Glider Wraps, Gelcoat Refinishing

On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:33:42 PM UTC-5, Herbert kilian wrote:
Soaring Cafe has published an article I wrote about the subject:

http://soaringcafe.com/2012/09/whats...r-glider-wrap/

I would be interested what this forum thinks about the points made and

what the potential downsides are of wrapping a glider in plastic.

From my research, it should be a viable alternative to total

refinishing.

Herb Kilian

I would call Dick Butler he can tell you about that.

On Sep 12, 8:43*pm, wrote:
On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:33:42 PM UTC-5, Herbert kilian wrote:
Soaring Cafe has published an article I wrote about the subject:

http://soaringcafe.com/2012/09/whats...ey-fajita-or-g...

I would be interested what this forum thinks about the points made and

what the potential downsides are of wrapping a glider in plastic.

From my research, it should be a viable alternative to total

refinishing.

Herb Kilian

I would call Dick Butler he can tell you about that.

Dick Butler's Concordia has - from the reports I've read - some
control surfaces wrapped in Monocote, a shrink film used for model
airplanes. This was done solely for mass reduction reasons, no gel-
coat on those structures. Car wrapping films are quite different.
I'm contemplating starting a field study by wrapping the (short)
winglets on my LS8-18 in white glossy film and to apply it myself
since I have some background. This is a non-structural component and
mine are like the rest of the glider in immaculate condition. The
material is available on-line and would cost around $50 for the two
winglets. That's cheap enough to remove the film after 1-2 years and
see what's underneath (if it holds up that long).
Herb

On 9/13/2012 12:41 PM, Herbert kilian wrote:
On Sep 12, 8:43 pm, wrote:
On Tuesday, September 11, 2012 1:33:42 PM UTC-5, Herbert kilian wrote:
Soaring Cafe has published an article I wrote about the subject:

Snip...

Herb Kilian

I would call Dick Butler he can tell you about that.

Dick Butler's Concordia has - from the reports I've read - some
control surfaces wrapped in Monocote, a shrink film used for model
airplanes. This was done solely for mass reduction reasons, no gel-
coat on those structures. Car wrapping films are quite different.
I'm contemplating starting a field study by wrapping the (short)
winglets on my LS8-18 in white glossy film and to apply it myself
since I have some background. This is a non-structural component and
mine are like the rest of the glider in immaculate condition. The
material is available on-line and would cost around $50 for the two
winglets. That's cheap enough to remove the film after 1-2 years and
see what's underneath (if it holds up that long).
Herb


If you ever fly from "gravelly strips" (e.g. WW-II concrete airbases tend to
qualify in this neck of the woods) another area to consider wrapping might be
(part of) the tailboom aft of the main wheel where - in my experience - rock
damage accrues...an easy wrap, no laminar flow there to be disturbed, possible
reduction in "gravel damage"...

Regards,
Bob W.

Hi Bob

For your particular problem you do not need a full wrap but the following
could help

http://www.streckenflug.at/shop/prod...roducts_id=800

Wrapping an aircraft isn't new.

Back in 1983, I saw several F-104 Starfighters in white shrink-wrap material. They were to be shipped from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, to Taiwan. The F-104's were at Luke for training German pilots. However, in the early 80's, the Luftwaffe was changing over to Tornado's and the training program, run not by the U.S. Air Force, but by Lockheed came to an end.

Herbert, how's your project coming? If you want to increase the scope of the project, just shrink wrap the Cobra with LS8 inside and ship to me. I'll continue the test and you can go and get yourself a self-launcher that you've would like to have!

Ray

On Sep 15, 7:34*am, rlovinggood wrote:
Wrapping an aircraft isn't new.

Back in 1983, I saw several F-104 Starfighters in white shrink-wrap material. *They were to be shipped from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, to Taiwan. *The F-104's were at Luke for training German pilots. However, in the early 80's, the Luftwaffe was changing over to Tornado's and the training program, run not by the U.S. Air Force, but by Lockheed came to an end.

Herbert, how's your project coming? *If you want to increase the scope of the project, just shrink wrap the Cobra with LS8 inside and ship to me. *I'll continue the test and you can go and get yourself a self-launcher that you've would like to have!

Ray

....just shrink wrap the Cobra with LS8 inside and ship to me.
Ray, I would gladly comply and ship my LS8 to you! Problem is, you
wouldn't know what to do with it!
(You had it coming)
Herb

I rubbed off portions of my old contest number on a glider years ago
to convert JB to JE for the new owner. The otherwise crazed gel coat
looked perfect where the numbers had been. It was kind of eerie to see
how much protection had been provided by that thin layer of gray
lacquer.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

No need to run the experiment. Just look under contest numbers on gliders and trailers. If I had a new glider with gel coat I would really look at wrapping the whole glider. I did the numbers a few years ago and total weight was only about 30 pounds or less for the wrap.

An example:



http://blog.aopa.org/lgfsweeps/?p=110

On Friday, September 14, 2012 2:35:29 PM UTC-4, Tim Taylor wrote:
An example:
http://blog.aopa.org/lgfsweeps/?p=110

Darn, I was hoping for an example wrapped pilot.