camlf

On my 5th trip out to fly, I felt good. My last flights last afternoon was great and no crashes or damage! I got the Aerobird Challenger up and tryed a loop in the "easy mode" Well it looped alright but I could not pull out of it. The wing folded and sprialed hard.
I have read where a good fix is a 18 inch plastic ruler. I found one at Wal-mart and taped it with packing tape to the top. A well done job.
I almost tryed a paint stiring stick. smaller and lighter. and then I almost got a school 12 inch plasic ruler, but read to use the 18 inch craft ruler.
What do you think?
I will try it out in the morning.
I have a spare new wing but I want to get the most out of the wing for tranning.
Mabe I should wait on the loops..lol. Thanx on any input.[]

Tall Paul

Just about everything you can think of is better structurally than foam.
Popsicle sticks work well.
Epoxied to the wing underside is better than on the top.
One of my Tiger Moths has spruce sticks expoxied to the bottom of the lower wing to fix a break.
Carbon Fiber strips are the best for the purpose, either epoxied or CA'd across the break.

camlf

Will a craft or hobby store have carbin fiber stips?
The ruler was to heavy. used 8inchs of a stirring paint stick. A popsicle stick sounds like a good idea. Thanx for the input.

Tall Paul

A modern well equipped hobby shop should have CF strips, but I doubt a craft store would.

camlf

Thanks.going in the morning to hobby town. they are open here on labor day. busted a prop today. I have Fabed some thin and lighter than the wood plastic. similer to a credit card but oval in shape and taped it to the top over the fold. Will pick up some carbin.

I also Archery hunt deer. How about a carbin arrow blank in the wing.

Tall Paul

On my often repaired Tiger Moth..

highpines

Hey!.....You're Moth looks better than mine!.... If I knew how to post a picture I'd show you.

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

FIXING WINGS AND TAILS

Repairing a CREASED wing with packing tape alone doesn't really work very
well. It works better on the tail because it encounters different forces, but
what I am about to explain works MUCH better on both the wing and tail and is
easy to do. It should also apply to the Xtreme, and all the Firebirds, and
all
similar planes that use a foam core wing.

A creased taped wing might fly, but at the first real stress, its gonna fold
and you are going to crash. Tape alone has no body or stiffness of its own to
resist a fold since the wing's internal foam is compressed. Net Net, there is
nothing to resist the next fold. You need to stiffen and support the wing.

Here are things I have used for wings and the V tail with pretty good results.

Take a hobby knife or razor blade and open the vinyl covering at the crease or
stressed area

Get the wing set in the proper position, even bend it slightly the other way
to open up the gap.

Basic repair

Fill the folded area with Elmer's white glue or titebond yellow glue. I have
not tried Gorilla Glue, but that might work well. The white and yellow glue
will seep into the foam and bond with it and stiffen it.

Let it partially dry, at least 2-3 hours. It should have seeped into the foam
at this point but will not be fully dry. Now, fill it again. The second
coat will fill the gap. Let it dry at least 12 hours, then check it. If it
is fully dried, apply a little clear packing tape to help it resist pulling
open.

Stronger repair

If your repair is in the center area of the wing, say within 6 inches of where
the rubber bands cross, or if you tend to fly hard, do lots of loops, fly in
wind and the like, then you probably want to take this next step.

For a wing, I add thin but somewhat stiff strip of 1/32 ply, to the top of the
wing to bridge and support the area. Typically this is 12-24 inches long
and 1-2 inches wide. Regardless of where the repair is, you always center this
wood strip on the wing so that the wing is balanced and the impact on the air
foil is uniform. This will resist flexing in both directions but is not so
stiff that it encourages the wing to fold at the end of the ply. . Also 1/32
ply is light and flexible so it will shape to the curve of the wing so as to
minimize the extra drag the repair will cause. You can use some contact
cement or double sided carpet tape works well. Try to get the ply in
complete contact with the wing. It is stiff enough to resist the next fold,
but will still flex with the wing.

If you are fixing a tail, use the same process, but use 1/64 ply to keep it
light. Be sure to do the left and right the same to keep the tail balanced.
However any added weight on the tail will make the plane tail heavy which will
impact how it flies. You might have to add a penny, a dime or a quarter to
the battery area to rebalance it. Fly it and see what you need.

Now cover it with clear packing tape stretched so that it forms a smooth
finish with no sharp edges so the air can flow nicely over the wing. The
repair does effect the shape of the wing so it does impact how the plane
flies, but not enough to matter if you fly under power most of the time. If
you like to glide and thermal, I find these wings are not as good as a new
wing.

I have never had one of these fold.

Embedded supports

If you want to get more aggressive, you can cut the covering on a new wing or
a damaged wing, remove or compress some foam and embed the plywood or a dowel
support piece into the wing and glue it into the foam with Elmer's white glue
or Titebond yellow glue. Then tape over the top to cover it. I have not used
this approach but I may try it if I badly bend a wing.

While Epoxy is strong, it doesn't move with the foam the way Elmer's or
Titebond do so I have seen a tendency for epoxy to pull away from the foam
which weakens the area.

If you look at the Firebird XL wing, or the Aerobird Xtreme, they have a
support rod embedded into it when you buy it. Other similar planes, like the
T-hawk, have these supports in their wings when they are new. If you do this,
I suggest doing this so that is spans the body of the plane as many folds
happen where the rubber bands attach. Too often you make a hard off angle
landing on one side of the wing but see no damage to the wing. You think you
have a clean wing, but in fact the foam inside has been weakened. You fly and
the wing folds and you say "what happened?" What happened is 5 hard landings
ago you stressed this spot, compressed the foam enough to weaken it and boom
you have a fold.

Give it a try. The key message here is don't depend on tape to keep the
crease from folding again. Tape is good for closing up damage on the front or
rear edges of the wing and for reinforcement of a new wing by the prop area,
but it can't keep a creased wing from folding up again.

camlf

Thanx for all the input . I have tryed the popsicle stick trick expoyed on the underside of the wing centered length wise with the wing. on both sides. I was in the process of makeing some creditcard like plastic to brace the top, so I finished with that idea. I then wraped the repair areas with only one wrap of packing tape.
I almost ditched the plastic idea and tried a dowel I had .
This evening just before dusk the wind stoped so I went out for my 8th trip and hand launched and completed not one but two nicely, stright and trimmed Loops in the "easy mode"the wing held up great. I'm starting to get a good feel for it now. Still going to wait for the "Pro mode" I'm having fun just soaring around up high on half or less throtle.