Retire an Airframe?

[WingingIt74]

When is a good time and safe time to retire an airframe:

Foam?
Balsa?

[ATIS]

Foam, is when the foam flexes enough around the hinges and control surface horns that you no longer feel safe flying her. My EFlite P-47 is that way..or if your a crasher, its when you have soo much epoxy on her that you now need to upgrade the power system to fly her.

[WingingIt74]

..or if your a crasher, its when you have soo much epoxy on her that you now need to upgrade the power system to fly her.

What are you trying to say Bryan :laughing:

[ATIS]

its cheaper to buy a new airframe then a new power system...of course if your feeling "guilty" in any way then thats the way I meant it. LOL

[rcdude07]

Balsa:


Wings warped beyond repair
Wood becomes fuel soaked or water soaked
Too costly to repair
Out of storage or transportation room
When you're bored with the plane
When it's an antique

One thing I really like about balsa planes is the ability to uncover and change the color scheme to make it appear as new airplane.

[WJCJR1]

When is a good time and safe time to retire an airframe:

Foam?
Balsa?

I've had to retire two fuselages due to fatigue, One the Super Cub and other the Apprentice. When it seems I am having trouble keeping the plane trimmed dead-on from flight to flight it is a sure sign that the frame is failing.

My son's learning curve, which was rather steep as he learned quickly with the aid of the simulator, finished off a fatiguing airframe. Them the Apprentice had a solid 250-300 flights on it when I hopped it up and the rear of the fuselage became spongey. Rather than reenforce I repalced that Fuselage from one that Tkrahlin had sitting around.

If she starts acting funny, always needs retrimming then time to go in my opinion. I would not throw out an airframe though if it just looked old. Some of the airframes I have seen, such as a stock several year old original HZ Super Cub at my airfield looks raggedy as all heck but flies like a dream. If nothing wrong with it structurally keep flying her but first sign of weird stuff turn the radar up.

Wayne

[tkrahlin]

When is a good time and safe time to retire an airframe:
Foam?
Balsa?

For me – usually when the pieces blow away faster than I can gather them up.
.

[tkallev]

For me – usually when the pieces blow away faster than I can gather them up.
.

+1 :clapping::clapping::clapping: