Thanks for chiming in NAES.

The covering really IS the integrity of the TufFlight planes. One needs to pay attention to getting everything straight, and then the covering will keep things aligned. Tape should be used sparingly, as you have done in critical junctions which attach hard points to soft squshy foam. All this is outlined in the manuals.

It's a tough engineering problem to keep a plane stiff for turns, but soft for impact. The X is on the hairy edge of getting everything done and still coming in under 3.5 lbs for Open B.

When folks use covering other than Ultracote or Icarex, I cringe, cause we've been there, and it's hit or miss trying to predict what will go wrong.

I guess as long one is still having fun, it's fun to experiment. But when contest deadlines come up, all that "fun" experimenting tends to turn to "pressure" when things don't go exactly as planned.