Re: What I learned from Sebastian

From: William Gowen <wdgowen_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:19:33 -0500

Shock loads aren't a big problem with a 1.5 gram glider. Also the chemical
composition of Durobatics foam may be different from other foams. The
person who invented the product died without sharing the formula with
anyone. If a person were to want to try this trick with a different foam it
would be a good idea to repeat the experiment first.
On Feb 20, 2013 5:45 AM, <RLBailey_at_care4free.net> wrote:

> **
>
>
> The main problem with cyano joints is that, certainly with balsa, it
> appears to have no shock load resistance. The joints are liable to fail if
> the glider dives onto a hard surface.
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> On Feb 19 2013, William Gowen wrote:
>
> Sebastian Perez is a local high school student involved in several Science
> Olympiad events. Sebastian worked all day today to finish his second glider
> for the SO elastic launched glider event. I have often assured him that the
> only glue that would work for gluing the foam flaps onto a WIF7 wing is
> epoxy. Somewhere toward the end of the day (and after many messy and time
> consuming epoxy applications) he decided that he wanted to do an experiment
> to see exactly what CA would do to Durobatics foam. I gave him the thin CA
> thinking that would burn a hole thru the foam the quickest. He poured some
> on the foam and said "nothing's happening". So I said that maybe the
> problem was that CA wouldn't stick to the foam. We both wanted to find out
> so I took a piece of balsa and a piece of foam and glued them together with
> a thin film of thick CA. A few seconds later they seemed to be stuck when I
> pulled on the foam, so I decided to see how hard it would be to pull them
> apart. The result was that the foam split diagonally, leaving a strip of
> foam glued to the full length of the balsa. My next glider won't have any
> epoxy!
>
> Oh yeah - 2 weeks ago Sebastian set new Sr. Cat 1 AMA records in SCLG and
> UCLG using his first glider and on his first day flying it.
>
>
Received on Wed Feb 20 2013 - 06:19:38 CET