REFLECTOR: Aircraft Covers II

[Chuck Jensen]

Terry,
 
As far as fabric is concerned, I believe a person wants one that is water resistant, not water proof.  As was posted, water proof fabric can trap water under it and it'll come to no good.  For instance, ever trying wearing plastic underwear....oops, never mind, bad example.
 
The water resistant fabric will shed virtually all the water yet allow water and vapor beneath an escape path.  I suppose GoreTex would be the ultimate, but we can probably set our sights just a tad lower and still have a good outcome.  The factory cover kind of 'beads' water, though it does 'wet' somewhat, but I've not found 'water' underneath, so it seems to be a good tradeoff and the seams of mind have caused no abrasions anyway.
 
Chuck Jensen 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On Behalf Of Terry Miles
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 5:55 PM
To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'
Subject: REFLECTOR: Aircraft Covers II



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=0a0105501f432650d4d3619d4b98b873be5cdeb030e7.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  

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/private/reflector/attachments/20081217/1cce0250/attachment.htm