F16 Repair

I love my F16. It's one of those planes I'll always have in my fleet. The unique shape of the F16 makes it un-stallable and un-snapable :) Hold elevator up and control the flight with the throttle. It flys fast as well as slow when in high alpha. Landing with high alpha makes it such a unique airframe unlike any other sport jet.

I bought this F16 used and between the previous owner and myself we probably have over 1000 flights. The crash happened with another plane on the runway. It completely destroyed the nose section, right wing, canopy, and bottom fins. Ordering replacements was expensive and not easily available during covid. Plus, I didn't want to go through the effort of stripping all the electronics, gear, tanks, servos etc'. It was easier to fix the body.

I was really happy with the end result. The repair added only 40g to the right wing which is about 5% of the total wing weight. Needless to say I can't feel it in flight. It feels like a brand new plane!

Front Fuselage

The crash with the other plane shredded the parts. There was nothing I could glue together.

I used 2mm airex foam to complete the missing structure.

With a Dremel tool, I straightened the broken pieces to fit the airex.

It's easy to curve the airex with a heat gun

The former shapes the foam into place according to the nose cone

To the left, a video after the inner fiberglass layer. On top, a photo with the outer fiberglass layer and the peal ply. The fiberglass used inside/outside is very thin but it makes the sandwich very strong.

Lightweight filler, followed by some primer and glazing bondo.

The bottom part requires intense masking with a thin 1/4 inch vinyl tape for the curves.

Recreated the panel lines with a dremel disk (by hand, not using the dremel), and drilled the scale rivets.

Wing

The strut of the other place protrude my right wing, passing the main spar

I prepared new spars and formers to replace the broken ones

I first laminated the foam parts with one layer of fiberglass since it will be impossible to cover the inside with fiberglass after fixing them in place.

Outer fiberglass layer.

Adding G10 to sheet to strengthen the new spar.

Bondo, primer and then recreating the scale rivets with dremel and a 2.5 mm brass tube.

Bottom side

The paint was matched in a local automotive paint store

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse