The recent thread about ripples appearing in the tail cone layup is very
concerning. I have waited a few days before jumping in on this topic so
I could see if it was an isolated case or more wide spread. I wish this
matter had come up a week earlier - I just returned from visiting the
Lakeland Florida facility and flying G-ELSA. While there I was able to
view two fuselage kits that were prepared for pick-up during Sun-and Fun.
The fuselages appeared different from the demonstration fuselage they had
there and all of the pictures I have seen. The colour was slightly more
toward a tan colour and there were blue tracer threads in the prepeg
used. I wonder if the change is simply a different supplier for the
prepeg of if more significant changes have been instituted.
---From my understanding of standard composite construction methods a
filler, such as the foam, must have its edges trimed at an angle or have
a transition material, such as flox, to provide a gradual transition from
the thickness of the foam to the standard thickness of the layup. As the
ripple problem has been described, it appears that no transition has been
provided at the edges of the foam sandwich material resulting in voids at
the edge of some of the foam sheets. A little more information would be
helpful here. Do the voids result from the foam sandwich material being
pieced togeter where the material was ment to butt against the other
piece or is the area ment to be a structural area?
There appears to be a fabrication problem here. Depending on how this is
handled, it has the potential of mushrooming into a "Pentium flaw" type of
image problem for Europa Aviation. I realize that this mail list is not
a factory authorized information medium but I hope that the factory takes
control of this situation and provides an official response via this mail
list.
Steve Eberhart
Still going to be joining the ranks of Europa builders but cautiously
watching the outcome of this problem.
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