Finding vent hole in wing skin

We have a Lak 17 in the shop and have found that water cannot be put into the left wing. It appears that during some previous repair, apparently the shop glassed and refinished over the vent hole in the underside of the wing. The problem now is how to find the exact spot to drill in order to open up that vent hole. Hopefully the vent line is still attached to the inside of the wing skin where the hole was.

Measuring the position of the vent hole in the other wing is no guarantee, and even measuring the location on the same wing on another Lak 17 would be questionable. Tapping on the skin seems to give no real indication either. So has anyone ever ran across this before and if so did you come up with a fool proof method of finding the exact spot to drill?

M Eiler

If you fish a light around in there you may be able to find the hole by looking for light coming thru the glass.

Sounds like a job for a LAK-tation specialist. ;}

I can see you're going to milk the situation for all it's worth.

Tim Ward

An ultrasound scanner might help, ask the local midwife!

How about running the wing through the nearest MRI scanner or the local airport baggage x-ray machine?



Ian

In the early 70's David Harper wrote a fictional account of a world soaring competition held in Alaska. He was evidently a reasonably successful author before this bomb and appears to have spent some time in Alaska because he did capture some of the regional peculiarities generally known only to locals.

Does anyone know if he is still alive and if so, how I might reach him?

Thanks

Pete Brown Anchorage
http://home.gci.net/~pdb/

Oh, don't be such a cow!

Hello,

I just asked into factory about your problem! I receive answer below. If you give me your fax number I can send you = also fax with drawing.

Best regards,

Luka Znidarsic, www.ies.si LAK Sailplanes (dealer of LAK for Italy and = Slovenia)

Dear Luka,

The spot where vent hole is located is at distance of 25mm from = root rib and 226mm from wing leading edge, and (or) 394mm from flap = mounting axis. To help you to understand where it is located I'm sending = to you a fax. CAUTION!!!: for finding hole, first of all, use small (about 1mm = diameter drill) and drill about 2mm deep hole. And only if you find = hole, only then use bigger drill.=20 Sincerely

Linas Bartkevicius=20 Manager=20 AB Sportine Aviacija=20 Pociunai LT-4340, Prienai=20 Lithuania=20 Tel.: +370 319 60567=20 Fax.: +370 319 60568=20 Mob.: +370 652 77282=20 http://www.lak.lt=20