Found damage to the stabilator tip while preflighting last night. Not sure what the mechanism of injury was. Looks like two parallel straps about 2 inch wide and 6 inches apart hit the tail really hard. No scratches at the point of impact, just blunt force damage and disturbance of surface dust, so I think it was something soft. Plane is tied down at KBFI in Seattle. I can't figure out what this might be. Ladders are hard, would cause scratch. Fuel hose from a truck wouldn't leave parallel tracks. Hasn't been any heavy winds so unlikely to be blown object.
There's fiberglass damage to the tip. Slight dent of the top aluminum surface of stabilator. The tips come in either ABS plastic or fiberglass. From the forum thread on wingtips, it sounds like fiberglass is preferred since it's more durable and easily repaired. New tips do not come drilled with mounting holes. Thinking about buying a used tip mostly to save on labor of drilling, and a bit on the cost of the tip itself, but concerned about the holes not lining up. What are people's thoughts?
I can take some better pictures during daylight hours.
There's fiberglass damage to the tip. Slight dent of the top aluminum surface of stabilator. The tips come in either ABS plastic or fiberglass. From the forum thread on wingtips, it sounds like fiberglass is preferred since it's more durable and easily repaired. New tips do not come drilled with mounting holes. Thinking about buying a used tip mostly to save on labor of drilling, and a bit on the cost of the tip itself, but concerned about the holes not lining up. What are people's thoughts?
I can take some better pictures during daylight hours.
