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Old August 6th 03, 12:40 PM
ventus2ct (Ruud Holswilder)
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Default Excellent follow-up by Schempp-Hirth!

The problem with the Duo could not have happened at a worse time.
Right in the middle of the soaring season and the Schempp-Hirth
factory on holiday.
A lot of SHK workers volunteered to skip their vacation and help out
with the inspections that started already started last weekend.
I made the 700 Km drive to Kirchhein on Sunday afternoon.
Next day SHK workers were already busy from 7 AM.

The inspection procedure is rather simple.
One team is taking care of the removal of ailerons and drilling
inspection holes.
After that the inspection team comes in with a boroscope.
If no defects are found, the holes in airbrake box are repaired; the 2
small holes (12 mm) in the lower skin are reinforced with epoxy and
covered by tape.
Ailerons installed , paper work done and you're out in about 3 to 4
hours.

Unfortunately the left wing of my Duo had a 4 cm defective bond near
the wing tip and repairs were needed.
From that entire number of Duo's present at that time; there was one
other Duo who needed similar repairs.
They had to cut out a few small panels in the underside of the wing to
make repairs to the bonding of the spar.
After this they had to repair the cut-outs and restore the finish.
This took about 24 hours of extra time.

Next week the CS factory that manufactures most of the Duo parts will
be back from vacation.
A hefty investigation will start…