Wrinkles in the wings after wet flight??

[Rooster]

The other day I encountered a bit of moisture during a cold day's flying of about 300 Nm from Natal to my farm in Stutterheim.
Temp was about 12 deg. Celsius and not much rain at all.

When I wheeled my Kitfox into the hangar at home, I noticed these wrinkles in the tops of and the first two panels outboard of the fuel tanks. (Both sides).

The next day, they were gone and covering was nice and tight.

Any ideas from the clever, non-farmers out there??

[avidflyer]

I think that the faric is a bit looser than it should be, and airpressure or prop wash pushes (or pulls) against the fabric and stretches it a bit, enough so that you get the wrinkles. Later on the fabric goes back to it's original shape. I had the same thing happen with an Avid Flyer I had. Don't think rain had anything to do with it. Try pushing in on that fabric and see how much it deflects. Jim Chuk

[Dave S]

Rooster,

One thing comes to mind in addittion to Jim's comments. What type of fabric is on the plane? Way back there was a fabric system called "Razorback"......it was a fiberglass fabric and was very succeptible to changes in tension due to moisture....I recall one plane locally with this material that would change with the morning dew and go back to normal with mid day dry-off. Just an idea but not likely anyone would have this around now....plus it would affect all panels, not just the inner ones.

If it is Poly Fiber....Like Jim said.....moisture has nothing to do with it.

Dave S (not a non farmer:))

KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp Drive
St Paul, MN