S7 Speedster project in Belgium

[n85ae]

Could probably split it most of the way with a dremel, then open it with a straight slot
screwdriver and then re-crimp. I'm not sure that is an acceptable practice, I have never looked into it,
but it could be done.

Jeff

[Tombrackx]

Trying to cut them open and recrimp doesn't seem a good idea. When I cut them open out of curiosity how it looks after crimping. You can see the outside strands are sort of melted together with the copper and the inside strands are all entangled to eachother. Anyway I just cut them off and made new ones. Luckily I had cut them with about 10" extra. Just a pity there are no extra sleeves provided with kit . Thanks to "Delta Wisky" for the trick with the drill bit! Works like a charm.

[Tombrackx]

Moved on to the wings! Working on the wingtips I had one of those many "let me scratch my head over this" - moments. I have the wingtips with landing light provisions, but as the factory built wings have the forward spar extending a bit outboard of the #10 rib. The question arises if it's better to cut the spar flush with the outboard #10 ribcap or to cut the wingtip to kind of fit around the forward spar. Any suggestions from you guys?
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[efwd]

I trimmed the spar off. You definitely have to be mindful of what landing light you will be using. Had I cut my fiberglass, My AeroLEDs would not have fit. Or it would have partially resided inside the spar tube.

[Delta Whisky]

I cut an accommodation in the tip - and was still able to fit the landing light. I guess it depends on your particular selection of lighting.
Right wing tip install complete small.jpg

[Tombrackx]

Hi everyone,

I started covering my wings with the polyfiber.
I have the PVC leading edge installed as its a speedster wing, so I decided to coat the leading edge with 2 coats of polybrush. I also precoated all the rib caps with Poly Tak to then reactivate and glue the fabric when shrinking is done.

But when I actually started with attaching the fabric to the leading edge I ran in to 2 issues

1) the poly tak dries so fast it looks like I sometimes have spots in the fabric where the cement isn't really soaked into the weave. I did maximum 10" of glueing at a time. Could I use a little thinned poly-tak + acetone on those areas to make sure the fabric is properly glued? (Impossible to find MEK in Europe)

2)I have loads of wrinkles in the fabric in the glued areas which I don't manage to iron out at 250F. Will you see these through the finishing tapes? What about small airbubbles?

20210903_122713.jpg20210903_122703.jpg
Thanks for your input

[Jerrytex]

I am certainly no expert and I am sure others will chime in.....The manual has you scallop the fabric on the bottom piece between the ribs. That way the fabric wraps over the leading and the gluing portion is behind the the leading edge, mostly on the spar and not on the PVC itself. Then your upper piece of fabric wraps over and is glued to the fabric on the bottom side, making a nice straight overlap that gets finishing tape. That way, there is really no glue between the PVC and the fabric. After shrinking used thinned polybrush over your pre-coated leading edge (like you do with the fuel tanks) to reactive the pre-coated polybrush, and it will be nice and smooth. I would think that you're going to have a real hard time with the fabric if you are unable to get MEK? I would beg, borrow, and plead to find some.

[P Johnson]

Hi everyone,

I started covering my wings with the polyfiber.
I have the PVC leading edge installed as its a speedster wing, so I decided to coat the leading edge with 2 coats of polybrush. I also precoated all the rib caps with Poly Tak to then reactivate and glue the fabric when shrinking is done.

But when I actually started with attaching the fabric to the leading edge I ran in to 2 issues

1) the poly tak dries so fast it looks like I sometimes have spots in the fabric where the cement isn't really soaked into the weave. I did maximum 10" of glueing at a time. Could I use a little thinned poly-tak + acetone on those areas to make sure the fabric is properly glued? (Impossible to find MEK in Europe)

2)I have loads of wrinkles in the fabric in the glued areas which I don't manage to iron out at 250F. Will you see these through the finishing tapes? What about small airbubbles?

20210903_122713.jpg20210903_122703.jpg

Thanks for your input

MEK is available in the UK at LAS https://www.lasaero.com/products/article/E00HKU8QZ it is also available online from several sources, it also goes under the name of butanone.

You can get it in the Netherlands on Ebay https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/2650437...YAAOSwn55a6BAu.

Regard

Paul