Thread: Carbon-fiber airframe repair

Often one can hear that somebody or some flight school has chosen all-metal plane vs. all-carbon-fiber one because it's easier to repair, as most airframe shops don't do carbon-fiber repair, and it'll be nmuch cheaper.

Could the owners of CTs share their experiences of living with carbon-fiber airframe?

Have you ever experienced the need for carbon-fiber repair? Delaminations? Damaged foam core? Stress damage? And if you did - how this was handled? Was it handled by specialty shop? DIY? FD dealer?

Thanks in advance!

Alex.

I had a dime-size chunk taken out of the side of my plane during an annual wing-removal. My local Cirrus repair shop got instructions from FD. Unfortunately, they had to buy over $400 worth of materials to make this small repair. With labor, it was over $1000 to fix, but they did an excellent job and I can't find the site of the repair.

There are more and more carbon fiber planes out there so you'll find more and more shops available. This is a "talent" however so make sure to check them out good. I think you'll find more then you thought there might be.

The other thing to keep in mind is - this stuff is not fiberglass. It takes special training and special stuff.

A good job and you'll never know anything happened.

Alex, Recently I have had a dime sized hole in the fuselage repaired as well as a 1 1/2" gouge my hanger mate put on the end of my right wing. Earlier, I tweaked my nose gear which included some firewall composite work. On all occasions my AP, Bob Basham (208 286-5845) did the work. He is located in Caldwell, Idaho and flies and owns a CT. He does all of the work on Rotax and lightsport craft in our area. He is very good with the carbon repairs and is also reasonably priced. I can't imagine metal repairs being any cheaper than the composite repairs he did for me, but then he has most of the materials in stock and works closely with FD.
Dave