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Why everyone acts like composite repairs are the gold standard when metal work holds up better
I was at a hangar in Tulsa last year helping a buddy with a Cessna 172 that had a patch job fail after just 18 months. The owner swore by the composite fix, but I watched that thing delaminate in the heat. Has anyone else seen this trend where people overlook good old aluminum repairs?
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mason_ward1mo agoMost Upvoted
Yeah but wasn't it applied during like 90 degree weather?
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terrymitchell1mo ago
Hell yeah, I've seen that exact thing happen more times than I can count. You gotta wonder though, was that patch job done right to begin with or did they just slap it on and hope for the best? Most of the composite failures I've witnessed trace back to bad surface prep or wrong temperature during cure. What kind of prep work did you see on that Cessna before they stuck the patch on?
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