Citabria Rainbow Replacement Wood Spars, Champ/Citabria/Decathlon

[Bartman]

www.RainbowFlying.com



From their website;
"Made from aircraft grade sitka spruce. Improved design with 39 1/2" long doubler plates at the strut attach point instead of 14" long. Also fish mouthed on the ends instead of cut off straight. Butt plates scarfed in instead of with a void left by the planer as on the originals. All drilled & varnished with 3 coats of epoxy spar varnish. Use your old bushings. "

Considered an upgrade over original wood spars mostly due to the way the doubler plates at the strut attach points are designed to distribute stresses more evenly into the underlying spruce.

Their products page has info for Champ, Citabria aircraft through the 8GCBC, and 8KCAB Decathlons.
https://rainbowflying.com/shop?olsPage=products

 

[JimParker256]

Yeah, if I ever have to rebuild my wings, I'm thinking I might go this route. I hear so many say that wood gives a better ride in turbulence, and of course, wood wings don't suffer from metal fatigue. It would be hard to give up the wood spars for metal, without going to the factory wings for the gross weight increase. But then, the factory wing replacement costs considerably more than I paid for my 7ECA to begin with... I would never get that money back out of the plane when time comes to sell...

 

[Flymiller]

Do metal spars replacements increase total wt a lot? I am looking at a 7GCBC with metal spars only has a useful load
of 425lbs total.
Thanks Dan

 

[darrell whitley]

I’ve got a 2001 Citabria. #1,800 gross wt. with a 531lb useful.

 

[Flymiller]

Not much useful load. Is this typical?

 

[darrell whitley]

Not much useful load. Is this typical?

Yup. Unfortunately. Course it carries a lot of fuel.

 

[darrell whitley]

Normal Citabria. Hopefully this will help your search.

 

[Bartman]

Do metal spars replacements increase total wt a lot? I am looking at a 7GCBC with metal spars only has a useful load
of 425lbs total.
Thanks Dan

Milman metal spars are an aftermarket replacement for the original wood spars, there is no increase in gross weight with them. It is possible to reduce empty weight when doing the conversion but once they are in and everything is back together, the weight is what it is.

 

[Flymiller]

Thanks much for the replies it all helps!