Ok, So i went flying today... (I'm soloing now) the wind was causing a little trouble but noting too bad, unitl..... on my third flight of the day I was practicing final approach, on my third "final approach" i gave some throttle and gained altitude. As I began to make my turn the wind picked up a little and my plane was almost in a hover, long story short a TREE MONSTER REACHED OUT AND TRIED TO GRAB MY PLANE!!!! I heard the sound where the tree monster got some fingers on the plane, but don't cringe just yet, the tree monster did not get my plane... I brought it around a landed this time because i knew i had hit the tree... of course i did an immediate inspection for any damage. there was no structural damage thank goodness. the prop was a little scuffed, and there are 4 punctures to the covering of my wing and tail. (1) is on the right wing about mid wing closer to the aleron than the leading edge aproximately 1.5in long, (2) other side of wing closer to the wing tip looks like a pencil was jabbed in it. (3) left tail about .5 in long, (4) about 3in from the other hole in the tail, it is 1.5 in long also. My question is other than the option of taking off the covering and completely recovering the wing and tail sections. How could one repair these small holes in the covering? I took pictures but i cant get them small enough to post here ill keep trying that so you all can see for yourselves the damage I am trying to cover. By the way the plane is a hobbico superstar with monokote.

Clear packing tape is awsome! Unless you want to practice with monocoat... trainers are good for that.

I agree, throw a roll in your flight box, a bottle of CA is a good idea too.

Before I even took my trainer up for it's maiden flight it was a victom to many episodes of Hanger Rash. (That will happen when you build it and don't fly it for 10 years and move many times in those 10 years.)

I had things poke thru the covering, and I just cut a small piece of monocoat then ironed it over the puncture.

I had the tail chopped off by a falling ladder, I epoxied the tail back on with some reinforcement, and then removed the covering around the repair, then overlapped the new covering over the old covering.

I had tears in the covering on the wing, I just patched it like I did the poked holes.

It may not be the prettiest bird in the sky, but it flies just fine.

I might go back and recover it, but I doubt it. It is a trainer, and I plan to let other family members learn to fly on it. I am sure it will have more scars on it eventually. Just gives it some character.

Sheeesh ag4ever, why didn't you just fold it up and put it in a shoe box for storage? Poor defenseless little airplane. Sniffle, sniffle,[]

Make sure you clean area well with acetone, alcohol, or Monokote trim solvent. I prefer the trim solvent--it really cleans well and the new covering sticks forever. Large areas such as between ribs, cut the entire bay out so the new covering can be sealed on the rib capstrips. It is difficult to get good results if you are trying to cover over unsupported areas. Also, a rounded edge does not come up as easily. For small holes, just cut little round circles of covering and iron 'em on. Simple.

Not to get off the subject, dragline322, but you mentioned that you took pictures but cant get them small enough to post here.
Here is how to remedy that:

1)Click on the picture on your hard-drive you want to post to highlight it.
2)Click on the right mouse button to open the menu.
3) Scroll down to "OPEN WITH" to highlight it.
4)When highlighted another menu will open. Scroll down to "PAINT", and when highlighted click on the left mouse button to open up the paint program of your computer.
5)When paint is open showing a larger version of your picture click on "IMAGE" on the toolbar to open a menu.
6)Scroll down to "STRETCH/SKEW" to highlight it. When highlighted click on the left mouse button.
7)A 'stretch and skew' window will open.
8)Under "stretch" in the 'horizontal' and 'vertical' boxes type in the percentage you want to shrink the picture to. Usually around 50-60% is enough but both boxes HAVE TO be the same percentage or the picture will end up elongated and odd. The size of the pixels of the pic depends on the percentage you type in the box. A pic around 700KB would be shrunk to about the 50-60%, but a pic around 1.2MB would need to be shrunk to about 40-50%. So if your pic is about 1.1MB you would type a '40' in both the 'horizontal' and 'vertical' boxes.
9)Click "OK" on the right side.
10)You will see the picture shrink down. After the pic has shrunk click on the "X" to close the program. A message box will open asking you if you want to save the changes. Click yes.

Now the picture file size should be small enough to post in RCU. If it is not then repeat the steps and shrink the pic say another 75% in both boxes as stated above.

Let me know how this works. This should be the setup basically on all Windows programs from Windows 95, 98 - 2000 up to Windows XP.

If you need to know how to post pictures on RCU let me know.

Tigerdude, checkout this free program, very user freidly.[link=http://www.download.com/Easy-Thumbnails/3640-2192_4-10285473.html]EasyThumbnails[/link]

To really make nice repairs, make sure you use a completely different color monokote, especially if its a trainer. Eventually, you'll get to point to each and every repair and remember the mistake that led to it! Think of it as badges of honor.

Brad

I think I will do that. Hanger rash gets one color, air crashes get a different color, and landing attempts get a third color.

That sounds like a decent idea... patching up with different colors so i can remember each time my heart almost jumpped out of my chest because I thought the plane may be lost forever... and if i continue to need to patch up eventually the plane would resemble one of Richthoffens Flying Circus!!!!