Michael Magnani's Comments on Bulkhead Repairs

This is Michael Magnani's contribution to the discussion about repairing bulkheads.

Hi all, Mike Magnani here, N4094, s/n 271. I suppose I should add my comments to the discussion on the bulkhead repair. I started working on mine because I noticed that the lower right hand longeron glue joint had gone bad at the bulkhead. The only way to fix it was to take the whole assembly apart, clean and inspect everything and reglue it back together. What I found was that even though everything else looked OK, with a very little bit of tapping and prying, the whole thing came apart very easily. The only exception was the fuselage skin at the upper portion of the bulkhead. I ended up breaking the skin and replacing that portion with new. I also had some skin rot at the bottom of the bulkhead that had to be replaced. Many thanks to Paul Workman, who loaned me a set of Upper Longeron-to-Bulkhead clips that I duplicated to comply with Mooney Service Letter 17. The addition of the clips made so much sense that I went ahead and added a similar set to the lower longerons. I also agree with Paul when he suggests that this weak area of the Mite be disassembled and inspected at 10 year intervals. See you at Porterville. Michael Magnani N4094

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