Today I was flying the Citabria. After about 1.5 of sightseeing with my wife she taps my shoulder and points at the right strut assembly. The stabilizer that connects wing rib to rear strut had failed where it bolts to the rear strut... just sheared off. There one moment (yes, I pre-flighted it), gone the next. We spent the next 20something minutes going - nice and slow - to the nearest vfr airport.
Rental outfit's mechanic said not to worry about it; its purpose is to dampen vibration (well why the hell did the thing break from fatigue...). An A&P where I stopped was kind enough to fabricate a quick bracket to bolt it back together and I went home. I noticed that that strut, even when properly attached, has a noticable vibration in a certain airspeed range... resonant/harmonic type thing. Simple change of airspeed and it was gone. Trouble was that the "excited" airspeed range was, you guessed it, right in normal cruise IAS.... so this thing will shake most of the time. The left strut suffers no such predicament.
Back at home base I showed the rental outfit's A&P, explained that the braket was temporary, etc.. they liked the fact that I got it taken care of, but to my surprise, when I mentioned the vibration, he still wasn't worried about it. The vibration of that strut (probably what caused the stress fracture) was a known issue. I'd sum it up to wing rigging or strut tention, myself. No, I haven't built or rigged wings, but I do know a thing or two and can see how this would happen... but that is exactly what has me worried: I am thinking that the attitude of nonchalance may be my clue to take the business elsewhere. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've caught that vibe from this particular person.
FWIW the A&P where I made the precautionary stop agreed with the assessment of the first; this was not a structural piece, but its job is to prevent an otherwise wimpy strut from vibrating, and later causing metal fatigue where it attaches to the fuselage.
Also just for my own information, if there are any citabria owners reading this I'm curious what your thoughts are; a quick google search didn't turn up much except for a reference to a citabria magazine article on the subject that I could not read online.
Rental outfit's mechanic said not to worry about it; its purpose is to dampen vibration (well why the hell did the thing break from fatigue...). An A&P where I stopped was kind enough to fabricate a quick bracket to bolt it back together and I went home. I noticed that that strut, even when properly attached, has a noticable vibration in a certain airspeed range... resonant/harmonic type thing. Simple change of airspeed and it was gone. Trouble was that the "excited" airspeed range was, you guessed it, right in normal cruise IAS.... so this thing will shake most of the time. The left strut suffers no such predicament.
Back at home base I showed the rental outfit's A&P, explained that the braket was temporary, etc.. they liked the fact that I got it taken care of, but to my surprise, when I mentioned the vibration, he still wasn't worried about it. The vibration of that strut (probably what caused the stress fracture) was a known issue. I'd sum it up to wing rigging or strut tention, myself. No, I haven't built or rigged wings, but I do know a thing or two and can see how this would happen... but that is exactly what has me worried: I am thinking that the attitude of nonchalance may be my clue to take the business elsewhere. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've caught that vibe from this particular person.
FWIW the A&P where I made the precautionary stop agreed with the assessment of the first; this was not a structural piece, but its job is to prevent an otherwise wimpy strut from vibrating, and later causing metal fatigue where it attaches to the fuselage.
Also just for my own information, if there are any citabria owners reading this I'm curious what your thoughts are; a quick google search didn't turn up much except for a reference to a citabria magazine article on the subject that I could not read online.