Some Rusty strut pictures

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Yes, C.G. thought of that, if you remember the early ships had the horizonal stab bolts running fore & aft , after he left they went to the vertical bolt, probably for ease of maintenance........

[Buell Powell]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Forrest,
What I am thinking is that when you apply pressure so something shaped like a strut and the ends are rigged it will cause it to bow in the center. If it can piviot on the end then there is less pressure to cause it to bend. In comparing the fuselage strut fitting of a J-3 Cub to a Taylorcraft it looks like the Taylorcraft allows more freedom for it to rotate and less pressure. Just something I was wondering about does this seem reasonable?

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

This was done here many years ago at the Feris factory I have had sections of struts on display at the many Fly-Ins here at Alliance. IMHO the area along the "neutral axis" (center of the strut) seems to carry the loads. All this is academic since CAR 18 and the follow ups under 43 all specify the extent of deterioration that can be allowed. Any good mechanic should be knowledable enough to question rust, corrosion, pits, poor welds, etc..... IF not then he should consult a person who knows. Yes , many are not a round anymore I ahve found everybody I ahve talked to at the NTSB and FAA are thirsty for knowledge.
How to share and how to collect , store and disseminate THAT is the problem. On another thread I went over the present method , IT IS STILL up to the OWNER to get the information. If you own an OLD aircraft treat it as such. bye

[Buell Powell]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

It would be interesting that if someone who has some badly corroded struts could do a stress test and then cut them open to see how much wall thickness is lost and over how much area.

[Buell Powell]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Len,
I think the only way to determine if a strut is under the limits of allowable stress and about to fail is by a stress or pull test. What has been proven is that if neglected the inside of a stut will corrode and that some struts have corroded well past the point that should have been detected by even a visulal inspection if they were on a flying airplane. I think it would be very useful information to do tests to find out how bad a strut has to be before it is dangerous. We know that Mr. Taylor improved the struts when he developed the Taylorcraft strut. In looking at Taylorcraft strut fitting I also noticed that the strut fittiing looks like it is also a better design. I believe he also notced the stress on the Cub struts(a lot of old J-3 struts are bowed) and improved it so there is less stress on the lower end. I am not an engineer but this is how it looks to me.

[Len Petterson]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Looking at the inside corrosion of the struts and bracket carytrough welded into the strut and the corrosion in the area surunding the weld.
How much of the material are ACTUALY missing, corroded away?
If the part was sandblased clean we could see how deep the piting is.
Would this strut be close to failing?
How much material can we afford to loose = what is minimum "average" thinkness allowable?
Or does it look worst when it is?
It will always be corrosion in steel, unless you can/are maintaning the corrosing protection one way or another.
Is a pitting trough in "one" place reason to scrap a strut? For example: a pinhole occures
If proven to be in one place only.
I have repair in the upper part of one strut, we checked them last year and they sounds very solid.

Len

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

thank you for the reminder that we have new guys, I have struts cut apart here in Alliance. Will photo & post. Somehow the rusty attach brackett got posted on another thread.

[jdoran]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Dave,

Thanks on behalf of some of us that aren't very experienced in finding or seeing stuff like that.

I am a low time owner of a Tcraft, and when someone says corrosion exists inside struts-near the bottom, I have a hard time visualizing that.

The pictures removed the mystery, and furthermore-they prove not to let you guard down even if you have sealed struts.

Now, if we can see some photos of the failed attaching bracket/weldment that cause the Wiley accident, we will know the full scope of what to look for.

Remember, some of us are new at this and need extra help understanding.

[flyguy]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

That sure looks like more corrosion than I would think likely from entrapped air and moisture. Sealed is not always really sealed?

At least one of the struts looks, as pictured, like it still has pretty substantial metal left.
DC

[VictorBravo]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Am I missing something, or does the photo of the "sealed" strut show noticeable corrosion just like all the others?

What are we talkin' about here....

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Dave, can you re-size? Anything more than 72dpi is a waste of screen resolution. Just resize them to say 1000 pixels wide, at 72 dpi, and they should load.

If you want specific areas of detail showing, crop to that area and do them at higher resolution.

Anything greater than 72 dpi will not show better on the screen, but might show up better upon printing.

email me if this doesn't resolve the issue.

Rob

That worked! thanks! and thanks Dan Brown for the offer to help!

[Robert Lees]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Dave, can you re-size? Anything more than 72dpi is a waste of screen resolution. Just resize them to say 1000 pixels wide, at 72 dpi, and they should load.

If you want specific areas of detail showing, crop to that area and do them at higher resolution.

Anything greater than 72 dpi will not show better on the screen, but might show up better upon printing.

email me if this doesn't resolve the issue.

Rob

[N96337]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

Thanks for posting those, Dave. If that's what was presented to the FAA in justification of the AD, it makes much more sense now. Pretty ugly, but I'd lay my money on the idea that they weren't on an airplane that was flying.... but who knows... I've seen some pretty nasty stuff pass through some IA's that are either too lazy or don't know enough to look for it. It would be very interesting to hear from the owner of the airplane they came off of!
JH

[VictorBravo]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

. Someone mentioned in another thread that it appears on this forum there to be a tendency for one-ups-manship and who knows the most.

If any of that was aimed or applies to me, because I like to write a lot here, I offer a sincere apology to anyone who feels that way. Writing is therapeutic for me If I'm taking center stage too much for anyone's taste I'll be glad to take my foot off the gas.

My emotions are as high as everyone else here regarding the AD and the tomfoolery by the factory. Four of us are getting X-rayed tomorrow...

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Some Rusty strut pictures

I have to weigh in here. Yes, what we say in an email that we think is a reasoned response can come on like a flame thrower to another. I, for one, thank God we have all the expertise on this forum that we do have. My experience on some other chat groups has not been as rewarding as this one has been so far. It pleases me to see people take a stand, be forced to defend that stand and yet, except for a rare few instances, remain on point and not just degrade to rabble rousing. I am even going to make a comment at the FAA site on the AD even though I am a very new novice. I have learned a great amount here in the last few months and hope to learn more. If you read and remember what you read you will notice that we have on this forum representation from, FAA, EAA, Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers, even the factory. I will accept that as good, sift the response's through that knowledge and be better off for it. Just my humble opinion, let us keep this going. Larry
:joy: