wing skin ! what the

[flyerme]

This morning I removed my lightwing from the hanger and descovered appox 1/2 the the right wing upper outer surface including the ailron skin was very loose? was crumpled and looked like 1/2 the wing had been in an accident? I emediatly inspected and found nothing? I then rang a Lvl 2 and whilst on the phone and less than 5 mins later ,my wife informed me the skin was back super tight?

 

The lvl 2 could not explain it . once it was in the sun it tightened almost emediatly. the wing is alloy.with coveing,looks like poly fibre

 

never seen this before? any ideas?

 

 

[facthunter]

The Dinasaurs were like that. Till they got some sunlight on their 'sails" they could hardly go anywhere. Nev

 

 

[Guernsey]

A vitamin D deficiency.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Bigglesworth]

My Bantam did that to me, but not as bad as you describe. It was a heat thing. Really cold day it loosened and when it warmed up it was fine.

 

 

[facthunter]

Perhaps it has something to do with the amount of heat applied to shrink the fabric in the first place. It might not have been hot enough. Nev

 

 

[old man emu]

Perhaps it has something to do with the amount of heat applied to shrink the fabric in the first place. It might not have been hot enough. Nev

I think you might be on to something there, Nev. However, if the wing has been painted, the only way to repair it is to rip off all the fabric and start again, this time making sure that the iron is at the correct temperature to shrink the fabric. Heated properly, the fabric with shrink about 10% from its raw dimensions.

 

OME

 

 

[Yenn]

Some paints can be removed from Dacron. Those by Stitts are mostly MEK dissolvable. No need to strip the fabric, but I havn't seen Stitts go loose with cold weather. Most things shrink in cold, so mayb it was the aluminium framing expanding, but I don't think the co-efficient of expansion is big enough for you to see any change. Too low a temperature when shrinking would give loose skin generally, but strip a bit of paint off and try ironing at 250 deg, see if it ttightens.