Rib replacement...

[akflyer]

It would be very easy to just sister rib the broken area and install new cap strip.

If you are going for full rib removal, the hysol will normally come right off with heat and a scrap piece of wood.

Best documentation is pictures, pictures, pictures. You don't have to have a written description of every step, but a good over all written log. IE, you dont have to document every bolt that you turned, but you can just state that the "elevators were assembled per the written factory instruction" etc.

When I rebuilt mine, I noted that "wing rib tails were replaced per factory instructions" (along with many more entries such as that for various parts of the rebuild) and the FAA inspector did not have any issues with it at all. He spent about 20 minutes going over the book, 10 minutes on the plane and told me to have a nice day and enjoy flying it!

[cap01]

it sounds like the wings arent covered yet , if not , nows the time to decide what to do about the gas tanks . trust me , its a lot easier to deal with them now than after the wings are covered . also if the small tanks are installed it mignt not give you enough range to do what you want to do . i had the two 6 gal tanks which would only hold a little over 10 gal . that wouldnt give me enough to get out and back from most anywhere i wanted to go . im just completing installing a 13 gal tank now , i did the other one last winter . since weve had such crappy flying weather out here on the left coast , i dont feel bad about having the wing off .just some more things to think about .

[cap01]

jeff , the local eaa chapter would be a good place . the dar i used had inspected planes for people that i knew and that was how i located him . he is also the patron saint of the eaa chapter at pierce co airport or where ever its located . i dont know if you have a faa mido office in pdx . if not i probably still have the phone number of the seattle office and they might be able to tell you how to locate one down there . who knows , being across the river , pdx might not want to deal with you . or if worse comes to worse i can give you the number or email of the dar i used .

[flypdx]

akflyer- I have, and I guess I am still, considering doing a repair on those 2 ribs. I'm having trouble finding guidance on the correct way to do the repair. Faa 43? is some help but it doesn't give much detail. I'm still doing research on that, part of me thinks I should just go ahead with replacing those 2 damaged ribs and be done with it. The wings were built at the factory and haven't been touched since- so no fabric, fuel tanks... etc to deal with.

Thanks for the tips on documentation- I'll take lots of pictures.

chuck- I do have the 13 gallon tanks. The only issue is the fact that I believe they are pre-ethanol. I don't think I'll be interested in using auto gas though so I will most likely just use the ones I have.

Thanks for the offer to get me the info for the DAR that you used. I may take you up on that. I'll try to locate someone here locally first.

Jeff

[t j]

Jeff, could you post a picture of the damaged ribs? To replace 7 and 8, 9 and 10 will have to be removed along with the drag tubes. A picture might give someone an idea how to repair in place. I would lean toward the sister rib idea.

In my builder's log I wrote one or two lines at the end of each day describing the work I did that day and the total time I worked on it. My DAR actually looked at every page in my log. It has helped me afterwords too. When I needed to remember how I had done something I can look it up.

[flypdx]

Yep, I'll get pictures posted this weekend. I've been meaning to do it but I'm still in the clean up and inventory stage- and now I'm out of town all week.

Rib replacement would definitely be a project with pulling 4 ribs and the associated drag tubes. We'll see how viable the sister rib repair is after I get some input from the upcoming pictures.

Thanks again everyone, for the input. Very helpful.

Jeff

[cap01]

jeff , another thing youll need to think about is paying the tax man . you may be aware that in washington you have to pay a use tax on the airplane . it seems its a gray area with the tax people and all of them arent up to speed on it , meaning it depends on who you talk to determines how much you pay . be sure you have copies of your bill of sale . my kit already had an n number and registered with the faa . getting that changed is a whole different story . i was able to use a copy of the bill of sale the faa has to have for my value for the tax purpose . i guess my point is , get the taxes paid before the plane gets more valuable in the states eyes . i dont know if you can pay the tax before its registered with the faa .