Building materials, covering

[jcollier]

Regionals on a MONDAY? Wow, that's tough. Ours has switched from its usual Friday to a Thursday, 3/11. We are also switching form Moravian to Kutztown University. The flying space is wider, but not nearly as high, probably 25' of safe flying space.

Good luck to you!

[eta150]

They used to be on Fridays, but they changed it this year. The snow storm is making it even harder.

[StampingKid]

Maybe there should be a thread for repairs but 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]

I'll make that thread. I happen to have considerable experience in that area

[Lowell]

I have some painter's plastic at home which is .31. Seems ro be very thin stuff and non-coated. Is this acceptable?

[DanielleS]

Are we allowed to use a piece of straw on the plane?

[Greg Doe]

DanielleS
My students airplanes have coffee stir straws for wing post sockets. A lot of more serious
indoor fliers roll their own sockets from tissue paper which is lighter than the plastic stir
straws. Generally this is an advantage that is not necessary on the "heavy" Wright Stuff airplanes. The stir straws we use are round, and about 3/32" in diameter. Use of straws
for this application has never come into question, so I can't see why you couldn't use straws
on your airplane for any purpose. Good Luck.
Greg Doe
Smyrna, TN

[jander14indoor]

DanielleS, not clear if you are talking soda straws, which Greg already answered, or straws from plants. If the latter, it will depend on the event supervisor, you should have your coach check ahead of the tournament. It's not wood, its a grass. But is cellulosic (is that a word? composed of cells, made of cellulose), so some might allow it, and some might not.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[StampingKid]

I think the rules have always stated that plastics can be used to attach wings and other parts to the plane. I think the change this year in addition to use of carbon fiber is that tape is now okay. I think there may have be dq's in the past for using tape to join the wing assembly to the motor stick. Another question could be is tissue used for tubes paper and whether technically it is improper other than as a wing covering. I am not sure going from memory. The caveat is to read the rules for yourself as there is no substitute for the rules and bring a copy with you to the competition. An event supervisor is a volunteer and may not be familiar with the rules--at my regional this weekend, I had the supervisor try to allow me to only check in one motor. (I had a bag of about 20 as I did not know site height and conditions until we arrived). Got a silver with a mediocre time of 1:40 when the plane did 2:30 the night before --the gym was the same 22 ft and while the fans were "shut off" in the gym they were not in the adjoining football facility which shared the system and needless to say that facility puts out some force--lost about six feet passing a vent with no fan on. But still a good day.

[StampingKid]

Has anyone seen carbon fiber used on a plane?