#2 Assessing The Damage

I wanted to mention that if you look close at the photo in the first post of the left wing panels you can actually see the trailing edge took a significant set bend also as the leading edge impacted (I'm not certain what it hit) and my body kept going forward along with the hang cage.  I have not yet removed the right wing panel covering since I did not have the inboard and outboard setup struts to completely set up that wing.  I am hoping that when I do this, I will not see any other bent tubes and the tip rudder will move freely.  If that is the case, I'll have a much easier time getting this ship back in the air since I'll only have to patch the holes in the right wing lower panel vs recovering the entire 4 wings.  I am not hopeful however since when I did set up the right wing, the setup wires (negative load wires) were almost impossible to connect indicating more extensive tweeking of the whole airframe. I doubt that the flight struts (the ones you install once you expand the wing and attach the negative wires) will make any difference in this. I'll visit this later.

Another part of this project involves finishing the trailer I had fabricated when I first built the glider.  It's basically a plywood box with 1X2 framework, fiberglassed outside and carpeted inside on a Caulkins boat trailer.  Both ends are removeable.  More on this later.

Here's a shot of the upper left wing panel that ended up with a broken LE (you can see the rough end of the broken spar. I am removing the polyester/dope fabric along with the strapping tape...the tape stuck amazingly well and was very difficult to completely remove even after all these years. I guess being trapped inside the wing did not allow the adhesive to dry out.

Other readily apparent damage to the glider were tears in the lower right wing panel shown here;

This next shot shows a long gash on the underside of the left lower wing panel which I decided not to salvage with a patch (I stripped this panel).

Below is a shot showing the upper left wing panel TE spar at the root. The bend is out about 11/16” and is located right where I expected it would be, just inboard of the internal diagonal strut gusset. The strut was not bent at all.

Now to re-build the upper left wing panel.   To be continued.....