I'm tellin ya, with the other wing being fine, CA will be all you need.

More over-thinking.

[road king 97]

To tell you the truth i have a fun fly plane called magic and it had the same set up as far as putting it together and i epoxyed the whole wing together in the middle ,i did not like half and half to make a hole thing going on . I would wrather takeout a bulkhead on a rough landing than have the wing come appart pulling high g,s in a loop or in a high g bank. joe

[Nitro Blast]

Since we are telling truth's....

Nitro Jr's new Electro Stick builds the same way, and we also epoxied the wing as we can easily carry a built wing.

But... thats not what he asked.

Originally Posted by ntaylor360

Hello,

Does anyone know if it's possible to easily fix this or do I need to go buy a new $120 wing set from E-flite?

Ya cant get any easier than a CA field repair, and in this situation, it will hold just as long as he needs to, until the next cartwheel.

[rcers]

Wing center joints have been FAR over engineered for many years.

Again good engineers built a failure point. Seeing the damage to the wing ply here and seeing that there is NO damage to the bulkheads is a sign of brilliant engineering. Failed right at an easy point to fix. I guarantee you can "fix" that so it will never fail again. Then it will shred the fuse.

20 second fix or shred the fuse. I pick the first.



Mike

[road king 97]

They now use ply because its easy. not to break off in a rough landing . Its the reason they dont use nylon bolts any more either . Its cheaper for them not for any structure or any kind of testing of what breaks first . Come on guys , I have dowls on all my planes and i epoxy them in . If thos break on his wing he will have to order another wing or fix it WITH EPOXY again.

[rcers]

Originally Posted by road king 97

They now use ply because its easy. not to break off in a rough landing . Its the reason they dont use nylon bolts any more either . Its cheaper for them not for any structure or any kind of testing of what breaks first .

It is easier and better. Simple as that. But lets be honest - sticking a dowel in a model is easy too.

I guarantee they do testing and engineering on these models. I have seen the videos of them testing structural failure points for planes. Horizon posted one of them testing a plane guys were saying "broke too easy". They showed the rather amazing video of them doing beginner stuff with that plane. It was pretty amazing.

My T-34 did have nylon bolts by the way.

Not sure the relevance as in my 33 years of flying I NEVER broke a Nylon bolt that allowed the wing to separate. Guys I knew would drill them out to attempt to get them to break.

But I sure did shred fuselages when I crashed, with Nylon bolts.

At any rate you may be underestimating what goes into design, production and manufacturing of RC models.

Mike

[Rockin Robbins]

I usually use epoxy but use CA as a clamp to keep the pieces in alignment as the epoxy cures. That way you can use 30 minute epoxy, which usually has greater strength than the 5 minute stuff. I'm bing nit picky there though as both are plenty strong.

[road king 97]

Well i got 35 years in this hobby and scratch building all that time . I can say this, you might know more about e motors or batteries but when it comes to building a plane ,i have been there done that. The guy can make up his own choice ,just because your a mod does not mean you know it all and i have to agree with your wrong advice. Oh i bet the chinese and japan and tywon spending years of testing these things before they ship them here .lmao joe

[stevecooper]

Two ways of do'in thing's here,, after rereading the post here I see two of my favorite poster's with 4 cent's apiece in the mix,, I've done um both way's for many year's and both have their +'s and -'s, , just my two cent's worth,,your both right! bubsteve

[JetPlaneFlyer]

Fact is on a break like this either CA or epoxy would likely produce a glue joint that was stronger than the surrounding wood.. So glue strength is likely a mute point.

Use whatever glue you have available

[road king 97]

Originally Posted by JetPlaneFlyer

Fact is on a break like this either CA or epoxy would likely produce a glue joint that was stronger than the surrounding wood.. So glue strength is likely a mute point.

Use whatever glue you have available

I agree use what you can do the best with or what you have handy . joe

[kyleservicetech]

Originally Posted by ntaylor360

Hello,

I was just out flying my E-flite T-34 Mentor and took a little bit of a rough landing in the grass. To my surprise I actually broke the wooden piece of the wing that fits into the main body of the plane. Picture attached. Does anyone know if it's possible to easily fix this or do I need to go buy a new $120 wing set from E-flite?

Thanks for helping out a beginner!

-Nick

Another option is that yellow carpenters glue such as Titebond. Easy to use, and as many others in this thread have pointed out, it will be stronger than the base material that is being repaired. It does take 24 hours for full strength though.

Titebond or yellow carpenters glue is available at any hardware store, and after tests many (many) years ago, I actually found that after the Titebond dries, it is slightly less weight than CA.

BTW, it's generally not a good idea to mix different adhesives in a repair job, such as using Titebond in a failed CA glue joint, unless you are working with bare wood, not wood soaked with CA.

[Figure.N9ne]

Originally Posted by road king 97

Well i got 35 years in this hobby and scratch building all that time . I can say this, you might know more about e motors or batteries but when it comes to building a plane ,i have been there done that. The guy can make up his own choice ,just because your a mod does not mean you know it all and i have to agree with your wrong advice. Oh i bet the chinese and japan and tywon spending years of testing these things before they ship them here .lmao joe

While you do build beautiful models, 35 years of experience doesn't mean that you know it all or are better than anyone. Also, none of the mods here have claimed that being a mod means their advice is right, you pointed that out all on your own. The only one here who thinks people HAVE to agree with them, is you. Lose the chip on your shoulder, it doesn't work well on internet forums.

That being said, I agree with the CA idea. I rather break that tab on the next bad landing and reglue it rather than epoxy it together and tear the entire plane apart after 5 bad landings. Assuming he's still learning, since this is in the beginner section, he probably wont be doing high G maneuvers (apart from hard landings) for a while so the extra strength wont be needed and when the time comes, it'll be easy enough to epoxy it all together if he's so inclined.