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Aluminum top Cobra trailer leaks - how frequent?
On Mar 29, 5:29*pm, Greg Arnold wrote:
On 3/29/2010 1:50 PM, John Cochrane wrote: Well, even the fiberglass top can leak a little. *When I put my plane together the other day there was a string of mud spots on the leading edge of my wings near the root end. *Those parts of my wings are under the passive vents installed in the trailer, so I'm getting some moisture in through or around those vents. -- Matt This might also come from the even worse problem of metal-top (all) trailers -- condensation. Any day the 5 am temperature goes below the dewpoint (most days in the spring), the glider inside the trailer will be sopping wet. It dries out by noon if you have a good vent. But your beloved glider is spending 4-5 hours a day covered in water. I've attacked this successfully with a dehumidifier, but that needs power which we don't have at my current airport. The new insulated tops might help. Has anyone noticed a big difference? John Cochrane If the 5 am air temperature goes below the dewpoint, you will have fog. * If your trailer is well ventilated (has a fan), you may get air inside the trailer that is below the dew point. *I wouldn't think an insulated top would help. *If the trailer is not well ventilated, however, it would seem that an insulated top would help get the air inside the trailer warmer than the dew point, and thus would help keep it dry. Compare this situation with radiation of heat to space at night. *If you leave your glider tied out at night, it radiates heat, the fiberglass can get below the dew point, and you can have water on the glider in the morning. *The same thing can happen to a metal trailer -- if the metal ends up below the dew point, there will be water on the metal (both inside and out). *An insulated top should help here, because there is no exposed metal inside the trailer. This raises another question -- should trailers have fans? *My aluminum Cobra does not, and it (and the glider) always has been dry inside. We're big believers of solar fans here in the soggy SouthEast US. Typical summertime dewpoints are in the '70Fs. I've seen several planes that didn't have solar vents (or whose vents had failed) that remained parked for a while. The gelcoat on the leading edge of the wings and the bottom of the fuselage just rots away over time (that's where the dew collects). The entire plane can get furry from mildew. My plane needed quite a bit of work before I would buy it -- it needed the leading edges redone. There's a plane in the shop getting a complete refinish because of the same problems. -- Matt |
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