Gluing on Fabric

check out Falconer Aviation in Edmonton @
www.members.shaw.ca/kfalconer/fa/parts.htm

I have been using it on various airplanes for 20 years and very happy
with it.

I recently removed the fabric from a damaged airplane and it was hell.

ray

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:05:40 +1000, "......... :-\)\)"
wrote:

Hi All,

There are many homebuilts where the designer intends that the fabric be
attached to the wings solely by gluing. Aircraft such as the Corby Starlet,
Jodel D-18, Kitfox etc. These aircraft all use wider rib cap strips than is
normal to provide a large area for the glue to adhere to.

This practise is supported by calculations which show that the loading on
the glue joints is low (even in the presence of peel loads) and test data
that I have reviewed for the various glues in use.

However on the Polyfiber web site they claim that rib stitching MUST be
used - no exceptions even if the designer states otherwise.

What is the experience from the field ? I am interested in the experiences
of RAH members. If you have glued fabric on without rib stitching was it a
success of failure ? What was the airplane, how wide are the cap strips and
what glue and fabric were used. If failures occurred what was the nature of
these ???

Thanks,

Steve

Rich S. wrote:

"Ray Toews" wrote in message
...
check out Falconer Aviation in Edmonton @
www.members.shaw.ca/kfalconer/fa/parts.htm

I have been using it on various airplanes for 20 years and very happy
with it.

I recently removed the fabric from a damaged airplane and it was hell.

Falconar provides such wonderful factory support as well. I have a set of
plans purchased from Falconar. I couldn't find the detail of a control
cable pulley among the 40 sheets of plans. I sent Falconar an email asking
which sheet it was on. The reply came, "Send me $10 and I'll tell you." I
sent him two words instead.

Rich S.

Tell me it doesn't start with and 'F' and nor end with an 'U' !
Fer shame fer shame.
;-)

"Ray Toews" wrote in message
...
check out Falconer Aviation in Edmonton @
www.members.shaw.ca/kfalconer/fa/parts.htm

I have been using it on various airplanes for 20 years and very happy
with it.

I recently removed the fabric from a damaged airplane and it was hell.

Falconar provides such wonderful factory support as well. I have a set of
plans purchased from Falconar. I couldn't find the detail of a control cable
pulley among the 40 sheets of plans. I sent Falconar an email asking which
sheet it was on. The reply came, "Send me $10 and I'll tell you." I sent him
two words instead.

Rich S.

Ed Sullivan wrote:
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 23:49:09 -0500, "Robert Little"
wrote:

You might want to consider the results of the separation that occurred with
Steve Witman's Stits fabric glued onto the plywood wing that failed over
Alabama. How do you regularly inspect the glue for separation on a regular
basis?

IIRC in Witman's case use of a suction cup during preflight inspection
showed that the bond was failing. He put off fixing it until after
arriving at OshKosh.


Steve Witman's incident was one case out of hundreds of aircraft with
fabric bonded over plywood. You can't condemn them all from one case.

You could if that one case was done right. Howeer IIRC, Mr Witman
used his own technique for applying the fabric.

--

FF