[GMAs]

Well some say it was done to take care of the libility... but, annnnntttttt... wrong answer...

Seems some of the guys who used them for petrol got sort board just watching the lines below.. and decided to have a little fun turning the world upside down... in their skymaster... well one got just a little to wild.. and sure enough it bent the wing on one side... yep.. actually have a picture of the wing bent up... more than the other... and the plane is sitting level..

anyway it cracked while bending.. and of course the pilot said... me doing any aerobatics... not on your life... so they thought the cracking was cause first and then the bending second...

but, their is another reason that some started to show signs of cracking at the attaching point at the rear spar... and cracking the mounting area...

yep they were vibrating so bad that the boom bounce got to flexing the rear spar... and cause some problems in that area... but, it seemed to be caused only after about 3-5000 hrs... due to turbulance and flexing... the other area that they want checked is covered with skin and about 3 layers of metal... all different .. you know... and a casting... so if their is any chance for corrosion... not cracking... it would be their at the main attaching point... and thus they wanted it checked also...

We have seen planes land so hard that it tipped a bunch of the rivets on the bottom of the wing.. but, it was only one plane... and we knew the owner... and he really dropped it in hard... not once but, several times... gladly he gave up flying when he found out he had a heart condition and couldn't see anymore.... when we saw it... we almost couldn't bear to see it.. and it gave us a heart condition called failure when it thudded in... hard... and blew both mains from the impact... about 100 ft drop in... any other plane would have broken but, the skymaster kept on going...

anyway... we have done a couple of the inspections and it runs about 800 to 1500 bucks... as it takes some pretty expensive equipment.. and a good operator that is trained and certified...

Now you might find a steel inspector that checks bridges on the roadway... as they are all from the same cut... and they all have the same equipment... for ND inspections... might even try the yellow pages... and see if you can luck out for a magnetic/ultrasonic inspector.... as the one part is pretty quick... where the struts attach to the wings.. but, the rear spar one is going to take some time.. as you have to pull the top of the wing off.. to gain access to the inside of the rear spar... and no you don't have to take the gas tanks out... they can do it with them in.... so we found... GMAs