So, we are working on a friends Cherokee, and the wing walk stiffener has about a 4" crack in the flange, between three rivets. It looks like a rib, but it only comes down about halfway to the chord on the bottom and doesn't meet the bottom skin. It's just riveted to the top skin, and has two rivets through the main spar and the rear rib behind that. You can see it clearly looking up through the inspection hole just forward of the MLG.
Our IA has been at this for 50 years, and he said "damned if I know how we are going to get in there with a rivet gun and replace that rib or add a doubler! If I've ever fixed one of these on a Piper, it was so long ago I don't remember how we did it!"
Is it difficult and how do we fix this? Piper sell a kit? And is this an airworthiness issue?
Our IA has been at this for 50 years, and he said "damned if I know how we are going to get in there with a rivet gun and replace that rib or add a doubler! If I've ever fixed one of these on a Piper, it was so long ago I don't remember how we did it!"
Is it difficult and how do we fix this? Piper sell a kit? And is this an airworthiness issue?
