O
11

Found a crack in a Cessna 172 wing spar after a hard landing last Thursday

It was a tiny hairline on the lower spar cap, caught it during a routine annual inspection. Used a borescope to check the full length and ended up ordering a replacement spar from a salvage yard in Texas, anyone else run into hidden damage like this on older airframes?
1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
1 Comment
victorb17
victorb1729d ago
My buddy Dave found something almost identical in his Cherokee 140 last year. He had the wing off for a repair on a fuel leak and spotted a hairline crack running along the lower spar cap near the root. It was super thin, like the width of a piece of thread, and he almost missed it. He borescoped the entire thing and found another one on the opposite side too. Ended up having to buy a whole used wing from a salvage outfit up in Idaho. He said it took him three months to get it all sorted and flown again.
3