Covering?

[BuschPilot]

I know that i am a little naive, And i know this might sound like a stupid question ever asked here. I have not dealt with fabric Before in general aviation. But i have been thinking of something, While I was covering my R/C. I was wondering if the covering will loosen and bubble up? The reason i am ask is I have a couple of RC Planes and Sometimes I have to heat/iron it up to tighten the skin. I realize the covering on planes a whole different ballgame, I was just wondering if the same applies to Kitfox's Skin...


Drew

[Dave S]

Drew,

There are a couple different kinds of covering material - We used polyfiber and it does not loosten up once set. When shrinking polyfiber, a person needs to control the iron temp as anything over 350 F will cause problems. Polyfiber - once shrunk to specification, will stay there throughout its life. Very stable stuff.

Other builders on this list who used other covering systems can help you with how those products react.

One screwy experience I had was recovering an airplane with another person where a product called "Razorback" was put on it way back - the stuff was a fiberglass fabric with so many problems it didn't last long on the market. I recall the plane would sag the fabric on the wings overnight with dew/moisture - then tighten up again when the sun heated it up. It also held moisture against the aluminum substructure and created a lot of bauxite.

[BuschPilot]

Thanx Dave,

That is what i was curious about, I really Appreciate it.

;)

Drew

[avidflyer]

Ya Drew, don't be afraid of the fabric. Like Dave says, shrink to the right tempature, and not any more. If you follow the manual, you will have a good job in the end. I think most people who cover their first airplane end up saying, "That was easier than I was expecting" It's not rocket science! :-) JImChuk

[jrevens]

Just as a matter of conversation, I’ve saw a Polyfiber job that I’m guessing wasn’t heated/shrunk quite enough before painting and as the weather got real cold it loosened up and had wrinkles (maybe the underlying structure shrunk & the fabric remained stable?). Then it mostly recovered in the warmer climate. Kind of weird. One thing about Oratex is that you can go over it with an iron or heat gun anytime after it’s installed to tighten it further. You shouldn’t have to do that if it’s tightened properly to begin with of course. One of the demonstrations they do at OSH is to let people strike a test panel of Oratex with a ball peen hammer as hard as they can to demonstrate its strength, and also to show that it can then be made just fine again with a heat gun. I think that any of the polyester fabrics can stretch after being shrunk, if enough force is applied and it doesn’t tear first, but that may be wrong.

[David47]

John, I think that ball peen test they use in that Oratex demo also tells us a lot about how tolerant good fabric covering would be to, god forbid, potential hail damage. Aluminium sheeted aircraft would have a harder time in those circumstances !.