"J.Kahn" wrote in message
...
Lou wrote:
Ok, I just finished reading Tony Bingelis's "sportplane builder"
section on covering a wooden plane with fiberglass instead of the
intended fabric. Has anyone in this group ever done this or some who
knows someone who has done this? I'm building a wooden place that
calls for
a fabric covering. I've tried to do as much homework on this subject
as I can but still can not come up with a weight difference between
fabric and a thin coat of fiberglass. I know that the fabric is not
structural so why can't I subsitute a lightweight fiberglass for the
fabric?
Any feedback?
Lou


I assume you're applying it over plywood. In that case just get a book on
building wooden canoes and follow the glassing process used for them. They
usually use a layer or two of light weight cloth and West system resin.

SNIP
John

One of my former chapter (EAA 315) members built a Pulsar and did not like
the fit of the plywood wing skins after flying it for a while. In
particular, he complained about the plywood skins sagging in humid weather.

He routed out the plywood 'tween the ribs/spars/... He then fabricated
sheets of fiberglass/epoxy skins on a large sheet of plate glass (dunno the
thicknesses, etc.) and applied them over the surface of the wing in lieu of
the routed out plywood wing skins. His approach appeared to resolve the
humidity-induced sagging problem he had experienced with the plain plywood
and also had a sleeker finish.

Of course, he had to engineer the new "skin" system,. test fly it (after
having flown the plywood skinned version), etc. IIRC, he was quite happy
with the outcome. I don't know if the builder is still active as I moved
from the area, but I would be happy to check to see if he was available, had
lessons learned, etc., available.

Michael Pilla

Michael Pilla