REFLECTOR: Wing Root Protection

[Chuck Harbert]

Kurt, I think the wing root protection is critical (maybe more so than the 
firewall). I coated mine with a fire retardant (intumescent) paint that I 
got from AS many years ago. Someone told me of a Velocity that crashed 
because they had an unknown fire for quite awhile that eventually burned off 
the wing supports. The fire exposed the wing roots where the wing bolts 
holding the wings are located. Also, the wings contain combustible foam if 
it burns through the fiberglass. Fire retardant paint works (I know from 
experience).

Chuck H

p.s. I use the piano hinge setup on my plane and it's great. Cowls off or on 
in less than a minute.


Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 12:57:59 EST
From: NMFlyer1 at aol.com
Subject: REFLECTOR: Wing Root Protection
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Message-ID: <bf7.10570b60.3311d6a7 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The firewall is done and installed and the wing root protection for the 
large
vertical portion of the wings is done. Does anyone bother putting protection
on the flanges of the wing?  My manual has zero reference to firewall or
wingroot protection.  My setup is different from the plans, I am using 
thicker
flanges with embeded piano hinge attachments for the cowl (like many RV's 
and
Lancairs). Seems like the flanges would be fine without additional 
protection.