Anybody have any tips for building great (yet unobtrusive) wing skids? I fly off a paved runway, and every time a plane tips over, the tip of the wing gets scuffed up. I've tried a lot of different things, so far with mixed results:

1) Great Planes nylon wing skids - Not durable enough. They wear down like an eraser and have to be replaced often.

2) Plastic wing guards cut from 2-liter soft drink bottles - They work, but they don't look great because they don't conform to the shape of the wing tip

3) Homemade skids cut from wood and coated with epoxy - Works OK, but they're a little heavy

4) Steel control horns mounted on wing tips - Haven't tried them yet, but am considering them

I'm wondering if it would be feasible to create a mold of the wing tip and then build something from plastic or epoxy that would fit nicely over the tip of the wing without adding too much weight. Is it doable? Does anyone have other suggestions?

Please don't take this too personally as I mean no offense.
But if you are wearing nylong wing skids down that fast, then I think the real problem may be your landing technique. With that, I'd suggest more landing practice before over-engineering a bandaid fix for the real problem. Besides, isn't flying more fun than repairing?

Piano wire skids? I've used them and they work great but they're not real easy to retrofit.

Go to Wal Mart back in the hardware section and get a package of the little white plastic self adhesive wall hooks. They're like 3 bucks or something like that for a package of 6. Mount one or two of them on the bottom of your wingtips. The little hook part hangs down and will drag before your wingtip does. They are large enough to be effective, but not so big that they detract from the looks of the plane. They are pretty durable, easy to put on, and come off with a little heat from your heat gun. I used them on my LT40 and they worked great! This was mentioned a while back in Model Airplane News, by the way.

I do tend to agree with the advice about landing technique, bearing in mind that conventional gear models do tip more readily than tail draggers.

I found that a little patch of 3M clear vinyl tape, the sort you use to seal hinge gaps, works reasonably well. Hard to see when applied, conforms to curves well, and can be replaced if you use a dab of "Goof Off" or "Goo Gone", or some other type of adhesive remover that will not dull the covering.

You might look into a set of these. Expensive but extremely durable:

http://dreamworksrc.com/catalog/prod...roducts_id=574

I second the piano wire skids....light, easy to install, durable, and not ugly.

Dave.

I put a small bead of 7min epoxy right on the monocoat along the edge of the underside and it works great. My Ultimate bipe has a very low bottom wing and I was always scraping the covering off on our paved runway. When the runway runs north south and the wind doesn't you can't help but scrape the odd tip. The epoxy is cheap, dries clear and works great. Let it set up for a bit before you put in on and it wont run.

Don't worry; I'm hard to offend. :-)

I won't claim to be the best pilot in the world, but I'm working against some constraints. Our runway is short and was built 30 years ago for .40-size planes. I fly .60 and 1.50-size warbirds and unless I bring them in at a near stall, I have to zig-zag to burn off some speed before hitting the end of the runway. Some of my planes (e.g., TF Corsair) are prone to ground-looping, too. I wish a solution were as simple as getting some landing practice and never dragging a wing tip on the asphalt, but it's not. Even the expert pilots at our field occasionally scuff a wing.

Those ceramic wing skids look pretty cool! I like the piano wire idea, too.

I assume you make your piano wire skids by bending the wire and putting a loop in each end for a screw (or maybe just gluing the ends into the wood)t? Or can you buy them already made?

RC cars have a pliable but tough, clear, adhesive backed material available that is used to protect the bottom of the car/truck, etc. You can cut pieces out of the sheet supplied to conform to the bottom of the wingtip and the self adhesive sticks well to monokote, etc.. It takes the abuse on paved fields and protects the wing. Check in the RC car section of your local Hobby shop.

Edit for spelling, duh.

Is that Rhino Skin you're talking about?

Look at 3M command hooks on Amazon? They have several, they look pretty aerodynamic, come in clear And white, you could file them to your liking and just pull the strip to remove not leaving any sign they were ever there.

Cut a zip-tie to length, front to back, and screw onto the bottom of the tip rib. You'll not soon wear that out.