Hey everyone,

Quick question, there is 2 small hairline cracks on these fluidyne 3200 wheel skis and they have been welded over once already is this something fixable? Is this a common thing to happen? Do I need to be worried about my skis being seriously compromised?
I was not aware of this at time of purchase.
Thanks

Oh yeah thats repairable. Welding was not the correct or even legal repair on that kind of aluminum, by the way, but that should be pretty obvious since it cracked again.
The right way to do it is stop drill the crack. Rivet doubler on the inside. You cant really do an outside doubler with all the stiffeners and arm rest near the crack so inside would be best. Im pretty sure you can get in there through the hydraulic actuator access plate, if not you will have to remove the bottoms witch would SUCK. You could also replace the entire tunnel if your a total pureist, but a patch would be just as good.
I would wait until summer to fix it and make it a part of my pre flight until it was fixed. That looks like a good summer project.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it, im going to make it a summer project and I think there is enough room to fix it through the hydraulic access panel, lets hope so lol

Those are going to be tough spots to patch. Very tight quarters. You'll be able to see what you've got once you get them taken apart. There's just not much space to put a patch in there, and at least one of those looks like it goes all the way from one rivet to another.

While you're at it, take the "No Step" placards off the tunnels. Those tunnels are tougher than your shoes. I put non skid on them, cause I'm always stepping on them during preflight.

MTV

I would take a look at FAA Advisory Circular 43-13-1B. http://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/medi ... ter_04.pdf

There is a ton of great information in there about how to repair aircraft structures.

How thick is the aluminum tunnel?

I think the thickness is .062 I am not at home right now so I am just assuming so since I have heard they were bad for stress cracks and now they double the thickness whenever they rebuild them.
all I can do is hope it isn't to big of a job and that it goes smoothly lol
as of the stickers I plan on removing them lol.

PAMR MX wrote:Oh yeah thats repairable. Welding was not the correct or even legal repair on that kind of aluminum, by the way, but that should be pretty obvious since it cracked again. .

+++1

Cannot believe someone tried welding a Al crack shut