Glider repair

From: Bill Gowen <wdgowen_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:37:50 -0000

Tose who know me are probably familiar with my fondness for building
with CA. Until recently I used CA for glider construction. A lot of
glider builders seem to think this is a good practice. Probably for
high ceiling, highly stressed gliders it's a good idea.

For my low ceiling gliders I've gone completely to Duco for building.
A new advantage to this just came up this week. I was out testing a
Cat II glider at midnight a couple of nights ago and lost it in the
dark. It flew between a couple of neighbor's houses and disappeared.
Rather than taking a chance on getting shot, I left it until the next
morning. When I found it, all the surfaces were warped into really
interesting but not very efficient shapes. I took some acetone and
completely disassembled the stab, wing and rudder from the fuse and
separated the two wing panels at the dihedral joint. A little ironing
with a Monokote iron got the panels back into a reasonably good shape
and I'll put the model back together today. This whole process took
maybe 15 minutes - a lot better than having to start over again.
Hopefully the repaired glider will be usable when I get it back together.

Thanks to Kurt for the gluing advice and to Jerry for the ironing idea!
Bill Gowen
Decatur, GA USA
Received on Wed Dec 28 2005 - 06:42:27 CET