Champ Parts scarcity

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Eric Brown

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Joined
Apr 7, 2021
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165
Location
Belle Plaine, Mn
An interesting thing. I'm looking for Champ wing butt ribs 7-445 L/R and tip ribs 5-143. Wag Aero says they are no longer available and Univair says it may take 8 wks +, if ever ! Spruce only offers a 7-445L. ACA no longer has any wood spar type ribs. Anybody else notice ?

And then ... Does anyone have access to butt rib reinforcement plates 2-945 L/R to convert a 7-445 butt rib to a 7-791 fuel tank butt rib ? I have the 2-945 drawing, but it requires starting with .063" 2024-0 and performing heat treating to -T3
 
Well ...... so far I've decided to go this way ........... for the butt ribs, I took 2 of my formerly rejected ribs and applied multiple repairs to make them serviceable, although a bit ugly. The 5-143 tip ribs may have to scrounged. I was going to modify that rib into the 4-1030 fiberglass tip mount rib due to the high cost of the 4-1030 rib. An option is to find 4-1030 tip ribs. Wag-Aero has the 2-945 reinforcement plates, but they're on back order and I have the feeling it will come back as NLA. Surprisingly, I did find one plate in my reject rib pile and I figure I could try to make a second one using 2 layers of .032" 2024-T3.

As far as CFR 21.9 ..... yes, I have used this little privilege before, mostly when it used to be CFR 21.303(a)(2). AC23-27 Parts substitution on vintage aircraft is another good one.
 
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Have you checked Texas Air Salvage and Ebay? For a while someone was parting out a Decathlon on ebay, so you never know.
 
Technically, any repair of a rib is a major repair. Making a new one may not be . . .
 
That article mentions ribs twice

(b) Major repairs -
(1) Airframe major repairs. Repairs to the following parts of an airframe and repairs of the following types, involving the strengthening, reinforcing, splicing, and manufacturing of primary structural members or their replacement, when replacement is by fabrication such as riveting or welding, are airframe major repairs.

(x) Wing main ribs and compression members.
(xxv) The repair of three or more adjacent wing or control surface ribs or the leading edge of wings and control surfaces, between such adjacent ribs.
 
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