Engine repair downtime and Oratex musings
Posted: Sat Oct 21, 2023 6:53 pm
Crated up my faulty engine and got it off to London Ivy in Tampa for repair of the ignition system. I hope to get it back later next week.
Meantimes:
Chris had me order my Oratex covering materials directly from Janina with Better Aircraft Fabric in Anchorage. I informed her that the project was a Badland F-3 from Chris Deuel and that I was going with the half-naked look in blue and red. I sent her my color scheme diagram and asked for a quote of the materials required including shipping to North Texas. I also informed her that I had my own TOKO T14 iron, O'Skool Edge Bonding iron, heat gun and digital thermometer. Her response was reasonably prompt and the price did not shock me as I knew the materials were quality, but expensive. Ddriven mostly by my lack of painting skills, I sent a check and the materials showed up in a few weeks.
I recently inventoried the shipment and found that everything was per the invoice. However, a careful reading of the included Oratec Application Manual and watching several covering videos on YouTube, I determined that several items that I would think would be at the least very useful, were not included.
(1) No rolls of Fixing Tape (19mm, #08258)
(2) A non-stick version of Masking Tape (10mm, #08239-010)
(3) A non-stick version of Masking Tape (20mm, #08239-030)
(4) one pair (size 8) Working Gloves (#08428)
(5) Special Oratex Degreaser (250ml, *08245)
(6) Adhesive Remover (250ml, #0957)
Since there are NO prices in the document, I asked for a quote including shipping, but have not heard back as yet.
Last night, I studied the Fabric Nesting diagram provided by Chris. Upon examination I noted that it is for a full fuselage cover scheme and appears to be for a single color. So I started laying out a nesting diagram for the half-naked red and blue scheme I plan to use. I found that Janina must have used Chris's diagram to quote my order (20m of Fokker Red ... mostly wings, and 10m of SkyBlue). Since the fuselage is SkyBlue and is the half-naked portion, I find that what was provided was about DOUBLE what is required and that the layout for the rest of the A/C only requires about 15m of the 20m of red delivered. The stuff is really expensive, so this is a fair part of the over $4K invoice cost.
I sent an email about this to both Chris and Janina, but haven't heard back as yet.
Meanwhile:
Today I removed the rudder, flaperons, port lift and jury struts, and port wing along with the upper flying wires (in my case 3/16" rods) of the horizontal stabilizer. Tomorrow (Sunday, 22 October), I will remove the lower flying wires, the elevator, horizontal stabilizer, and starboard wing.
The A/C is already minus and engine firewall-forward ... and we are experiencing another Texas warming trend (92 degrees expected tomorrow), so it might be a good time to cover the half-naked fuselage in SkyBlue. I emphasize the MIGHT as I don't have all of the materials that I listed.
Will keep posting.
Meantimes:
Chris had me order my Oratex covering materials directly from Janina with Better Aircraft Fabric in Anchorage. I informed her that the project was a Badland F-3 from Chris Deuel and that I was going with the half-naked look in blue and red. I sent her my color scheme diagram and asked for a quote of the materials required including shipping to North Texas. I also informed her that I had my own TOKO T14 iron, O'Skool Edge Bonding iron, heat gun and digital thermometer. Her response was reasonably prompt and the price did not shock me as I knew the materials were quality, but expensive. Ddriven mostly by my lack of painting skills, I sent a check and the materials showed up in a few weeks.
I recently inventoried the shipment and found that everything was per the invoice. However, a careful reading of the included Oratec Application Manual and watching several covering videos on YouTube, I determined that several items that I would think would be at the least very useful, were not included.
(1) No rolls of Fixing Tape (19mm, #08258)
(2) A non-stick version of Masking Tape (10mm, #08239-010)
(3) A non-stick version of Masking Tape (20mm, #08239-030)
(4) one pair (size 8) Working Gloves (#08428)
(5) Special Oratex Degreaser (250ml, *08245)
(6) Adhesive Remover (250ml, #0957)
Since there are NO prices in the document, I asked for a quote including shipping, but have not heard back as yet.
Last night, I studied the Fabric Nesting diagram provided by Chris. Upon examination I noted that it is for a full fuselage cover scheme and appears to be for a single color. So I started laying out a nesting diagram for the half-naked red and blue scheme I plan to use. I found that Janina must have used Chris's diagram to quote my order (20m of Fokker Red ... mostly wings, and 10m of SkyBlue). Since the fuselage is SkyBlue and is the half-naked portion, I find that what was provided was about DOUBLE what is required and that the layout for the rest of the A/C only requires about 15m of the 20m of red delivered. The stuff is really expensive, so this is a fair part of the over $4K invoice cost.
I sent an email about this to both Chris and Janina, but haven't heard back as yet.
Meanwhile:
Today I removed the rudder, flaperons, port lift and jury struts, and port wing along with the upper flying wires (in my case 3/16" rods) of the horizontal stabilizer. Tomorrow (Sunday, 22 October), I will remove the lower flying wires, the elevator, horizontal stabilizer, and starboard wing.
The A/C is already minus and engine firewall-forward ... and we are experiencing another Texas warming trend (92 degrees expected tomorrow), so it might be a good time to cover the half-naked fuselage in SkyBlue. I emphasize the MIGHT as I don't have all of the materials that I listed.
Will keep posting.