On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:40:02 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Isn't that what high-speed (duct) tape is for?

A friend of mine experimented with duct tape on his flap gaps a few years
ago. Unfortunately he chose the flight into OSH for his test flight.

Imagine his horror when he couldn't deploy the flaps when trying to land on
the green dot, short behind another aircraft...

Duct tape isn't a great choice for that sort of thing...

;-)

grey duct tape is good for 150knots provided that none of the edges
protrude through the boundary layer. ...but I dont know about it's
load bearing qualities over an air gap with dynamic pressure to one
side though.

for bridging a half inch gap the sort of polyurethane tape used for
sealing plastic cloches in england is pretty good. I use some for
sealing the gap between the tailplane and the fuselage on the
Tailwind. sure it's a different colour to the white paint (a light
green translucent colour) but it has stayed in place for 4 years.

the glider guys use some sort of surgical tape that has embeded fiber
reinforcing across the width of the tape.

why are you so worried about "approval" for sealing a drag source?
I'd be more worried to degrease the area of the glue bond than to seek
approval to tape up a spat. after all this isnt structural and it is
supposed to be gap free.

Stealth Pilot