Rib Tape

For the 2013 Team Trials I did a run of planes with Kevlar tissue on all the ribs hoping to help keep the plane together after a collision. The tissue is non continuous fibers. The performance was improved but not as much as I would have liked. The ribs stayed together something like 40-60% better but not 100%. One unforeseen benefit was that when making repairs the fibers overlapped the break most of the time so when I CAed the wood the Kevlar was again acting as a reinforcement.

The Kevlar is expensive and laminating the tissue is a pain on a large scale. So what about tape? More than a few planes available from the EU are coming with clear tape on the ribs so someone other than me has had this same thought. Looks cool too!

My rack is HOTTER than yours!

MIC DROP

May 2013 UPDATE

So a long term trend in my shop has been custom graphics for the F2D planes that I build. Being limited to the leading edge has been challenging to say the least, yes I have my AMA number and my name on the LE but true graphics are tough on the limited canvas. May 2013 I posted and Photoshoped picture of full plane graphics using a stencil to paint on the inside of the covering. So this is the progress of this train of thought- 

This is the wing design from the 2013 post.

Stencils cut on the laser.

Stuff...

The blog has been a bit quiet since Nash was born, he is 3 now and picking up speed fast. 

Here are a few things going on in the new shop. First is well... the new shop.

 We had an opportunity to make this part of the air conditioned space but with lots of chemical fumes frequently associated with building we opted for the garage treatment. I had the floor painted and put my old benches back in for now. AC/Heat door insulation and new benches are on the list. At least I didn't have to remove the plane rack....