hookedonrc

I am getting my Ultra Stick Lite ready to fly once again. The last time it was in the air was almost 5 yrs ago. It has sat in an attic area for the last 4 which exposed it to cold temps, and very hot ones in the summer. I live in OK, so the cold probably didn't cause what I am seeing now. On the fuse, the ultra cote has released almost completely. Since I am doing some minor repairs on the fuse, I have decided to recover rather than try to re-seat the original covering. The wing has no damage and the ultra cote is intact so I am planning on leaving it alone. However, with what happened with the fuse I am considering doing it too.

Has anyone experienced covering being degraded by heat? And should I just bite the bullet and recover the wing too?

hookedonrc

Well, looks like I answered my question. I was smoothing the covering on my Escapade today and decided to give the iron a try on the Lite fuse. The glue on the covering softened and the ultra cote laid down flat against the lite ply, but after cooling, pulled right off like onion skin. So it probably means the covering on the wing is just held on by being attached to itself at the seams.... Sooooo it is full cover both fuse and wing.

Lesson learned about storing planes in a hot attic.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Yes sir, high temps will cause it to come apart. Ultracoat uses a lower heat temp to be applied so it will seperate that much quicker. I am not sure how hot your attic gets, but Ultracoat is applied at about 225 degrees. I also know that freezing temps are not good for any of the coverings. I was in Alaska for 4 years and had a plane covered in Monokote that was on my back porch in a shed. I had forgotten to bring it in. After a winter the covering was so brittle if you looked at it wrong it would crack. My planes are now in a climate controlled garage and I have not had any problems. Good Luck, Dave

hookedonrc

Thanks Dave,
I don't doubt that the high temp did the damage. Our attic is above the garage and although it is sheet rocked and insulated, above the garage ceiling it isn't. With August temps in OK in the summer I could see 150 plus especially with a dark charcoal colored roof. And I haven't flown the stick in almost 5 yrs. so it hasn't seen the light of day for a long time. So I will recover, but probably won't use the clear. Before i added checkerboard strips to the wing bottom it was difficult to know if it was right side up or not. Lastly I am going to clean the G26 with liberal amounts of carb cleaner. Have to make sure to clean out any fuel residue.