I understand that a lot of you want to get a tight covering job, but some of the things listed above are actually making more work for yourselves than is needed. Getting monokote tight the first time through is actually a pretty easy thing to do, although it's easy it can be a bit time consuming. And on that note let me say this, don't ever be in a hurry when covering a plane. I've had lots of people ask me if they are doing something wrong because it takes them so long to cover the plane. Nope, not at all. Covering takes a long time. There are no short cuts or work arounds, you just need to take the time to get it done properly.

A couple of points first. On wings that have open bays. You will want to create a pathway from each bay out to the "open air". Look at each wing bay and see if there is a way for air to escape from that bay. You want to make sure that there is a path all the way from each wing bay out to the edge of the wing. If there isn't an open use a pin to create a small hole. It doesn't need much. Why are we doing this? Because trapped air is one of the biggest causes of your covering being loose. If the bay is completely sealed off what happens when you try to cover it is that the air in that bay will heat up and expand, and then when it cools down and deflates the covering will be loose again. If you have a hole in that bay the air in that bay will simply expand out and equalize letting you shrink your covering with no problems.

It was mentioned above that they poke holes in the covering when covering over sheeted or foam wings. Try to use this as a last resort. Trust me, it's possible to put down your covering without having to poke holes in it. Like I said above, it takes some patience.

Here's how I do my covering. First put down your covering on the panel that you want to cover (we'll discuss a wing here). First tack down one corner of the covering. Go to the other corner on the same side and tack it down. Before you tack down the covering in this corner you will want to pull the covering tight before you tack it down. When you pull it tight you will want to make sure that you pull straight so that you don't add any weird creases into the covering. One note here, don't worry if there are wrinkles in the covering at this time because they will work out (trust me, they will). Once you have this corner tacked down go to the next corner and once again pull it snug and tack. And finally do the same for the last corner. Is it important to pull it tight and snug right now?? Only if you want a tight covering job when you are finished. While it's true that the covering material will shrink when you heat it there is a limit to the amount it will shrink. The tighter you can get it now, the less shrinking it will take. One note here, as you are stretching the covering you don't want to warp your wing as you do it. This comes with practice on how much you can tug on it right now. With all 4 corners tacked down now we want to continue tacking down the edges. First go to the top of the wing in the middle of the covering and tack it down. Go to the bottom of the wing opposite of the last tack we made, pull the covering tight, and tack it down. Continue in the method until you have the covering fairly secure in position, and it's pretty tight. Now use your covering iron and go completely around the outside of the covering are and seal the edge down. This is very important that you do this because so that the covering has an anchor to stretch against. If you have a portion not sealed when the the covering starts shrinking it will just pull the covering out of position, and make a mess.

With the edges completely sealed it's time to start shrinking the covering. Use your heat gun to shrink the covering. Start in the middle of your work area and start heating the covering. You'll be able to see it shrink as you go. Don't get in a hurry here and work your way towards the outside of the work area. If you are trying to pull out wrinkles in the covering you will want to start heating AWAY from the wrinkles. Start heating the covering and then work toward where your wrinkles are. This will start pulling the covering tight and start to pull the wrinkles out before you ever get to the wrinkles.

After you have the covering shrunk with your heat gun now it's time to use your covering iron to seal the covering down. Use a hot sock on your iron so that you don't scratch the covering was you do this. Set the iron to the temperature that is recommended by the manufacturer. Start heating the covering and apply pressure to seal the covering down the the surface of the wing. On open bays use the iron to heat the area and finish shrinking it. As you use the covering iron, if you develop an air bubble use the point of your hobby knife to poke a small hole in the bubble, and then use the iron to push the air out of the bubble.

Look at the attached pictures to see what I am talking about. If you do your covering like this you won't have hardly any problems with it wrinkling up at the field or while stored. I store my planes in my garage and with Oklahoma summers the temps out there are usually 100°+ during the summer, and I don't have any problems with the covering wrinkling back up.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions about this.

Ken