Crap that sucks. I remember one time I was pushing my Bellanca Super Viking into the hanger - large shared space with a 60' door that folded onto itself as it is raised. Usually I waited until the door was completely open before I pushed. For some reason I got out of my routine and started pushing early. I then heard and felt some crunching and realized that I pushed the tail into the bottom half of the door before it was high enough to clear.

As I inspected the damage I realized it was only fabric damage. The tubing structure was so strong that the tip of the rudder pushed completely through the metal of the door like a knife through hot butter! I always knew that the Super Viking was an extremely strong airframe, but that proved it for me. All I did was put a fabric patch on the tip and repaint it. Simple and cheap to repair.

Good luck with your elevator repair.

The shop said the elevator should be ready to ship by Thursday. They are finishing up the painting and balancing now. So hopefully by the end of next week I'll be flying again.

Out of curiosity, how much would a ding like that affect flying the plane? How much can you "get away" with, so to speak on a small prop plane?

Say you were out in the bush or whatever. I think I remember seeing something about a guy essentially making wings out of duct tape in a pinch.

I really dont think it would effect it much. At worst it might effect the trim a little, but not much different than a empty seat. But it made the wife uncomfortable, and I do have insurance so really no reason not to fix it.

Easy to do, like something just waiting to happen. The former FBO at Newark (EWR) had a chain link fence by the building that was covered with little red and white bulls eyes and a sign that said "watch your wingtips". At night that fence was almost invisible.

Ask anyone who has flown a combat mission and returned full of holes or worse.

Cool story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_666

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It all depends on how fast you are flying. At 70kts you could probably trim it out and fly just fine. At 270kts that bent elevator will become a handful. Bush pilots tend to fly slow.

The new elevator came in yesterday and the shop put it on today. The paint is not a perfect match, but it's close. Went up for a hour, the old plane can still do a 155 knots true @ 7500' burning 12 gph. Density altitude was over 10,000'. And since it's got a low compression engine I can burn the ethanol free rec 90.

Glad it worked out well for you. Just curious, do you fly out of PGD, or a smaller airport?

PGD, it's only about 5 miles from my house and hangar rent isn't to bad at $260 a month.

Better to bang it than to prang it.