We are in the process of doing a lot of things that look similar to what has been done before, but I'd like everyone's advice anyway. I know there are a lot of books containing a lot of the info that I ask for and while I have a lot of them I still would like to hear from someone with experience (or the titles of some more good books). Itemized below are a few of the projects that are going on (and are on-going):

We are in the process of putting a dual surface on the Condor wing (looks like an MX). The process we are going to use is to put Styrofoam ribs between the front and rear tubes and wrap with fiberglass and resin. Others have done the same thing but only wrapped with fibered strapping tape with good results. The fabric will be 2.6 oz. dacron and will be finished with black latex with a final coat of whatever finish color we decide on. Eventually we are going to replace the wires with struts. Anyone have experience on any of this?

I also have a Jenny ultralight that I'm covering and am having trouble figuring out how to keep the air from blasting in the front of the fuselage. I tried to cover the opening, but didn't like the results. I'm also not comfortable with the cutouts for all the cables and struts that come through the fabric, but don't want to add a lot of weight in hardware to overcome the problems. Everyone else that I have seen just cuts a hole in the fabric and leaves it at that. Is there another way?

I am looking for any info on the following:

A halfway decent VW conversion that will produce usable HP and a source of VW engines for conversion.

A source for redrives for various configurations - esp. a shaft for the Condor and drives for non-tapered shafts (or adapters)

Lightwieght 4-stroke engines in the 35 HP range

Flyranch Webmaster