Flap Pulley Mount Reinforcement at Fuselage Station F
There have been two Bearhawk Patrols that have experienced a failure of the weld that attaches the small tube used to mount the flap pulley to the T7 fuselage tube near where it joins the longeron, along with the T10 tube, at station F.
The fix is weld back in place and add a 1/4 x .035 tube from the top of the bushing (3/8x .058) to the cross tube (F 3/4) at about 45 degrees.
For aircraft that are already covered, an alternate fix is to add a strap as shown below:
While this failure does not constitute a safety threat, it does create an operational inconvenience. Bob says that airplanes that have already been covered are fine to continue operating as-built, but he recommends that builders who can still weld in this area should add a short length of T1 tube as shown in the drawing. This is a precaution that is easy to add in the early stages of construction, and this change has been incorporated into production kits.