Palmam Qui Meruit Ferat

You’ve probably seen the sign in a repair shop that reads something
like: “Fast Job, Cheap Job, or a Good Job; - choose any two”. I am
happy to share with you that there is one shop where all three are
available, Mike Robinson’s at Tom Knauff's Ridge Soaring in PA.

The Freedom’s Wings Canada Grob 103 Twin II suffered a puncture in the
wing skin when it was taxied into a flight line and the wing went
under the tow hook of a SGS 1-34. The sages had deemed the Grob
unairworthy, as the tensional stresses imparted to the wing by the
aileron could cause the damage to propagate. The repair was
fascinating to watch. The wing structure is an inner layer of glass
cloth, a layer of high density foam core, and two layers of glass
cloth on the outer side, covered with gel coat. The wound itself was
about 3.5” long by ¼” wide, and punctured the top skin into the
foam.
Mike used his air tools with the dexterity of a surgeon, and quickly
cut a 3” by 4” rectangle with rounded corners into the wing, down to,
but not through, the inner layer of glass. He then fitted a
replacement rectangle of foam with resin to glue it to the inner layer
of glass, cured at ambient temperature followed by a heat pad. A club
member/volunteer assisted with the timely application of the heating
pad during the night. Next morning Mike applied two layers of cloth
atop the foam at a bias to each other, overlapping the rectangle into
the surrounding structure he had shaved out. The cure procedure
again, and then a fill with bondo and sand to contour. In fact, a
much larger area, 1.5’ by 2’, was sanded and sprayed with gelcoat and
again sanded to contour, followed by a second coat of gel coat and
sanding, fine sanding, and then our volunteer took over on buffing and
waxing. Mike was finished in just 24 hours, and billed for only his 7
hours of actual work. Damaged on Saturday, a call to Mike on Tuesday,
and it was back in service Friday morning.

BTW, for those of you not burdened with the benefits of a classical
education, the title line translates as “Honor to Whom Honor is Due”

Thanks Mike, you’re the best!