The reparation work on the Super Chug wing is under way

Suomeksi

The wing of Super Chug (OH-XTM Super Sytky) remained almost intact in the landing accident in August 2024. However, a large area of the covering plywood at the root of the left wing's underside was damaged. The damage occurred when the landing gear folded beneath the fuselage, causing the left wheel of the gear to strike the underside of the wing and break the plywood covering. A small hole appeared on the upper surface of the right wing's trailing edge, and there were a few cracks in the plywood edges of the trailing edge. Otherwise, the wing surfaces are intact.

Photo: Timo Kopranen

So far, the Super Chug wing has been stored in our sea container outside our Puusepäntie workshop, waiting for the repair work to begin. The start has been delayed by the question of whether the wing would fit in the workshop among the fuselages of Super Chug, Snoopy and Myrsky MY-5, which are already there. The Super Chug wing is a single piece with a wingspan of 5,3 metres.

We measured the workshop space and concluded that the wing could indeed fit between the fuselages of Super Chug and Snoopy, placed on wing stands, if we move the fuselages of Snoopy and MY-5 about a metre sideways. However, when placed horizontally, the wing would not fit between the fuselages of Chug and Snoopy.

Photo: Timo Kopranen

Once the fuselages had been moved, we carried the Super Chug wing from the storage container into the workshop. There, the wing was placed on wing stands. Surprisingly, there was still plenty of working space around the wing. We set the wing on the stands in a slanted position so that the more severely damaged underside of the wing was well exposed, making it easier to repair.

The damage caused by the landing gear wheel striking the underside of the wing will be repaired by removing the plywood covering from the damaged area, rebuilding the inner wing structures destroyed in the accident, and finally re-covering the opening.

To remove the damaged plywood area, a rectangle was drawn around the damage so that the damaged section was well within the rectangle. The plywood was then cut away along the outline of the rectangle using a multitool blade.

Underneath the plywood an area of about 40 x 60 cm was exposed, damaged from the wing spar towards the trailing edge. Of the three ribs in the damaged area, two had broken. The covering plywood left on the surface of the intact rib during sawing was carefully tapped off with a chisel.

Now we were also able to examine the structure of the wing. It turned out that the Super Chug’s wing ribs are not of the “traditional” type with lightening holes and cap strips. Instead, the Chug’s wing rib consists of a rib edge plywood, reinforced with a cap strip, to which a lattice of thin strips had been glued. The plastic tubes for the pitot tube, which run inside the wing and are attached to the ribs, were now visible too. The pitot tube, which was removed from Super Chug’s wing after the accident, has a horn-like appearance and points directly downwards. It is similar, for example, to the non-heated pitot tube of the Piper PA-28 Cherokee.

The broken wing ribs in the damaged area were dismantled so that new ribs could be constructed to replace them. At the same time, patching the small hole at the trailing edge of the right wing was started. In this case as well, a rectangle was drawn around the hole, and an opening was cut in the plywood accordingly. Plywood strips were glued under the edges of the opening so that they extended about half a centimetre inside the opening. A plywood patch was shaped to fit snugly into the opening. It will be glued in place to cover the hole. The seams of the plywood patch will be filled and sanded smooth before painting the patched area. A couple of cracks in the plywood edges at the trailing edge were also glued. The work to repair the wing of Super Chug OH-XTM has got off to a good start.

Photos: Lassi karivalo, unless otherwise mentioned

Translation to English: Erja Reinikainen