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Tail brace wires

TVATIVAK71

TVATIVAK71

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Saw a video of a PA-18 landing at a mountain strip (sheep hunting) with good sized rocks that were kinda shale like. The whole landing looked good to me, then he zoomed in and said watch it again and did a forensic play by play. Upon touchdown one of the 35” tires threw a sizable rock up that hit, bent the brace wire and broke the attach bolt then went through the lower stab fabric/VG’s and IIRC made a hole in the top fabric.
That being said how many of you keep an spare lower wire assembly during remote forays. Never thought about it seriously till I seen the video. Just curious!

Maybe I should take xtra leg gear, wing struts, prop, tires, fabric and engine parts....LOL just kidding.
 
TVATIVAK71 said:
Saw a video of a PA-18 landing at a mountain strip (sheep hunting) with good sized rocks that were kinda shale like. The whole landing looked good to me, then he zoomed in and said watch it again and did a forensic play by play. Upon touchdown one of the 35” tires threw a sizable rock up that hit, bent the brace wire and broke the attach bolt then went through the lower stab fabric/VG’s and IIRC made a hole in the top fabric.
That being said how many of you keep an spare lower wire assembly during remote forays. Never thought about it seriously till I seen the video. Just curious!

Maybe I should take xtra leg gear, wing struts, prop, tires, fabric and engine parts....LOL just kidding.
Click to expand...

Lol, well the prop can usually be straighten out either in lower gear legs
And then pounded out between two rocks with a third one as the "mallet"
Wing struts can usually be straighten out enough to splice a section of small spruce to them using parachute cord to reinforce them. Busted windshields can be laced with safety wire stiched thru holes melted thru with a red hot nail, held with plyers.
But a gear leg was a thing that was a problem. Thats why alot of us never left home without one of Atlees "reverse able" gear legs, taped to our left wing strut![emoji6]


Sent from my LM-X210 using SuperCub.Org mobile app
 
That's what sat phones and friends are for. The spares question is more complicated when your parts aren't standard.

I was planning to add a second set of tail wires to mine. Big tail, lots of thrust shaking it, and bigger gross weight than normal. I'm not sure it's necessary but it can't hurt. As we've made everything bigger and more powerful the one component that's been overlooked is the tail. Crosswinds' lower tail strut mod has some believers. I can't do it on my plane.
 
I carry one of the blue things of safety wire in my tool bag. Figure I can find a way to repair/support/patch stuff enough to get home or to a decent runway. If we have vehicle support on haul road hunts we bring spare prop, cylinder wrenches, and tailwheel.
DENNY
 
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