REFLECTOR: Rain Errosion

[Fred Anderka]

Ruben:

I flew my XL-RG for about 350hours with only primer on the wings.  I noticed some erosion on the leading edges after flying through a lot of weather, almost all of my flying is cross country.  Applied a 3" strip of aluminum "Speed Tape" to the leading edges and did not have any further problems.  The tape did not change the handling characteristics.  Rain at 190 kts. Is pretty hard and I noticed that even the aluminum tape became dimpled from the rain drop impacts after a while.  Pretty sure it was rain, never noticed going through any hail.

Finally painted the wings, base coat/clear coat and no further erosion problems.

Have noticed slight erosion on the MT blades.  The leading edges are Stainless Steel and are not affected but the back of the prop near the tips has small (1/8" Diam.) pock marks.   Unsure if that is from runway debris or rain.  The front of the blades are unaffected and have absolutely no visible pock marks.

Fred W. Anderka
C-GHOL