At 04:56 PM 4/10/99 -0500, Syd Cohen wrote: >Coupers--- > I don't like to beat a dead horse, but I've said this before: Many of >our coupes have intergrannular corrosion and we do not know it unless we >open up our wings like Mike did. The inspection holes specified in the >"Swiss Cheese" AD are located in places (in the V's of the ribs) that make >inspection of the spar caps very difficult. The AD was not meant to do >this. My mechanic and I have inspected over 36 wings and have found >exfoliation ranging from small pimple-sizes up to seeing the spar cap coming >apart in splinters, looking like rotten wood or broom straws on 24 of the >36. Many of the wings with problems were on flying airplanes. This is very >scary, to say the least. To my knowledge, no one has had a wing failure yet >due to corroded spar caps, but I know it will happen sooner or later. We >have invented an inspection tool which consists of a tiny color video camera >which is mounted on a telescoping handle which can telescope from 19" to >48". The camera head incorporates a light source which lights up the area >that the camera sees. The focal distance is adjustable from 1/4" to >infinity, and the image seen is shown on a TV monitor and can be recorded on >a VCR. The resolution that the camera has in unbelievable. > Our inspection tool, called the Videoscope Model 3000, is not cheap, ... > ...The purchase price is $1,995.00 plus shipping and >handling, which includes a hard-shell padded carrying case, a cordless >microphone unit for narrating onto the videotape, a 12V power adapter and >all necessary cables.
Hell Syd, I beg to differ. That *is* cheap. It's cheap enough that a local EAA chapter could buy one. It's less than a *single* 'Swiss Cheese'' AD on either and Ercoupe or an Aeronca, which it might, perhaps, someday replace. And it can do a lot of things that need doing on planes, and boats, and cars and... Not to mention the savings you gain by doing your own dental exams, colonoscopies, and so forth at home (wash that thing before you put it in my airplane!) :-) Greg Greg
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
