Badland Part 103 Pilots and Builders Forum

For a change of pace and an exercise in covering curved structures, over the last couple of days I covered the stb side of the vertical stabilizer. As with everything Oratex, another learning exercise.

(1) Definitely cut OVERSIZE so you have some material to grip when applying heat in a attempt to get the kinks out around the curved tubing sections. This will be even more important when closing the structure with the port-side material requiring the overlap edges. (Another learning experience.)

(2) As Peer has pointed out, you do not need to tack the fabric to the cross-members of the stabilizers, elevator, or rudder. The A/C is not doing over 100 mph.

(3) Kinks on the small diameter, severely curved frame are inevitable. The YouTube videos seem to indicate that it IS possible to get them out, later. I just hope this can be a part of my skill-set.

(4) I should have learned this on the fuselage covering, but re-state: apply glue to the ENTIRE circumference of the tubing.

(5) the felt-pad is a wonderful tool, however with a heat gun 3 hands would be a bonus.


Getting way ahead of myself, I roughly positioned my stabilizer accent logo into position (complete with backing ... to be removed on installation). The logo accents the sky blue and I believe will be even moreso with the red elevator and horizontal stabilizer. The finished bird should also get me at least a picture spread in the Tech Alumni Magazine.


I mentioned in a previous post that I had a poor fit of the Oratex at the starboard side lift strut attachment point. I cut an Oratex patch and will apply it this afternoon when the glue sets.

It's looking good! Based on the pictures, I would say you have less scalloping than I ended up with. I believe the trick is to leave plenty of excess fabric, and get it hot enough to stretch when applying. This allows you to wrap it around the curves.

Is the fabric tape as shrinkable as the regular fabric? And how do you determine which type to use the smooth edge or jagged edge type (sorry, I forget its name).

I don't understand your reference to fabric tape. Until this morning the only tape I used on the project, except for masking tape to hold the tracing paper or fabric in position for measuring or fitting, was some anti-chafe tape on some of the engine hoses to protect against possible friction against the rough interior of the fiberglass cowl. I also added the anti-chafe tape along the rim of the cowl where it meets the windscreen.

This morning I ran a line of paper tape along the perimeter of the vertical stabilizer skin to provide a straight glue line for the opposite side overlap as I've seen in the videos. This gets removed once I trim the overlap after tacking down.

Definitely the most difficult part of Oratex covering ... The severe curves of the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and elevator perimeters (0.5: diameter tubes. Kinks everywhere.

I caan't empjasize enough that you leave a GENEROUS width of Oratex around these curves. You'll need to do some serious pulling of the material as you apply heat to activate the glue and give the Oratex some stretch. Still pretty ugly.. I hope I'm able to work most of them out later per the videos.

I'm trying paper tape for laying out the overlap glue lines ... We'll see how that works out. Paper tape ...

The tape is not really a tape but the Oratex fabric cut like tape, and if I remember correctly, it already has the glue on it. The jagged edge tape is called pink edge tape (pink does not reference its color). From what I understand both the jagged (pink) edge and another type with a smooth cut edge are available.
It is optional to use.

Todd

I thought they were both called pink (or "pinking") tape, but I could be wrong.

I'm not sure if they have the same shrink rate as the other fabric, as I didn't use any on my build. For any small sections that I thought would benefit from an extra layer, I cut my own.

Also, I believe the difference between the edge choices is purely a matter of preference.

The vertical stab is my 1st attempt at getting the Oratex around the curves of the tail-feathers. I keep getting lots of krimps in the material over the severe curves in small diameter tubing. The port side cover looks pertty good, but I'll probably have to remove the stb side and try again. This time I will give myself more material (for gripping and pulling) along the leading edge.

I had the same scalloping but left it. I figure it's fine and from what I understand Oratex is pretty hard to remove. It wasn't worth the effort to me. Let us know how the removal goes!

Another fairly nice day for late November in North Texas, so this morning I slathered on some glue around the innermost surfaces of the fuselage tubing. Once ready I'll use my small hobby iron to wrap the fabric down. Part of the finishing process.

I hope to make one more attempt at getting the vertical stabilizer leading-edge looking presentable before I commit to un-gluing one side and cutting/installing another panel.