wooden wing rib question

[radiotek]

on my '46 chief, the aft 8 in or so of the farthest outboard LH wing rib appears to be either loose or broken off. Noticed the fabric a little loose and wrinkled in that area and wiggled it around and you can tell its not firnly attached. This is the rib that sits next to the outboard edge of the aileron forming the trailing edge. No evidence of damage to the fabric and don't remember strking the hangar door, ground or anything!

I guess the big question is if that rib is one continuous piece of wood from leading edge to trailing edge and will require complete replacement or is this just a separate piece that is somehow attached to the spar??? Anyone have any recent experience with a wing or have a parts blow up you could look at? I can't see anything of course with the fabric and the closest inspection hole doesn't allow me to see it either. Thanks!!!
Pat

[radiotek]

This is not the farthest outboard rib, it is the SECOND one in!

[N86250]

Your 46 has aluminum ribs so it is a full length aluminum rib with a plywood reinforcment from the rear spar to the trailing edge. It sounds like it has broken over the spar or just aft of the spar where it is the weakest. It should be repaired. jrh

[james gevay]

This picture should give you a view of what your dealing with. It's the left wing tip without the aileron installed.
The wood reinforcement is just there to beef up that section of the rib. It's to help prevent the tension of the fabric from pulling inward between the rear spar and the trailing edge, and making the rib curved like a banana next to the aileron.

The original pieces I took out of my wings were 3/8" thick and some kind of light wood, possible pine. I made replacements from 1/4" plywood and cut some lightening holes in them. They probably have about 2 or 3 small screws holding the wood to the ribs.

[CptKelly]

For what its worth, your wing is a work of art, its beautiful. I'll try to make our project Champ's wing just as pretty.

Mike

[joea]

Agree, that wing is so nice its a shame to cover it up with fabric!

[james gevay]

Thanks guys, it's mostly just a bunch of new parts.

By the way, how are the size on the last pictures I posted? Are they too large on your end, I didn't down size them to web page size before posting them here. I know they are larger than the normal web size I usually post, but wondering how much.

[joea]

Size works for me. The larger they are the better detail that shows.

[radiotek]

WOW! That really is beautiful work James! Thanks much for posting the pic as this is exactly what I was looking for. Looks like the wooden reinforcement on mine at the aft end of the rib must have separated from the aluminum which apparently has been bent. Hopefully i won't have to change the entire rib! Worst thing about all this is not having a clue at this point how this happened! thanks again pat