Video Borescope

[Terry Edmonds]

Has anyone on r.a.s. used a video borescope for inspecting linkages in
glider wings? If so I would like to hear of your experience and the
specific instrument you used.
Thanks in advance.

[Jim Phoenix]

(Terry Edmonds) wrote in message >...
> Has anyone on r.a.s. used a video borescope for inspecting linkages in
> glider wings? If so I would like to hear of your experience and the
> specific instrument you used.
> Thanks in advance.

I used an Olympus IF4D5-15 to visually inspect the elevator actutating
rod in the vertical stabilizer of my Nimbus 3. Access through the
rudder balance cove and forward through the aft spar hole at the
bottom. That scope was a 4mm, 1500mm length with a very nice (Olympus)
light source.

Here's a web page with some of the Olympus products:
http://www.olympusindustrial.com/index.cfm/page/products.index.cfm/cid/539/navid/177/parentid/179

There would be no problem using a larger diameter fiberscope, even an
11mm is plenty small enough, I used the 4mm because that's what we had
available - the 8mm was out stuck into the back of an engine
somewhere. I've always been partial to Olympus because their cable
armoring seems to hold up much better over the years, fewer
fiber-damage problems that the others, replacing the fiber cable is
very expensive, for that matter, these things are terribly expensive
to purchase, you'll want to have a lot of jobs lined up to justify the
expense.

The Wolf units at the top end of the line are very good as well, but
it all dpends on how carefully you treat them (any of them).

Jim

[Sam Discusflyer]

I used a Black & White 1/3 inch CAM 3.7mmm bullet camera
(V-1212-BNC) from Marshall Electronics
( http://www.mars-cam.com/optical.html ) to inspect
the spar on my Discus CS. It fit very easily through
the airbrake opening on top of the wings. I also ordered
a fish eye lens which gave very good close ups (2.1mm
F2.0 6-element Miniature Lens (V-4301). This enabled
the inspection without cutting any inspection holes
in the wings.

Connecting this camera to the 'video in' on the VHS
player enabled a tape recording to be made of the inspection
too.

Stephen Michalik


At 19:06 16 January 2004, Terry Edmonds wrote:
>Has anyone on r.a.s. used a video borescope for inspecting
>linkages in
>glider wings? If so I would like to hear of your experience
>and the
>specific instrument you used.
>Thanks in advance.
>