tailspring failure

[Garry Wright]

Last weekend on a trip through Whetstone/Del Bonita crossing customs
toward Canada, when my fiberglass tailspring delaminated. This damaged
the lower section of the rudder, and was not field repairable because I
have the single arm Scott 2000 predecessor (24B). In attempting to strap
it back together with hose clamps, the single arm tailwheel puts enough
torque on the tailspring that the spring fails to the side load.

The good news was that the customs guys were very friendly and helpful,
lending tools and raw materials to try to scab together a solution.
After three fruitless designs, I gave up, at which point the older
customs guy offered me the use of his car to get home to High River and
make up a fix there. 200km distance each way and two days later I was
back at the border with a tailspring made up per Wayne's Canadian Tire
trailer spring design and that works like a charm, with the single arm
tailwheel. Flight home was uneventful.

Lessons learned - if you have a fiberglass tailspring it will eventually
delaminate and probably cause rudder damage. If you have such a
tailspring do not use a Scott 2000 or any single arm tailwheel because
you won't be able to scab it back together in the field. Finally,
Canada's border service has come a long long way in the past 10 years.
Be nice to them, they were sure nice to me.

Garry




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