Fabric Covering Phase Begins!!! - First piece completed...

08/23/03 - Well, if I ever have to make a living covering aircraft surfaces, I hope I'm paid by the hour and I make a LOT of money per hour!!!  ;^)

Seriously, fabric covering is a time consuming process if you do it properly and although it required patience I had forgotten I possessed, I completed the first item I attempted in just over three hours today!  Wahoo!!!

I had a grand total of about an hour and thirty minutes of prior experience at the Rans Fly-In back in June and the trip was well worth it.

We're using the Superflite covering process as recommended by Rans and it's a pretty simple procedure.

I began today getting everything set up and then dove right in on the horizontal stabs as instructed by the builder's manual.

Following are a few photos of today's work, starting with a cleaned stab (I used tack cloths purchased at my local auto-paint shop) after drilling the compression ribs for fabric rivets that are installed later in the process:

Here, I have the fabric laid out to cut for the first pieces. I cut enough at this time to do both stabilizers:

Loosely trimmed here, the fabric wraps just past the tube centerlines when cut to final size:

After you get the fabric centered, you mark the cut line with pencil and paint the lines with the fabric adhesive, let dry and then trim to final size.  Painting over the cut line (1/4" wide strip is plenty) keeps the fabric from raveling out, getting threads everywhere.

I purchased two irons for the job and will use the smaller hobby iron on the first surfaces, the larger iron on the fuse and wing sections.  Here, I've calibrated the small iron to 250°, 300° and 350° with a small thermometer that I got when I ordered my irons from Aircraft Spruce:

DON'T START a fabric covering job until or unless you have adequate ventilation and a quality respirator:

Bottom side finished:

Completed Left Horizontal Stabilizer:

Rans and Superflite recommend three passes with the iron (at 250°, 300° and 350°) to pull the fabric tight in stages which will keep things straight and actually closes the weave in the dacron.  The Rans kit contains all covering material, tapes, inspection rings, etc., with the builder supplying primer and paint for the Coyote.

I ordered the primer/filler material yesterday from Barry Katz at Superflite after also getting prices on a similar (polyurethane) product manufactured by PPG.

The Superflite and PPG primer/filler processes are similar in tasks with the Superflite material being approximately $200 less expensive.  Ed at Rans says they've used both and are happy with either, so if it's good enough for Rans, it's good enough for me.  I'm likely to go with the Superflite 'Superthane II' finish paints also.

I was getting a good start on the second stabilizer when I remembered my Granddaughter Alyssa has a birthday coming up next week and I keep forgetting to get out to the 'Toys-R-Us' store and pick up her gift (it's a tricycle this year as she'll be two years old) so I knocked off for the day with my second stabilizer in this position:

It'll probably be next Saturday before I get back to work as Marilyn and I are planning to go over to St. Charles County (Smartt Field - SET) Airport tomorrow and meet a couple of the Rans folks (Ed and Del) who are flying in for the EAA32 Chapter meeting.

Besides getting to chat with Ed again, I plan to do some close inspection and photo work of the Rotax engine installation, wiring, etc. in the Rans factory ships they're bringing.  I'm having my avionics wired next week at Ron Collins Aviation and there are a few things I have questions about, so this is a great opportunity to get the facts direct from the factory folks!

I know I indicated earlier that fabric covering was a time consuming task, but on the other hand, it was great fun today and I am looking forward to the next trip out to the shop!

More updates soon...

Last Update: 08/23/2003