Repair procedure

Ok, gents, time for the new guy to learn something .......... again.

I bought a used Thunder Tiger Windstar EP to give soaring a shot. The plane has a tear in one wing. The tear is between the ribs and stringers of one section of the wing with no balsa underneath it. I have no idea how to properly go about the repair/patch. The tear is a "V" shape with the legs of the "V" about 3 inches long and the point is hanging in the wing. Do I try to match the color with a heat shrinkable film and apply it over the tear tacking it to the rectangle of ribs and stringers right over the remaining film? Do I first cut the damaged film out to the ribs and stringers?

Is there any time that you just apply a self-adhesive patch to the damage .... perhaps when its a simple puncture?

I still haven't worked with shrinkable covering yet (other than applying heat to tighten up the film on my glow planes), so I may not be aware of patch material that might be available. Feel free to straighten me out and/or point me to a website that can educate me.

Harlan

Reply to
H Davis
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I would cut out the torn film, unless you cannot find a good match for the film that is on there. I'm not familiar with this plane but many times ARFs have poor covering that is hard to repair. I'm NOT a perfectionist and I use carton sealing tape, packaging tape whatever to patch some ARFs. In this case I might leave the tron film on and try to get to stick to the self-aqdhesive patch.

Many times on mine. Some films take high heat to adhere and some low heat. Might patch with the low heat stuff.(towercote, econocote)

You have the right idea. Some who knows about your palne my be a better help. mk

Reply to
Storm's Hamburgers

I have repaired many holes with packing tape as suggested both glow and gliders. Depends on how picky you are about how the plane looks. If you want to repair the hole so it looks purty, you will need to find matching covering whether Monocote, Ultracote, overcoat, whatever. You can either cut a piece a little bigger than the rip and iron that over the rip or cut the material around the rip to just inside the surrounding balsa. You want to leave the existing covering attached to wood. Cut a piece of the new covering material just big enough to overlap the existing. You want AT LEAST an eighth of an inch overlap. Tack it down on one side. Pull and tack on the other side. Repeat this back and forth all the way around the patch. Doesnt have to be tight as a drum but you dont want any wrinkles along the edge. Once you have it attached all the way round, hit with heat gun or iron and tighten it up. It is a bit hard to hide repairs in transparent covering because the overlap will be darker than the surrounding material and patch. Opaque color repairs will be hard to spot if done carefully. I had an Easy Electro 72 electric glider from Cermark that got quite banged up in its career. I used whatever color I happened to get hold of first so it ended up with what I called a disco wing. Probably had 6 different colors on it! Most of my ARF's, I dont care what the repair looks like so they end up looking pretty odd. My kit built planes always get matching color repairs both because I am picky about those and I already have scraps of the exact covering handy.

Reply to
Fubar of The HillPeople

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:39:39 -0600, "H Davis" wrote in :

It all depends on your aesthetics.

Many different things will work aerodynamically.

I would use a matching color of the same kind of film, if I could identify it. But rolls of film are expensive!

So take what you can get from what you've got on hand (or can steal from a buddy).

I usually wrap the patch around the leading edge. Otherwise, the airflow tends to tear the patch off (don't ask me how I know).

You may if you wish. Leave 1/4" or so inside the ribs. Once the patch is on, it won't make any difference aerodynamically. There may be a visual difference, depending on the color.

Yes: duct tape, vinyl tape, packing tape, electrical tape. I've used them all at different times for different purposes. They've all worked.

Ah, yes, there are some sticky-backed, self-adhesive strips on the market. They're usually harder to iron tight.

Whichever material you use, overlap it at least 1/4" over the ribs on both sides.

I've done this many times. It works.

Marty

Reply to
Martin X. Moleski, SJ

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:39:39 -0600, "H Davis" wrote:

Harlan, I don't know if I can educate you but here is what I would do...I always do this. I cut away all film of the damaged "bay." This would be from about 1/8" from each rib to wherever you have to go to have no further than 1/8" to reach underlying balsa or structure. I use an iron on low heat to make sure the original film is well adhered to the balsa that now surrounds the opening in the film which you have cut. Then I slit the edges of that 1/8" edge so I can tack down those edges against the surrounding balsa. The idea is to firmly attach the film around that opening, to leave a neat square or rectangular, whatever, of the open area you now need to recover. I try low heat on the original film first to see if it will stick and the adjacent film tighten some. If it doesn't, then I jack up the heat slightly and try again. This way, you will know if you are working with low-, medium-, or high-heat film and what you should get to cover that open bay. It should be the same level of heat, though low temp will work over high temp but high over low doesn't work too good. Cut the shape of patch you need and make it overlap the balsa at the edge of the opening about 1/8". With the tip of the iron, tack the patch down a few places to make sure it is sticking and there are no big wrinkles. Then go around the periphery sealing that 1/8" overlap down to the old film. Don't let the iron touch the patch area until the edges are well-adhered to the old film and cooled. Now you can start taking the wrinkles (if any) out of the patched area. It doesn't have to be the same color as long as it looks nice. Models are generally expected to be symmetrical and now you have a color and shape on one wing that is not on the other. I will generally do the same thing to the good wing so the color scheme will be symmetrical. The second wing will be easy now that you know how and will not take as long. The edges of the patch on the old film might not be straight. This is no problem. Get some Trim coat or vinyl tape like is used on cars and put a strip of this stuff over the uneven edge so the straight lines of the tape cover the uneven film overlap. Do the same to the other wing. This will not only look OK; it can easily make the wing look a whole lot better...unless someone had used transparent. Don't patch with transparent in this case unless you have exactly the same film.. That is what I do.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Cashion

Gentlemen:

Thanks for the advise on repairing torn covering over one "bay" of a wing panel. Each of the reponses made sense to me, and told me I was at least thinking about this correctly. While reading Fubar's and Martin's response, I started thinking about trimming the torn material about a quarter inch inside the torn bay and tacking that down to the ribs. I was damend proud of myself when Ken advised doing just that. Until then I hadn't decided how I was going to somewhat assure that the old covering would stay attached to the ribs when I put the new covering on. Time to play around with various coverings now. That's how I'll really learn. I also haven't discarded the idea of using packing tape or any other kind of tape to repair things like this. I intend ot learn with this and a few other planes, so aethetics aren't all that important at the moment. I just want to get out and fly. I have yet to do that other than on a sim.

However, the weather was nice enough today for me to take the trainer out to the field an begin breaking in the engine while running the plane around the ground for a while. Gald we have some helpful guys out there in the public field .... both club members and non-members. Today it was the non-members who showed me the ropes on where to place the transmitter while starting the engine as well as the details of starting the engine, using the starter, fueling, etc. It was a good day. Next week I may just get to fly,

Again, guys, thanks for the advise.

Harlan

Reply to
H Davis

On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:43:36 -0600, "H Davis" wrote in :

Great idea!

Good for you!

Marvelous!

Let us know how it all turns out.

Marty

Reply to
Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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