I almost bought a 1/4 share in a very early tiger about 10 years ago. IIRC, it was the second one
built. It was in the serial number range, but hadn't had any delamination problems. Only reason I
didn't was due to a job change that resulted in a move out of town.
Snowbird wrote:
"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message ...
Pretty frequent on Cheetahs of certain periods. Dunno 'bout Tigers.
That's very vague, George and somewhat misleading IMO.
There is one serial number range which had delamination problems
due to a particular lot of glue used at the factory. It's actually
primarily Tigers, because the Cheetah was put into production after
the Tiger and at the end of that period. It's a known problem,
and it would be very rare to run into a Grumman where it wasn't
taken care of long ago (though there might be one which has been
sitting in someone's hangar for 25 years, who knows).
I know three. Two have had to have the wings re-glued.
This is rather amazing to me, and leads me to wonder about
the mechanic or your memory. The bonding process for the Grummans
was not a field procedure. It required curing in an oven.
I have no idea how one would 1) get the skins off to re-skin
2) produce a bond of acceptable strength in the field
The specified repair AFAIK is to rivet with flat-head rivets,
just like an RV.
I never heard of a Cessna or Maule that required
reskinning of the wings due to rivet failure in normal usage.
Well, I've never heard of a Grumman which required reskinning
the wings due to bond delamination in normal useage, nor one
from the specific serial number range affected by the faulty
glue which required same. It's all riveted repairs AFAIK.
You've heard what you've heard, but it seems very strange to
me, and I know a lot of Grumman maintainers and owners. I'll
have to ask Dave Fletcher and Ken Blackman about it next time
I see them.
BTW the delamination was not an AD.
Cheers,
Sydney
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