Big Pete

If I fiberglass my plane what do I do about the open areas in the wing?

Big Pete

flytime56

when fiberglassing, you will have some major difficulties doing it on open bays. you need to have a fully sheeted airplane to be able to fiberglass it, if not, go to iron on covering.

there is no way to apply fiberglass on an open bay, it will sag with the weight, and the fibers will not be aligned.

GB

Big Pete

Thanks GB. That's what I thought. I also thought maybe you could cover the openings then fiberglass over that, probably not a good idea. I think I'll use iron on for the wing and fiberglass/paint the rest. I tried useing Monokote once but never could get the hang of it. Seems like I read that Ultracote was much easier, maybe I can get the hang of that.

Thanks.
Big Pete

flytime56

what kind of plane are you covering? if you are doing a warbird then i would go with the fiberglass, if not, iron on covering will be the best bet. also remember, fiberglass adds weight, harder to apply, need to paint, and harder to repair. the only benfit to fiberglassing is that it makes the airplane stronger, and you can paint some nice schemes.

monokote is easy to apply, i find it much easer then untracote. the secreat is to use little heat when applying the covering and make sure it is tight. then use your heat gun to shrink the covering. topflite has a woodpecker that is useful, makes small holes in the wood so that the air will go out, with no air pockets.

i like to use balsarite, a conditioner used for the wood. when applied, the covering will stick to it for good, but it is very hard to take off.

do some searches on rcu and you can find some useful information.

GB

Big Pete

GB,
I'm building a MIG-29 prop jet. Will be very fast. You think Monokote would peel off when it re-enters the atmosphere?

Big Pete

flytime56

Big Pete,

if you are building a jet like that, I would for sure go with monokote. fiberglass is much heaver, you want a plane as light as possible, then you can have great vertical. I have a small kobra, and that plane had unlimitted vertical, lost it in the sky a few times, was unbelievable when you couldn't see the plane, but just a small dot in the sky, was lucky to get it back a few times.

can't beat monokote for something like this, and then you'll have all the speed you can handle, until you can master this speed, then you just find the plane isn't fast enought.

have fun

GB

Goggles

My Feedback: (4)

I have to slightly disagree with this statement. If the proper techniques are applied there is very little weight gain. What about the advantages; you can paint any scheme you want, you don't have to worry about a corner lifting and getting fuel into your balsa (how much weight does that add), you can do several things to the surface like panel lines or rivets and it adds a small amount of strength.

There are several techniques out there, here is one;
Don't use anything over .75oz cloth, preferred .50oz, use a finishing resin like Z-Poxy thinned with alcohol (not whiskey) for the first coat then remove all excess resin(weight gain) by scraping or blotting, then after it's dried, sand, use about 4 coats of water based polyurethane like Min-wax, prime, sand almost all of it off, and paint. Keep the coats of paint very minimal, this is where a lot of people have their weight gain from.

Sure this process will take you a week to do a set of wings and this is a real disadvantage, but the end result will make it worth while.

Don't flame me, this is just my opinion, and if you do a search here on RCU you will find it is several peoples opinion as well.

Big Pete

Decisions, decisions. Thank ya'll for your inputs. Will research a little more before making final decision. More opinions welcome.

Big Pete