Or, “How I Spent a Snowy Thursday Evening”

Last night around rush hour, the snow started coming down, but thankfully it started late enough that my commute home wasn’t too unbearable.  The prudent thing to do on a Thursday evening would probably be to just stay at home where it’s warm, but there was aviating to do.  Well, sort of.

My friend has a 1946 Aeronca Champ that’s currently working its way through an annual inspection, and this year it’s going to take a little longer than normal to complete.  There is an Airworthiness Directive (“AD”) the FAA has issued that requires an inspection of the wing spar on the Champ.  The spars are the backbone of the wing (there’s two in each wing), and on the Champ, they’re made of wood.  An inspection must be made to ensure the wood is not cracked or damaged.  It’s probably a good thing to make sure a spar is not broken and and even better thing to find out on the ground than in the air.  The problem is that there are only two ways to inspect the spars: First, you could cut a series (read “boatload”) of inspection holes in the fabric on the top and bottom of the wing, or you can pull the wings off and strip the fabric completely off.

Wow, talk about being between a rock and a hard place, both choices really stink.  On one hand, you have the expedient choice that will get the plane flying again, but with a bunch of unsightly inspection covers (not to mention the fact that you can’t truly inspect the spars even with all those holes), and the other much more time consuming and expensive option, recovering the wings.  I’m glad it wasn’t my decision to make.

With the course laid out, we got to work.  I’m going to tell this part with pictures.

As with any project, you don’t know what you’ll find until you pull the covers back and get in there.  Along with the old wasp nests and the random dangling wire, there was evidence of some repairs and at least one hail storm sometime in the past 64 years.  The good news is that the spars (on this wing, anyway) look like they’ll pass inspection.

Now the real work will begin.