Tipsy Nipper

good evening from Rainy Cambodia , so bored I was just scanning the site . As you all know it was me that found the cracked wing bolt that started all HuHa .
As you maybe know I had to buy £400 specially made bolts because at that time no one knew Paul had a box full hiding in his loft ! I believe he is selling them for only about £60 each .
I have had a very in depth inspection done on my rogue bolt and wanted to put some of your minds at rest , from the investigation it looks as if the crack was not caused by flight stress but could most likely be a by product of the original cad plating process.

What I was interested in is has anyone found cracks during their inspections ? RiP G-ENIE

I've been working hard preparing GAVTC for return to service and was intending to use a dye crack test on the bolts until the LAA engineering report came out. I couldn't vouch for the provenance of my wing bolts so have bought a set of Paul's tie rods to settle the matter. They will be going in within the next couple of weeks and I intend to get the removed bolts magnafluxed as per the LAA requirement. This should be an interesting data point as I've since discovered, hidden in the stack of aircraft papers, that the bolts were replaced by parts from Nipper kits at the last rebuild only 50 flying hours ago.

Jim

I've had by bolts checked (MPI) per LAA AIL and all are without cracks. In fact all in excellent condition. Mine were fitted when I built my Nipper 27 years ago !!!
I have the feeling as Rip does that this is a rogue bolt of maybe bad material or some sort of embrittlement when plated.

Rgds
Stuart