In actuality, we do sell quite a bit of fabric to the Northern reaches. ERA
has worn our fabric on their DC-3s and the military sure has used it on a
lot of cargo planes in the northern frontier over the years. We are always
sending out belly repair kits to Maules owners there, as well as a large
contigent of Stinson owners. It is plausible that there could be a problem
with improper installation or very poor conditions during istallation.
Cellulose Acetate Butryate dope is an organic laquer that is sensitive to
atmospheric conditions (usually needing 70 plus degrees of heat during the
application) but is usually very stable once it dries. Again, dope on cotton
and linen has been used for the 50 years prior to the introduction of the
newer fabrics.

I know that a cannon ball drop test was performed on our fabric at many
different sub temperatures and published. Nothing was printed about loss of
tautness due to temperature, only poor application due to following the
instructions. Even an aircraft manufacturer was repremanded for not
following the installation manual by not reinforcing the stress points over
longerons and formers (also as per the A.C. 43-13) with reinforcing tape.
They were saving time and labor by not doing so. The owners paid for the
time saving twenty to thirty years later.
"Del Rawlins" wrote in message
...
Question for the Razorback Fabric guy:

I'm currently finishing up the training for my A&P certificate at the
school here in Anchorage, and as it so happened, the lecture this
morning was about fabric covering. The instructor brought up Razorback
fabric, mentioned that it is great stuff, but then added that we don't
see much of it here in Alaska because it tends to sag in cold weather
compared to the shrunk-on polyester fabrics. As I recall from the
lecture, he said it was due more to contraction of the underlying
airframe in sub freezing temperatures, than any change in the fabric.
The heat shrunk fabrics apparently don't suffer as much from this
because there is enough extra tautness is added during the shrinking
process to make up for any dimensional change in the airframe at low
temperatures.

I was just wondering if you have any comments in this regard?

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
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