Put a hole in the top covering of r/h side wing,what is the covering,and how do i fix this hole?any help apreciated.After a sucsesfull maiden flight and two flights after brought plane home and in the process of packing it away knocked a 3/8 drive ratchet off of work bench and it landed on the right hand side of the wing i had proped up against the bench pre hanging it up
Now i have a hole in the top covering and two (2) busted ribs. This is a arf thunder tiger trainer 60 and I have no idea on how to make this repair , do I have to recover the whole wing after repairing the ribs or will a simple patch over the afected area sufice, the covering looks like a contact adhesive thin plastic , what n where do you get this stuf from. Please help as after getting the plane in the air and landing ok have realy got the bug to get it back up again and to have it grounded by a stupid mistake in the shed rather than a crash is very frustrating , not to say a crash would be ok but just a bit easier to live with than a acident in the shed.
Regards mick

Mick,
Just cut back the covering from damage, put ribs back together with CA and cut some balsa strips 6-10mm wide to strengthen the repaired ribs and then recover.

Cheers

thanks for that have glued ribs back together but the material used to cover it do you know what it is and how do you put it on ?more to the point where do you get it.
will CA do as a glue for putting a patch over the hole, have some thin and mediam CA in the shed.

You'll have to buy a roll of covering. I'm not sure what brand TT uses (Anyone out there know?) judt cut a patch about 1/2" bigger on all sides and iron it over the hole

I swear ARFs are going to be the downfall of the hobby! []

A hole in the Covering is a simple fix - if you have som spare monocoat left over from your build. As you bought an ARF you don't have any left over scrap and probably don't have an iron to apply it. . .

OK, options;
#1, go to your LHS and buy a roll of covering material and cut off a patch that is about twice the size of the hole, tack it in place with your covering iron and then seal it up and shrink it tight.
#2, find a friend that has some scrap covering and apply as in #1,
#3, Field repair, buy a roll of Tuck Tape* peel off a piece and apply to the wing, you'll be flying in 30 seconds.

*Tuck Tape is a type of packing tape used in Canada by building contractors to attach vapour barriers to houses. It is light weight, strong and the glue will stick to anything! The problem is that it is red with black lettering and once applied it will NOT come off. (not pretty, but you will be flying!)

Good Luck!

The covering is like a contact paper made with plastic. You can patch the area with a low heat covering film such as Ultracote. Monokote requires too much heat to easily do the job.

A quick fix is colored packing tape. The tape we call Zagi tape(packing tape) will work fine. The tape can be shrunk with a heat gun. If you use a heat gun, be careful that you don't melt the factory covering. As mentioned in another post, clear packing tape will work and you'll be back flying in no time.

Before you apply the tape, clean the surrounding area of the damage with denatured alcohol.

ok thanks every one will do the repair with hopefully ultra coat as sugested , have simalar tape here called "hundred mile an hour tape" cause it stays put at a hundred miles an hour, used by lots of race car outfits to keep damaged spoilers together.As far as ARF go's the local Model shop is aproxamatly 800miles away seperated by aprox 300 miles of water called Bass Straight, so options for help in setting up a model were limited , have since found a club aproxamatly 2 hours drive away,launceston model club but due to 2 busted disks in my back, driving that far has sever consequenses for me. Untill I found this web site I have been going it alone, getting a ARF was one realy great option to get into the hobbie as the last model I fully built was about 18 years ago and you had to cover wings with paper and aplly a dopping agent to get the rigidity to the covering, but that was then and this is now. So I thought I was doing allright to get a maiden flight in and two subsequent flights without crashing it by myself. ARF in my opinion will not be the end of the hobbie here as with the sucess of my efforts 3 of my mates have ordered planes as well, so as we progress in this little area we hope to get into all facets of model building and that willl include from scratch models as we get more confidence in our abilitys to assemble these planes.In the end it is all about the flying and the great feeling that goes with a sucsesfull build and subsequent flights.Without this forum we'd be up the creek in a barbwire canoo without a paddle. So to that end Thank you to everyone for their wondefull advise
It truely is appreciated.
Best Regards Mick

Mick,
Check out[link=http://www.hstore.com.au]Hstore[/link] They are great people to deal with and very competive with there prices and very good mail order. I know how you feel about driving, Have the same trobble myself with a gummy leg as well. Hang in there and good luck with your flying.

Cheers

Everyone has answered your question but just some food for though, when you get to where you have sheeted wings like are on most wings these days on the leading edge, then you can find an article in the May 2005 issue of MA starting on page 46 you can find a very good way to patch wings (or anything else for that matter) where you have sheeting.

I had a mishap with my Funtana, and used this technique for the first time, and was very impressed with the results. You used cross-grain thin cuts of balsa and CA them down under the hole on the sides and that acts like a shelf. Then you cut a balsa square, or whatever you shape you cut where the hole was, and then just shape to fit.

I love this method, and have found it very great to use on sheeted planes. But on my trainer, I just use a patch of the same covering and do like has already been stated.

Hope this helps

~Michael~

Hundred Mile an Hour Tape! EEEEEKKSS ,[X(] Now Im havin an Army flashback! Its also known as Duct Tape. Its silver,bumpy, grainy, and most of all Heavy![] You would probably have to laterally rebalance your plane if you used it. I know someone was kidding to have suggested that. But in this hobby if ya can have a sense of humor, it gets sour fast. I have used clear packaging tape for an at-the-field fix for small tears, but it too requires a touch of acetone to remove, to put a permanent patch on. The monokote, ultracoat is the best way,,,Keep em flyin!

Thanks again to every one who has contributed to an answer to my question, have about ten minutes ago sent off email request to the supplier that "ghost" sugested, and have included a request for a flat iron.The dealer sugested is still two states away but a little closer than the one I have been getting my stuff thru,hopefully wont have to wait the 5 to ten working days before I get what I have ordered.
Having said that I was struck by another question,are all irons the same or do you need diferant styles types for the differant coverings? Or will the heat range of a standard hobbie iron sufice for all aplications.I have been on a very steep learning curve on "modern" coverings and methods of fitting them up.
Best regards to you all and many many thanks
Mick

Mick,
Normally an adjustable iron will cover all the range of coverings today. Only other thing you may need later on is a heat gun for shrinking the larger areas like wings. Mick I have have nothing but good service from them with 99% of stuff overnight, but you can never count out AussiePost[&o][&o]

Cheers.

if you are going to use a house hold Iron to apply your covering try a old t-shirt over the hot area to avoid burning the covering as it will leave a plastic residue if you do. I borrowed the wife's and had to buy her a new one soon after ha ha now I have my own Iron her old one. try the lowest setting first then raise the heat as needed its pretty easy stuff to use

If you can get four pieces of balsa stick or popcicle sticks and glue them into a frame, it makes a handy practice frame. follow the directions as though you were going to cover a wing, then poke a hole in your new creation![:@] Then practice patching it. Sounds silly,but it works

duct tape/ cellophane tape works great for small holes....keep some handy at the field as u can just paste it and continue ur next flight

The one thing I'll add to this being as you have never used iron on covering before is. Don't forget to take the backing off, and the side that you took the backing off of goes down.

if you are repairing with covering and not tape then you should consider rounding the corners of the patch because it makes it harder for the pointed edges to be lifted up. the rounded patches stay down better.

G'day all and thanks for the advice , have fixed it and have been in the air again both volantaraly and involantarily, the latter included various items as well, including walls and roof of my shed, so to that end I'm grounded again. Managed to find most of my plane and associated equipment about 2km or aproximatly 1 mile frome the house still in what was left of my shed(it was wrapped around one of the few remaining trees left standing ) So till next time I'm rebuilding the shed first then onto a plane again

Actually, they may be the saving grace of the hobby. It's because of ARF's that you enjoy some of the lowest prices (adjusted for inflation) that you've ever seen in the hobby.
Think about it--a lot of people in the hobby today are in it because of the ARF's. I don't know why people have such a hard-on against ARF's. What's the big deal? People want to fly, and ARF's are the answer if you don't have the time to build a plane. We are stressed enough for time as it is. Not all of us are retired, you know!

More people in the hobby=more buying power=more pressure for better, cheaper technology=more, better, cheaper products--especially electronics. It also = more people in the AMA, making it stronger than ever before as a lobbying service for us. I'm new to the hobby--only because I always wanted to do it before, but couldn't afford it. About a year and 1/2 ago, my brother re-introduced me to the idea, and i was really amazed at how cheap the stuff was now. Not that 300 dollars is cheap, but it's a steal compared to the prices of things back in the 80's when I was a kid! The world's changing--either change with it, or die bitter!

BTW, I've flown RTF, ARF, and Kit. I enjoy building kits, but don't want to spend the time on building one more than once a year--I have a family that wants some of my time as well.

Amen brother. There was a column in either this month's or last month's Model Avaiation discussing this very thing. Sometimes, I feel like the old guys at our club look down on the guys (myself included) who choose to fly ARF's when they really shouldn't. Yes, I didn't build up the wing and cover it, but you know, there is still plenty of building when it comes to ARFs' anyway. Not to mention the fact that you are exactly right when it comes to pricing. They (ARFs) have helped drop the prices of kits and everything else as well. You can get a Tower Hobbies Uproar kit for around $40. Throw a $50 Super Tigre 40 in it with electronics and everything you will have a fun flying plane that cost around $200 total! How much would that have cost 15 years ago?

Additionally, let us all remember that most ARF's can be had and flying at a cheaper cost than most kits (the Uproar is an exception to the rule). Financially speaking, with the increased prices it seems like for everything these days, sometimes it's just purely based on a financial decision by the individual flyer. As such, we should not look down on them b/c they may have less desposable income than say a kit builder or a retired flyer who has less financial commitments.

I usually recommend that everyone try to build one kit. My reasons for this are:

1. In the process of building, you learn how to make repairs to your ARFs.
2. You also learn how to prepare an ARF for it's first flight, i.e. where you might need to strengthen the fuselage, fuel-proof, etc.
3. You know when your ARF is damaged, what can be fixed realistically and what may be more economical to replace.

Actually derek533, I think that article was mentioned in the August issue. I know there is the big purple 30 something percent Aeroworks Ultimate on the cover. And it's in that one. But you could look in there. That's where it's at.

~Michael~