History of this EasyRiser glider

post date - 5-1-13
Ordered as a kit from John Moody/Larry Mauro in late 70's as a full motor package.  Completed the non-motorized glider portion of the kit using all the original kit materials (Dacron fabric, nitrate dope, 6061 T6 .035 wall aluminum tubing).  Here are a couple shots of the assembled wing prior to covering taken back in the late 70's.

 On the maiden flight (1982 I believe), I managed to execute a whip stall after launch resulting in a dive into a large bush from approximately 60 ft.  The frame was bent with the most obvious damage being the upper left wing panel leading edge which broke just outboard of the root, diagonal internal brace.  The trailing edge also took a set bend near the root and also bent parts of the left rudder frame.  I never did figure out what I had done to cause the abrupt pitch up other than I remember moving back in the control frame to slow down in what felt like some nice lift.  Very likely that I moved too far and too fast, being used to my flex wing, and the Easy responded.  I was not hanging from a suspension point, all I had for a harness was a hammock strung between the leading and trailing ends of the control cage which may have amplified the weight shift change.

My mission is to re-rig and re-cover the entire airframe.  My hope is that this blog will be discovered by other potential EasyRiser pilots/builders.  I plan to break the posts up into separate parts of the process of repair.

To begin, here is a photo of the left wing where you can see the upper panel leading edge spar is broken at the second rib out from the root.  I have not yet removed the fabric from the lower panel.

You can see this kit had the original foam/wood ribs which were soon replaced with stamped aluminum ribs in subsequent kits from UFM. The hole in the second rib was where the internal brace passed through it which I had removed after the accident.  You can also see the front end of the second rib is gone (broke off on impact).  On close inspection, I saw no other delamination of the fabric to the rib cap strips anywhere else on the glider frame which I thought was amazing given the impact it took to break the leading edge.  The fabric was not rib laced or stitched which I learned much later was really standard practice on any aircraft that is cloth covered.  The next post will include my initial assessment after removing the covering on all four panels.