Did the impossible in my glider last night!!!

Wish there was room for what you were all thinking...

I pulled the water bags out of my ASW-20B to inspect them for the
first time and I was just curious what they even looked like. To my
horror I saw that the string on my second wing was broken. The end of
the world! I decided to pull the bag out anyway. For those of you
that haven't seen what one looks like (it was partially wet from
testing for leaks) here is a pic:
http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...g/wing_bag.jpg

Now to get the wing restrung...I have read here that people said it
was possible to restring it. I took a flashlight to the wing and must
say the task looked daunting! 14 feet in from the root the chamber
that the bag sits in ends and there is a half inch hole right in the
middle of the chamber wall that the string goes through. Attacking
the problem from the other side was a 9 ft void accessed through the
small hole in the end of the wing and at the end of that void was that
same half inch hole that you had to get the string through.

I made the following pole out of two extending handles and three
straightened out coat hangers all taped together. Note: make sure
that the coat hangers are longer than the outboard section since the
bigger handles won't fit through the small hole in the middle of the
wing.

http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...wing_wire2.jpg

Going through the root access hole I was shocked when after just a few
minutes of poking around the end of the coat hanger with the string
taped to it went into the half inch hole! I was completely expecting
that the whole exercise what just a waste of time. It was then just
as easy as pushing the sticks and coat hanger further in until the
coat hanger made it to the end of the wing. Success!!!

http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...wing_wire1.jpg

Don't think it is impossible to restring your wings.
Bruno - B4

On Oct 23, 3:00*pm, Bruno wrote:
Wish there was room for what you were all thinking...

I pulled the water bags out of my ASW-20B to inspect them for the
first time and I was just curious what they even looked like. *To my
horror I saw that the string on my second wing was broken. *The end of
the world! *I decided to pull the bag out anyway. *For those of you
that haven't seen what one looks like (it was partially wet from
testing for leaks) here is a pic:http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...g/wing_bag.jpg

Now to get the wing restrung...I have read here that people said it
was possible to restring it. *I took a flashlight to the wing and must
say the task looked daunting! *14 feet in from the root the chamber
that the bag sits in ends and there is a half inch hole right in the
middle of the chamber wall *that the string goes through. *Attacking
the problem from the other side was a 9 ft void accessed through the
small hole in the end of the wing and at the end of that void was that
same half inch hole that you had to get the string through.

I made the following pole out of two extending handles and three
straightened out coat hangers all taped together. *Note: make sure
that the coat hangers are longer than the outboard section since the
bigger handles won't fit through the small hole in the middle of the
wing.

http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...wing_wire2.jpg

Going through the root access hole I was shocked when after just a few
minutes of poking around the end of the coat hanger with the string
taped to it went into the half inch hole! *I was completely expecting
that the whole exercise what just a waste of time. *It was then just
as easy as pushing the sticks and coat hanger further in until the
coat hanger made it to the end of the wing. *Success!!!

http://www.taylormadeawning.com/imag...wing_wire1.jpg

Don't think it is impossible to restring your wings.
Bruno - B4

Nice, I was going to suggest hiring a ferret, when I built my Russia
my ferret Feisty ran a chase line down the fuselage for me so I could
pull the TE and Pitot tubes!

Brad

I like your 25ft custom made "probe". There are commercially
available thin fiberglass poles that electricians use for fishing
wires and such. Might be too expensive for a one time use.
http://cableorganizer.com/fiberglass...oping-pole.htm

Lucky for you that you have holes in both ends (root and tip) of the
wing. I assume that the tip holes are for winglets.

I am not so lucky. What isn't clear to me is how the strings for my
bags are routed. Do they loop around some fitting inside the wing and
back to the wing root hole?

- John

Lucky for you that you have holes in both ends (root and tip) of the
wing. *I assume that the tip holes are for winglets.



Drill, baby, drill.

On Oct 24, 9:04*am, Liam wrote:
Lucky for you that you have holes in both ends (root and tip) of the
wing. *I assume that the tip holes are for winglets.

Drill, baby, drill.

Unfortunately, that didn't work for John and Sarah.

As an aside, those holes you see in aircraft are sometimes mistakenly
referred to as "lightening holes" . . . but *real* aeronautical
engineers know that they are actually "heavying holes". The material
removed in the quest for less weight necessitates the structure be
more heavily reinforced elsewhere to account for all the weakness
those holes cause (g).

bumper
zz
MKIV yaw string and Quiet Vent