Wheel fairing

[DonMuncy]

At my last annual, my A&P found that the plastic fairing on the underside of the wing, just behind the wheel well was cracked. A few days ago, I went out to the hangar and found that the Hangar Elves had drilled out the rivets and removed the fairing. I found evidence where they had built a 2x4 box and used a cement like material to make a mold from the cracked fairing. Then cast a fiberglass replacement fairing from the mould. I expect they will paint it and reinstall it in the next day or two. After sneaking out several nights running, I could never catch them working, but managed to get a picture of one of them taking a smoke break.

[MooneyMitch]

NO SMOKING around airplanes!!!

[jetdriven]

Thats how they operate.  Jury is out whether fiberglass is more durable than urethane.   But we all know which costs less.  

[DonMuncy]

Apparently hangar elves do as they as they please. I don't know why my photo won't attach. I tried it again, and it showed it in the browse space, but hitting the attach button did nothing. Any idea what I did wrong.

[DonMuncy]

I finally got it to attach.

[DaV8or]

Photographic evidence of the Elve's work in progress would be cool...

[scottfromiowa]

That's NOT an Elf.  It's my uncle Stu...He is an Artist with Fiberglass and that pipe's smokeless tobacco.  It's Safe.  He HATES to see Mooney's as nice as Don's with any blemish.  His Payment?  A beautiful bird.

[garytex]

Looks like a baffle leprechaun to me.

[MooneyMitch]

That's a mighty big wrench he's got in hand for working on a small cracked fairing!!!  Hmmmmm.

[DonMuncy]

Here are a few photos of their work. The mould, and the finished fairing with a coat of primer.

[thinwing]

Looks good to me...but interesting that this would be a legal repair for Don to do himself (repair of simple fairing )not requiring an aand p signoff or pesky hanger elf intervention if he had repaired old one vs the elves fabricating a new one from different materials.kpc