CKeller
Premium Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2006
- Messages
- 268
- Reaction score
- 25
Engine's breaking in, flying every night, really enjoying the heck out of having my 'Bolt back after 5 long months spent overhauling my engine...and now this:
The dope on the upper wing left hand leading edge is pulling away from the fabric. The fabric itself, around the upper wing tank, is wrinkled and has detatched itself from the tank (if it ever were glued down, its not now). I have movement in the aluminum leading edges in this area, and the nails are backing out of the front spar. In other words...ARGH!!!
Sure, I've been flying it hard...but I have a feeling the metal leading edges, with their expansion and contraction in heat and cold, combined with the drier southern CA climate and the deep red color of the Randolph butyrate dope, have combined to give me undesired movement in the wing and loosening of the fabric. It appears that re-covering is in my near future.
I'm trying to look on the bright side - it will be interesting to see what's under all that pretty fabric up there. And, now I can finally get the plane rigged correctly.
I definitely intend to add nose ribs ahead of my upper wing tank for support. I'm wondering if I should be considering wood leading edges up there in light of this problem. Does anyone have any problem with wood on top and metal on the bottom?
The fabric is ceconite with Randolph dope. So far we've stabilized the flaking dope by tacking the area down with more dope and silver, and we've glued the fabric around the tank filler neck. The fabric tightened up with judiciouos application of heat from a heat gun...but only so much. The leading edges are going to continue to work, so a re-cover party is scheduled as soon as I can assemble the materials we'll need. Anyone know of any smokin' deals at OSH next week?
Colleen
The dope on the upper wing left hand leading edge is pulling away from the fabric. The fabric itself, around the upper wing tank, is wrinkled and has detatched itself from the tank (if it ever were glued down, its not now). I have movement in the aluminum leading edges in this area, and the nails are backing out of the front spar. In other words...ARGH!!!
Sure, I've been flying it hard...but I have a feeling the metal leading edges, with their expansion and contraction in heat and cold, combined with the drier southern CA climate and the deep red color of the Randolph butyrate dope, have combined to give me undesired movement in the wing and loosening of the fabric. It appears that re-covering is in my near future.
I'm trying to look on the bright side - it will be interesting to see what's under all that pretty fabric up there. And, now I can finally get the plane rigged correctly.
I definitely intend to add nose ribs ahead of my upper wing tank for support. I'm wondering if I should be considering wood leading edges up there in light of this problem. Does anyone have any problem with wood on top and metal on the bottom?
The fabric is ceconite with Randolph dope. So far we've stabilized the flaking dope by tacking the area down with more dope and silver, and we've glued the fabric around the tank filler neck. The fabric tightened up with judiciouos application of heat from a heat gun...but only so much. The leading edges are going to continue to work, so a re-cover party is scheduled as soon as I can assemble the materials we'll need. Anyone know of any smokin' deals at OSH next week?
Colleen
