Lots of stresses in life at the moment... work, vendors, family and now airplane woes again...
Unfortunately one of my partners took a wild ride while landing the Eagle yesterday, ground looped her on his second landing of the day. While he walked away no worse for wear (thankfully!), Double Eagle has been admitted to intensive care for some first aid.
Initial inspections show that we need to replace the gear, wheel pants, one wheel, and all the gear mounting hardware.
The right wingtip scraped along the ground for a bit, so at least some fabric work will be needed. I stuck a bore-scope through a rip in the fabric to see if there was any damage, didn't see anything of significance. But a closer look will be needed at the spar and aileron attach points.
Along with this damage, the fuselage tubing is broken on both sides by the landing gear. There is a suggested reinforcing of this area by the factory, I think it's time we do that mod. Even though it means taking the engine off the airplane. Hell, I did that with the Wolf Pitts six times last summer!
We have an aerobatic training camp in May, so the goal is to get her flying again in April. It'll take a lot of work, but I think the group can do it. Tomorrow I meet with some A&P's to review my initial assessment. Hopefully I'm not too far off...
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