Are you using a Ironing sock over the iron?

TIP: lay the covering over the surface you wish to cover (say the bottom b/c thats where you should start on the fues) Make sure you have enough covering so that it sticks out over the sides.
When the covering is flat on the surface start in the middle. Once you have a good area tacked down (4 or 5 iron widths) go towards the tail and apply pressure by slightly pulling on the covering. While pulling begin to work the covering on from the middle out towards the tail.
Note: I always use Ultracote b/c I have found its more forgiving to work with.

Hello,
try stretching & seal @ ends except leave a small vent on one corner,then use your heat gun to shrink as you work the air towards the vent you left

Are you still trying to cover with a household iron?? To do a Jam up job you need a real hobby iron, a heat gun, a trim or sealing iron, windex and lots of practice.

no i got a proper iron for the job. I do have the sock to cover the bottom of the iron , but is it better to cover with or without the sock? Would a hairdryer do the same job as a heat gun? Whats a sealing iron and is it critical? And what is windex and whats it do?

Are there any other main preparations i need to do apart from flling in holes, sanding and removing the dust? Also should i cut the film to a shape which resembles the part i'm covering?

Though a hairdryer might help, I dont think it gets hot enough. I have never tried it. A sealing Iron looks like a miniture covering iron. It gets really hot and is used to seal places where the regular iron cant reach as well as sealing the edges of the monokote. Its not a must but to me it makes the job easier. Windex is a window cleaning fluid that many modelers use to help them to cover where covering is laying on top of covering. There is a chemical in the windex that causes the covering to slowly bond and stick as the windex dries. If you keep your design simple you wont need it (dont worry about it).

I always cut the film to shape that resembles the part Im covering. I find that there is less waste this way. Just be sure to remember when cutting which side is the sticky side and leave yourself some overlap.

Thanks southern touch. Wont be able to get any practice covering tomorrow, i mean later on today (its 2.30 am) going flying hopefully. Oh well saturday and maybe sunday if the weather is crappy i will get some covering done.

2:30am and the man is still talking about airplanes!!! I thought I was the only one who did that

did anybody keep the wing tips on their laser? Any advantages with or without? Its bloody impossible to cover these bits without making a balls up of it. I even got someone with expeirince covering planes to do this and he couldnt.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Pete

keep the tips on, any reasons for taking them off can be disregarded as myth.

use plenty of heat and pull the covering around the tips, keep trying, youll get it- it doesnt have to be perfect

keep the tips on, any reasons for taking them off can be disregarded as myth


removing a part of a wing ALWAYS affect flight performances


I am not good enough to feel a diference in the flight characterstics, but removing the tips will increase the roll rate

I built it with the tips, even after MANY people told me to skip them. After the first few flights I cut off the tips. Here are the facts: It knife edges better, it rolls faster, it is more stable in harrier, it does better walls and elevators, and the slow speed handling is as good or BETTER!

Believe what you want, but only believe the guys that have had it both ways!

Chuck

yep, no myth there man when you cut those wing tips off you are increasing performance like CHM says. The tradoff is that you lose a slight bit of stability in slow flight (you probobly wont be able to tell this difference). As for covering the tips, it takes time but isnt all that hard. Dont try to cover it with one piece, use one on top and one on the bottom.

i also have a new problem with the plane. It wont fit in the car!!
It is a tight fit if the engine and rudder and elevators are left off, otherwise i could never fit it in.

Moral of the story, Audi A4s are crap for transporting planes especially as they dont have foldy down rear seats!

Yup! I am going to have the same problem with my 33% when it gets done. I have a trailor that I pull my airplanes in but on long trips its not very economical on the gas.

the good point is when you will be good on the stick, you will fly your laser in the garden

It wont fit in the car
-----------------------------

well, i suppose you had better leave the tips off after all!!

finally getting my head round this covering lark.

Easier than i thought. Pity profilm doesn't stick to solarfilm too well. Dont think i will use solarfilm again, it seems to burn too easily.

Hopefully i will have a few pics for you in the next couple of days so you can all admire and envy my plane

wont have pics until middle of next week. Have to work extra shifts.

Not much to cover now. just one side piece of the fuselage, underside of the wings and the ailerons

this post seems to be missing a few pages. Oh well doesn't matter got the info i needed from what i did ask.

Next question is did anyone seem to have been given a different bag of hardware from what is needed to finish their plane? I seem to have been given too many screws that arent listed in the plans and not enough of what are listed.

What size of screws did you use to screw the control horns on to the control surfaces? Would servo screws do?

Hey,

Its really hard to adapt to this new site. Im not so sure if I like it or not yet?

As far as screws and stuff go I have no idea what drug the guys were on when they packed the screws and stuff. I didnt use servo screws I had some old hardware laying around so I just used that. The only problem I could see with the servo screw is that it is going into very soft wood and would have a very slight chance of shifting around and eating through the wood. I have used a servo screw before for this application with no problems, but thats not to say it wont happen.

whatever drug it was i want some

The screws they show for the control horns look like ones you can put nuts on to, that sort of tight thread, not actual woodscrews. Are those the screws you used(not woodscrews).
Also whats the best way to glue in the hinges?

When I first put my hinges in the glue didnt set so they all had to be replaced. I opted for CA hinges b/c I had some laying around. If you can get some epoxy up in those holes you can use that. I would pin those hinges in as well just as a precaution. A regular pin works fine but I always go with toothpicks b/c the glue will bond to them for an extra hold. It looks like crap though.

how do i mount the rear wheel? I cant work out where the metal wire goes when the hinges are in place.

As far as the instructions go they do not really tell you how to do this and I too made the mistake of not mounting it before I hinged. The best way to do it was to bend the wire up and then back and use it as a hinge but of course the instructions fail to tell you that. I ended up just moving the rear wheel forward by opening up the slot on the bottom of the plane and then I just hard mounted it into the bottom of the plane. (In other words I have a tail wheel that doesnt move, it acts more like a tail skid).
I tried mounting it another way but it didnt work out. I mounted it all the way back in the slot (not sure if I had to cut out a little more space or not?) and I l bent the wire so it would go into the bottom of the rudder. If you do this make sure you add an angle to the metal so it wont slip in and out of the rudder.

I thought about the rear wheel and decided not to go for a steerable version. Reason, I fly from a grass field that isn't a flying field so the grass doesn't get cut very short and when it gets longer this could get caught up in the wheel and cause some damage to the rudder. Not just a pretty face now am I?

As promised here are some photos. The laser doesn't have any electrics in it yet and the cowl isn't painted but it still looks good.