Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

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LTek1
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Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by LTek1 »

After 2 years of successfully navigating my 41' hangar door, I instead caught the wingtip on a fence trying to park at the end of the line on the ramp. Busy day, had my eyes on pedestrians, crunch.

It's time for annual anyway, so I'll get a wingtip on order from Diamond (I cringe to think how much that might be) but wanted to see what the latest thoughts were on Nav/Strobe LED combos for the '40. I'm current on the other threads on this topic, but am curious if anyone else has done a recent upgrade or installation and had any recommendations both for product and process.

Thanks!
Lee Dickinson
N282DS, 2003 DA40 at KOFP
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Sandy
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by Sandy »

I believe that the Whelen Orion 600 model is approved for the DA-40, although I do not have ready access to what I thought was a Diamond Technical Bulletin. In any event, I am sure that if you contact Whelen or Diamond, they will be able to tell you. It's this one... http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... key=331407
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BlackMammoth
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by BlackMammoth »

We have the Orion 600s and would recommend them.
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Sandy
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by Sandy »

Odd... I thought that I had submitted this, but now I don't see it. In any event, I found what I was looking for. It was an email from Greg Ginnetti at Whelen:

Sandy,

As Whelen doesnt have STC's for the Diamond airplane (if your maintenance person needs them) we do recommend consulting with a service center, however, Diamond does purchase and install our OR600 as standard equipment. For a 28V airplane

http://www.whelen.com/install/146/14661.pdf

Landing and Taxi, You should check with your Diamond Service center. Whelen has no approvals they do use our products with their own mounting solution.

See attached work instruction


Thanks



Greg Ginnetti | Aviation Sales
Whelen Engineering Company Inc.
(USA) 860-718-2473
http://www.whelen.com/aviation/index
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Rich
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by Rich »

Are you sure you need to replace the wingtip? Depends on how badly munged, of course. Mine got gouged on a barbed wire fence a few years back (let the record show it wasn't me :) ). Gouged through the material and screwed up the light fixture. But I just using filled epoxy to patch the hole, replaced the fixture and had the wingtip repainted. The whole thing was several hundred dollars.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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LTek1
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by LTek1 »

It's cracked pretty good, though I will definitely give it another look and take a recommendation from my mechanic. Right now it's got white duct tape on it and is flying pretty well... during the daytime, of course! But I do think mine has a crack from being compressed, not just a gouge.
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Rich
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by Rich »

LTek1 wrote:It's cracked pretty good, though I will definitely give it another look and take a recommendation from my mechanic. Right now it's got white duct tape on it and is flying pretty well... during the daytime, of course! But I do think mine has a crack from being compressed, not just a gouge.
Definitely consult with knowledgeable folks on it. I had a serious crack (92 cm) in my left wing from a bird strike in 2003. The shop that did my maintenance at the time insisted I need a new wing structure. But composite-knowledgeable folks said, no it needs to be repaired. This was done and to this day you can't tell where that crack was. Of course, maybe the replacement wingtip cost won't be wildly out of line.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by N503TS »

I have a great carbon fiber repair guy in Rhode Island. PM me your e-mail and I'll send you his contact information. If you are still flying the plane then it's repairable.
Phil

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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by CFIDave »

Perhaps a little closer to you, Glenn Lawler and his guys at Southtec Aviation at KRUQ do great composite repair work on Diamonds; there's a paint shop located on the field as well.
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Chris B
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Re: Borked the Wingtip - new strobes?

Post by Chris B »

Hi Lee -

Sorry to hear about your incident. I once came >this< close to doing the same thing.

Regarding strobes, I have about 1300 hrs on AeroLEDs Pulsar NSP strobes, and am very happy with them. See this thread for installation details: link.

Chris
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