Citabria wood wings

[Gorilla]

I wasn't sure where to post this - I figured here'd be OK because it focuses on building and rebuilding.

Here's the deal... I have a shot at a 1967'ish 7ECA Citabria that's been hangared but not flown for years. It's clean. Some minor hangar rash, but nothing gross.

It has the wooden spar, and there's an AD requiring inspection ports and periodic inspection of the wing spar. This has not been done. I'd really like to get your opinions on this deal, and on wooden-sparred aircraft in general. I'm not an A&P, but I'd like to do as much work as possible. Should I run screaming? He's asking $15K, and I understand it'll take thousands more to make it airworthy once more. Thoughts?

 

[ctab5060X]

Citabria

I own a 1968 wood wing 7ECA and have rebuilt it from the ground up. If you want more info about the wing spar AD and what to look for in a prebuy, drop me a PM and I will be glad to share some knowledge.

 

[belchfire]

I was involved with rebuilding a Bellanca Scout which has the same AD. The guy running the rebuild knew that the spars were cracked by the way the aluminum leading edge was cracked. We tried every trick to find the cracks with the wing completely stripped and no luck.

Then when we got the rear spars out and laid them across the sawhorses they fell in half...

I don't know that the 7 series are that bad, the Scout has longer wings and is much heavier.

If I am not mistaken there is a metal spar conversion if you are interested in going that route.

 

[icefr8dawg]

I believe you can do the metal spar when/if you rebuild the wings. The Citabria that i'm familiar with, or more accurately abuse, sat for so long that mice got comfortable in the wings and ate themselves a passageway under the spar. Needless to say we don't abuse it any more... Clear the AD with someone that knows bellancas and you shoud be good to go. 15k sounds pretty good, how's the engine?

 

[Geronimo4497]

Wood is great, as long as you take care of it. There are new woods spars available that are a heck of a lot cheaper than the metal conversion. Wood is great for aerobatics, too; nature's answers to composties!

 

[Gorilla]

Thanks for the replies. The engine is unknown. It's a Lyc 0-235, and I'm not sure if the cylinders were chromed or not, which is apparently a sign that the engine would withstand longer storage. The good part is that the guy selling is a retired Braniff A&P, a friend, and I'm positive he is not hiding anything, or attempting to screw me with this deal. Pretty much any airworthy Citabria these days is in the high $20's, so there is a lot of room, dollar-wise, for some major work.

The wood doesn't scare me TOO badly... once it's signed off, I'm going to take it very high with a parachute and really work it over with some progressively higher positive G loads, up to its limit. If it survives that without damage, cracking, or failure, I'd then be comfortable taking up passengers for some very mild maneuvers.

 

[Gorilla]

This thread is old, but update...

I bought the airplane! Most of the 7ECA's I saw in several issues of Trade-A-Plane averaged probably $25K-$35K for a basic airworthy Citabria. I paid 1/2 that, plus the owner (an A&P) is going to help me with the AD's and other minor maintenance issues. Unless the engine requires major work, I should have a nice little Citabria flying soon for under $20K. Worst case, I'll throw enough money at it and it'll become airworthy again and still be well below market.

I'm looking forward to once again flying for fun, on my schedule, and maybe going upside down, or doing a spin or two now and then.

I need to get some taildragger instruction. I logged a lot of glider time in my younger days (plenty of rudder needed there), and I also need to get 3 or 4 hours of basic ground school to refresh my memory of general aviation and VFR rules.

 

[mvedepo]

Were are you located? Maybe I can help out if you need someone to fly with.