[MT-ALES] ultra light covering heads up

[Carl Thuesen]

As many of you probably know, Bob and I are both building Yellow Jacket 2m RES ships for possible TALES competition, or just learning more about working light lift.  Curtis has completed his and is all set to fly it.  

To cover these small gliders Bob and I chose Aerofilm, a lightweight heat shrink mylar imported from Britain by Stevens Aeromodel.  The instructions packed with the material suggested an iron temperature of 175 to 195 F for sealing edges and covering sheet balsa areas, and temperature of 230 to 250 F for shrinking open areas and working compound curves.  Dutifully I started covering today per the specs.  I found the suggested low temps called out for tacking were very problematic, and had quite a rodeo going for about an hour.  Once I got the iron fired up to 250 -260 degrees the material started to behave better, providing strong adhesion and beautiful tightly shrunk covered surfaces, either over sheeting or open areas.  If you use this material at some time, I’d suggest bagging the low temps and just going with about a 250 degree iron for a neat job.  Buy the way, this is just slightly cooler than I like to run for Monocote.

Happy covering!

CT



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