Repairs

[eta150]

This was suggested, and it seems like a great idea. All posts involving repairs and fixes should be posted here.

[StampingKid]

Thanks Eta for the thread. And I'll repost my repair from the coverings thread.

we got a tear in our covering when trimming off the excess and in preparing a patch noticed that the mylar was almost as hard as tape in sticking to itself. So we wetted the repair spot and gently rolled the wing over the laid out patch. Had a snow day yesterday so got some gym time and It has held amazingly well over 10 flights

[eta150]

Yeah, many liquids work well for that. In a pinch, you should always bring spare patches with you, and you can even use saliva if necessary.

[jcollier]

Water and saliva do OK in a pinch. We usually use a little diluted glue stick and "paint" the area that needs repair. The rolling over technique is a good one for sure. I don't think any of our planes is without some kind of repair.

For balsa breaks, a small piece of 1/32" balsa for a patch makes for a stronger repair with very little added weight.

My son has needed to make repairs often at or right before States. In 6th grade, he had his BLG stepped on, and was able to pull out a 5th.

Last year, his backup plane had an accident with serious wing damage two days before States. When we got there, the primary plane was not flying right due to a bent prop shaft, so he had to fly the backup.

Gotta always have the superglue handy!

[jander14indoor]

I like this thread! To be truly successful at WS you have to be comfortable fixing your plane under any and ALL circumstances.

This comes from experience and practice. Build lots of planes, fly lots.

While a well built plane is pretty robust to flight damage, they are VERY fragile to handling. Your planes will be broken a lot, get over it.

Get comfortable with field repairs, they are necessary. Learn how to make quick, accurate and light repairs.

Heck, sometimes you have to break your plane on purpose (to adjust it) you need to be comfortable with this!

Try to avoid a "BEST" plane. Learn what makes a plane work and make sure ALL your planes are "BEST" planes. If your backup is not 'fixable' so that its as good as your main plane, make another backup!

Patching, with the very light mylars, saliva or pop (with real sugar) are the standard among the experts. Use a small paint brush to apply. Behind these is very thinned contact cement (10 to one solvent to glue kind of thin). Or glue stick disollved into water or alcohol. Wet the brush liberally, brush on the glue stick and apply to covering.

Thanks,

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[blue cobra]

At States last year, in the very humid gym my wing posts weakened and broke when I tried to attach it to my plane. I don't entirely remember it, but I believe my CA wouldn't cure, and, flying on broken posts, I got I believe a 76 second flight out of a 120 second plane. Considering first place was 130 seconds, this was a huge disappointment. Does anyone know what could have helped?

[andrewwski]

Some CA accelerator would have probably cured the CA.

[jcollier]

This was something I mentioned last year, but at PA States, a parent who brought a plane in for a competitor somehow fell on a styrofoam box and crushed one of the better planes that was at the competition. The team did a heroic job of gluing it back together and they got a flight of 80 sec. or so. So...in addition to being able to repair your plane, be sure you have something as safe and secure as possible to protect it.

Also, I don't know how many teams can really have a backup plane that is just as good as their primary plane, but it sure helps to get one as close as possible. I know my son was not pleased with me when I insisted he fly his backup to try to get it as good as possible, but it turned out he needed it, and it did well enough.

[gh]

With respect to repairs, don't mix and match CA and pretty much any other glue. I find that CA will not "stick" or cure properly on a joint that has been glued with Duco, at all, which is extremely frustrating when repairing your plane with CA. Also, for fast repairs use thinner CA because it sets much faster and usually alleviates the need for accelerator, which is nasty stuff.

[Littleboy]

This year at regionals my tail broke off and I glued it back on wrong so it flew strait into the wall. I got 40 seconds out of a 2:30 plane. I still got 4th.