grotto2

My Feedback: (2)

So this falls into my lap. The last Lanier I had was a Caprice, a similar airplane. That was around 1970. I figure this would be acceptable as a vintage plane, but it's going to need some work. Here are the pros & cons:
PRO: The kit appears to be complete and unadulterated.
CON: It's sat for decades, perhaps in an attic. There's a problem with the skin on one wing panel in that it looks like a hand-sized area was heat-shrunk enough to show the foam grain. Can it be repaired? Will going after it with a monokote iron help or destroy it?
PRO: I've got a late sixties ST60 NIB.
PRO: I have several appropriate vintage transmitters. I'm thinkin' maybe the vinyl PCS.
CON: These were sold as weekend beaters and not meant to last.
PRO: It's not going to be the "Daily Driver"
CON: It's been so long since I built one of these, I don't recall the stress points and appropriate reinforcement

Any comments welcome.

TFF

I have a friend who had some of the last Laniers. Tough and heavy. They are great weekend hacks when the wind is up and the field is rough. As for wing repair, would an appropriate decal go in that spot?

grotto2

My Feedback: (2)

Okay, a decal may partly help.
But the skin still needs some kind of repair or replacement. The attached photo isn't very clear since the wing is all white and reflects the flash, but there's a palm sized area stuck down surrounded by a star of lifted wrinkles. I'm wondering if tension on the trailing edge of the skin and some gentle heating (130F?) might pull it straight.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

Is that one of the early soft skin Laniers or one of the later hard skinned ones? I can't tell from the photo. Regardless, it will pretty much fly exactly like the Caprice you had as they all pretty much used the same wing. Not really bad airplanes in their day. I learned to fly proportional on a Comet II. Some of its bad habits actually made it a fairly good trainer as you had to learn to fly through and make up for its problems.

grotto2

My Feedback: (2)

That's a good question, Truckracer. The material looks and feels like a very thick monokote. Measuring it with my micrometer it is about ten thousandths thick (.010"), if that helps any.
One thought I had was to weight the trailing edge of the skin and put some incandescent bulbs a foot or so away. Maybe it would loosen and straighten out.

Michaelj2k

Bake it in the sun for a couple of hours.

TFF

What it looks like is someone tried to shrink it and said Whoa its not Monokote. You can try heat as what do you have to loose? If you want it gone, I bet you will have to trim it off and put some Monokote on it.

Truckracer

My Feedback: (19)

The original Lanier ARFs had a wing covering that resembled sticky back shelf paper but was a material that MEK would soften for gluing plastic parts in place. It was just a single piece that wrapped completely around the wing core starting at the TE then all the way around to the TE again lapping over the original starting place. This was a very soft material, dented easily and for the most part, just covered the wing foam. All the wing's strength was in the molded foam and any spar materials that were incorporated. This material did seem to stick to the foam very well but I have no idea how well it would stay on over several decades.

Later on, they went to a rigid, thicker ABS like covering that again wrapped completely around the wing but did not lap at the TE but hung over just a bit. This material was held in place with a sprayed on contact cement and was prone to come loose over time.

On an old kit, I could imagine that either covering could come loose over time and that recovering could be in order before using the wing. I would probably use thin ABS sheet or even a thick Oaktag type, slick paper board with contact cement. I've even used just sticky back shelf paper back in the day but I'm not sure if such things are still available these days. Once common, you could get that material in about any color you wanted. As stated, those old wings didn't rely on the covering for much strength.

grotto2

My Feedback: (2)

Okay, that tells me a lot, Truckracer!

Since it doesn't lap over the TE but leaves a margin of material, it must be the later type. And it looks like loosening contact adhesive underneath.