REFLECTOR: Aircraft Covers II

Terry Miles terrence_miles at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 16 16:54:41 CST 2008


Hi all,

 

Boy there is nothing that beats asking a question on this forum to get some
good answers.  

 

At this juncture I would say the factory cover is the way to go.  You can't
beat happy customers and $250 beats the hell out of anything I was planning.
Fabric alone was going to run that much, but I had another material in mind,
and a different construction.  I may still do this in the end, but I could
never do it for $250.  

 

Likely the factory can get a hold of the guy who makes the covers. So if you
have one of their covers and the fabric itself has lost its water repellant
quality, you need to find out the fabric type used.  I would guess (only
guess) it was a light wgt polyester (Dacron) with maybe a vinyl coating to
waterproof it.  (Doesn't breathe)   Anyway, here is a link to a spray-on
product designed to waterproof Acryic (not polyester) fabric.  I would think
it would work on anything, but one could check on the manufacturer's
website.  

 

Leaks also could have to do with how the panels were seamed together.  I had
planned for an overlap kind of seam.  If seams are a leak point, you can try
buying water-proofing silicon seam goop from an outdoors shop like what they
use to seal tent seams and try to close the seams a little better that way.
It comes in a small tube usually.  Be careful before you try that fix.  It
is material dependant.   Leaky seams actually could be helping a water tight
fabric to breathe some and so will a loose fitting cover.  

 

http://www.sailrite.com/Categories/Protectants;jsessionid=0a0105501f432650d4
d3619d4b98b873be5cdeb030e7.e3eSc34OaxmTe34Pa38Ta38Qahb0   

 

For a snippet on waterproof versus ability to breathe, you can look here.
No cover is water proof, and that is by conscious design.  

http://covercraft.com/cover_fabrics.htm   As a follow on to that point, and
as TEC points out, water tight covers can cause trouble with plexi.  

 

Cover material selection and cover construction methods both contribute to
function.  If I come up with a better mouse trap, I'll be sure to write
home.  

 

Dave, one possible fix your seam over the windscreen is to do a lining of
satin sheeting material and/or a thin sheet of flannel sandwiched in there
too-I read that somewhere just this week.  Another point worth repeating on
this topic is, as Chuck pointed out, the cover can't get contaminated with
sand or stones, and the airplane itself has to be clean and preferably waxed
or any cover will upbraid the airplane surface.  

 

Terry  

 

 

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