Litespan. I Am Making A Complete Horlicks Of This!

[David Davis]

I am building a Veron Cardinal which was the first successful model aircraft I ever built. I have reached the covering stage and am trying to use Litespan but cannot get a satisfactory wrinkle-free finish. Perhaps I have made things too difficult for myself in trying to produce a wing with different coloured outer panels, but I've now decided to strip off the first attempt and to cover each wing half in two pieces, underside first, then the top surface.

I have tried painting the structure in Balsaloc and also putting Balsaloc on the underside of Litespan but it still pulls away when heat is applied to shrink the covering.

It seems that Gerard Feeny wrote an article on using Litespan in 2009. Is it still available? If so how would i access it?

Any hints and tips will be greatly appreciated.

[michael cawood]

this**LINK** may help.     mike

Edited By michael cawood on 27/06/2016 09:35:56

[Bob Cotsford]

I covered a Flair Sunrise in Litespan and it was a game getting the covering to stick to the undercamber. I seem to remember covering the underside first shrinking just enough to take up the slack, then running CA along any ribs that it wasn't sticking to, and finally covering the top before turning up the heat to get some tension in the 'span.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 27/06/2016 10:45:26

[Don Fry]

Another way of doing undercamber is stick the lowest point on first, the pin a strip of balsa along the length of the panel, then do the rest. The spar protects the lowest part from heat and mechanically holds it in place. Unpin when you are finished.