WarpedWing
Well-Known Member
Hi,
New to the forum here. Just purchased a RMW Ridge Runner 3 kit. The kit was origonaly purchased by a gentleman who lost his medical back in april He sold it to a another gentleman who changed his mind about what he wanted to build. The kit came with the quickbuild wing option from RMW.
The problem is the wings were not epoxy'd very well in my opinion. I have helped several other friends build thier Kitfox's and the epoxy jobs were "much" better than what I have seen with this wing. The problem I have is the epoxy bond of the front rib to spar joint has seperated on ten of the ribs. I am sure the seperation was due to the shipping of the kit to me. Regardless, it seems I am being ignored by Stace and RMW. I am not asking for factory support. I just want advice from him as the designer regarding the fix. We have been e-mailing and calling with the end result so far, being a total "ignore". I can asume it is because we did not buy the kit direct from him. I get the impression from everyone I have spoken to and from what I have read here on this forum and others, that this is a standard way of business with RMW. I hope this is not the case. I just want a nod from them about the repair.
Anyway, the epoxy did not adhere to the spar. When you wipe your fingers over the spar, you come away with a slippery feel on you fingers like its from some kind of protectant or lubricant. It makes me think that proper prep may not have bee followed. To further frustrate me this is a quick build wing. There is no problem what so ever with the rear spar/rib attachment. Nice and solid, smooth clean fillets. Not so with the front spar and ribs, and the gussetts. Anyway, I sent and e-mail to RMW's about the situation and my proposed fix asking if it met his approval as the designer. Have not heard back from RMW yet,and probably won't, but I thought I would run it by anyone here on the forum who might wish to comment.
I plan to carefully use my dremmel tool to remove the epoxy from each of the front rib joints and fabricate a reinfocing plate for each side of the rib nose/spar attachment from 1/8 AC plywood extending back from the spar 3 inches, epoxy them to the rib and after carefull fitting, I will re-epoxy the reinforced rib back to the spar using a larger fillet. I can see why the ribs seperated. The original fillet looked like they used an eye dropper. If anyone has an opinion or any other suggestion feel free to comment. Am I on the right track, or should I take another tack? I am open to all suggestions. If you think I should post some pics let me know.
Tom
New to the forum here. Just purchased a RMW Ridge Runner 3 kit. The kit was origonaly purchased by a gentleman who lost his medical back in april He sold it to a another gentleman who changed his mind about what he wanted to build. The kit came with the quickbuild wing option from RMW.
The problem is the wings were not epoxy'd very well in my opinion. I have helped several other friends build thier Kitfox's and the epoxy jobs were "much" better than what I have seen with this wing. The problem I have is the epoxy bond of the front rib to spar joint has seperated on ten of the ribs. I am sure the seperation was due to the shipping of the kit to me. Regardless, it seems I am being ignored by Stace and RMW. I am not asking for factory support. I just want advice from him as the designer regarding the fix. We have been e-mailing and calling with the end result so far, being a total "ignore". I can asume it is because we did not buy the kit direct from him. I get the impression from everyone I have spoken to and from what I have read here on this forum and others, that this is a standard way of business with RMW. I hope this is not the case. I just want a nod from them about the repair.
Anyway, the epoxy did not adhere to the spar. When you wipe your fingers over the spar, you come away with a slippery feel on you fingers like its from some kind of protectant or lubricant. It makes me think that proper prep may not have bee followed. To further frustrate me this is a quick build wing. There is no problem what so ever with the rear spar/rib attachment. Nice and solid, smooth clean fillets. Not so with the front spar and ribs, and the gussetts. Anyway, I sent and e-mail to RMW's about the situation and my proposed fix asking if it met his approval as the designer. Have not heard back from RMW yet,and probably won't, but I thought I would run it by anyone here on the forum who might wish to comment.
I plan to carefully use my dremmel tool to remove the epoxy from each of the front rib joints and fabricate a reinfocing plate for each side of the rib nose/spar attachment from 1/8 AC plywood extending back from the spar 3 inches, epoxy them to the rib and after carefull fitting, I will re-epoxy the reinforced rib back to the spar using a larger fillet. I can see why the ribs seperated. The original fillet looked like they used an eye dropper. If anyone has an opinion or any other suggestion feel free to comment. Am I on the right track, or should I take another tack? I am open to all suggestions. If you think I should post some pics let me know.
Tom
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