Advise, Cracked Wheel Pants at Canard

Hello All! I am new, I have just acquired a "Flying" Q2 with the LS1 Carbon fiber canard, Refluxer, etc.. pretty much everything to make it a Q200 except the Engine. The Airplane has over 1500 hours on it and was built in 1986. I have grabbed the Pre-inspection Checklist and I am only finding about 8+ things wrong with the airplane which need to get fixed before it can fly.

I am currently building a Cozy Mark IV so I have experience with composite aircraft. I wanted this "Qute" Quickie for Commuting to work and just building time.

On inspection, I noticed a large crack on the inside of the right gear at the canard side going from the Front to the back. The left side has no such cracks, so this looks like it was caused by a side load during landing. (or a ground loop) I have just acquired this airplane and I want to make sure its safe.



Obviously I don't want to leave a crack there so I am thinking about sanding out the crack and ensuring that it is not in the Fiberglass (The crack looks like its in the Micro only).

Does anyone have a recommendation on what else I should do with this or look for?

Thanks

Yup! Makes perfect sense. I have the plans. Good Idea to see if the gap opens by pulling. I will have to grab a Hydraulic lift and check it out. The last W&B of the aircraft has it at 534 pounds. I don't want to try and lift half that by myself

One thing I am contemplating is ripping the Feet off the bugger and redoing the Wheel Pants. The Q2 has Cleveland Hydraulic brakes and it looks like some odd "Cessna 150" wheel pants have been grafted on. The whole aircraft sits 4 inches taller then stock making the wheel location a longer lever. I am guessing with the Plans layup the structure is not good enough for the extra length.

Can you post some more photos? There is not enough information here to tell anything.

Sam
Q-200

What did you ever do about this?

Well, I talked to the builder of that part of the airplane. He said he laid up a real thick section of micro in that area when it was very cold. I weight tested it to see if at gross if it opened up then I took all the weight off the gear to see if it changed. I hummed and hawed at it for a bit then decided to grind it down to the glass and inspect the glass. I took off about 1/2 an inch of micro until I could clearly see the glass and I inspected it for cracks. There was no damage to the fiberglass, so I refinished my sanding to make it nice and smooth. Currently it is smoothed and prepped for painting. I am leaving it unpainted currently so the work can get inspected then I will paint it and get her up in the air.

I decided to err on the side of safety.