intergrandular corrosion of wing spar

Jay Honeck wrote:
: A good friend of mine went through this exact problem with his 140. It is
: not a good deal.
: As others have pointed out, it is a non-repairable problem -- the wing spars
: cannot be replaced economically. The only fix is to replace the wings, and
: that is not cheap.
: My friend's experience was a long series of nightmarish problems with
: unforeseen consequences (One example: The first set of replacement wings he
: found were crushed in shipping, and the shippers refused to pay to replace
: them.), and the plane was "down" for well over a year.
: You've really only got two choices: Part the plane out, or fix it. If you
: want to fix it, call Wentworth, bite the bullet, and pay their ridiculous
: price for serviceable wings. Have them ship the wings directly to your A&P,
: and get it done as quickly as possible. Having watched this ordeal from
: afar, it seems that attempts to find alternate sources for wings will end up
: taking far longer, and cost far more, than you expect, and the aggravation
: factor is not to be underestimated.
: Good luck.

I will second what Jay said. I also have a friend who went through this. He
bought replacement wings from Wentworth. The second set were servicable.
The A&P keeps the old wings for show & tell: you could flake pieces off the
wingspar. It "only" took about 3 months for this guy's plane to get fixed.

Wentworth and the other salvage companies probably have a goodly supply of
easily repairable wings now! You can check google for aircraft salvage yards,
there are a few around. I think there's one in the Carolinas.
--
Aaron C.