Nondestructive inspection and testing of aircraft parts
Presented by Carl Ziegler
April 15, 2025
7:30 pm

At its regular members’ meeting on Monday April 15, Carl Ziegler demonstrated several techniques of non-destructive inspection (NDI), the process of evaluating the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage.  For the general aviation crowd, for example, this often involves searching for the source of an oil leak around the engine case and determining the presence of a crack.  Carl has close to 50 years continuous experience working as an aircraft mechanic including 38 years as an IA. In addition to GA, over 38 years of airline experience with Northwest and most recently with Delta, finishing his last 13 years of airline service as an aircraft inspector. Has owned a PA28 Challenger, Alon Aircoupe and presently Cessna 172N.

Among the more impressive demonstrations Carl gave was one of particular interest to aircraft owners of composite aircraft or parts. He demonstrated how a bump might appear to cause little damage to a fiberglass surface, but underneath is likely multiple places where the fiberglass has become delaminated, the layers of glass pulled apart from each other.

In the business portion of the meeting, President Marlon Gunderson welcomed newer members, including Joe Connolly, Jon Pierce-Ruhland, and Mustafa Mustafa. He announced the chapter has once again been awarded Gold Status by EAA; and announced that WoonYi Hanson has now received a chapter scholarship to attend the Air Academy this summer after being on EAA's waiting list. Chapter 54 is involved this year in three people attending the summer program.  Gunderson again urged volunteers to renew their Youth Protection Program certification before the first Young Eagles Day of our season on May 10 (you can find out how to do so here). He also urged people to sign up for volunteer roles for the August fly-in breakfast as the number of volunteers so far is far below last year's level and we need to decide soon whether to proceed. You can sign up here.

The president also noted that there are three critical roles needing to be filled for the continuation of the chapter: vice president, facilities director, and newsletter/web editor. Contact him to learn more.

Young Eagles coordinator Dale Seitzer outlined the upcoming Young Eagles Day, said young people are already signing up, and he needs pilot volunteers. "Just fly once," he said, indicating most volunteers realize the good feeling that helping a young person see their world from a different perspective provides.

Related information:
Download a handout of links Carl provided (pdf)

Upcoming Programs

May 2025:  Sebastian Heinz, CEO of Zenith Aircraft
June 2025: Annual Chapter picnic and hangar tour
July 2025:  John Mohr-Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame Member
August 2025: Oshkosh postmortem

Previous Programs:

2025:
January:  Using Foreflight
February: An evening with Al Kupferschmidt
March: Choosing the right avionics
April: Carl Ziegler on nondestructive inspection and testing of aircraft

2024
January 2024: 3D printing aviation applications (and Lake Elmo noise complaints)
February 2024: A fireside chat with Marlon Gunderson
March 2024: Mark Schaible, owner and president of Sonex
April 2024: Joe Harris, MAC director of reliever airports
May 2024: Sim pit design with Jeff Dale
June 2024: Annual picnic and hangar tour
August 2024: Your Oshkosh experience and fly-in breakfast debrief
September 2024: Dale Seitzer's Sky Ranger
October 2024: The Ups and Downs of Building an RV
November 2024: Former NASA flight director (and RV8 builder Paul Dye)
December 2024: Annual chapter holiday party