Wow! I'm impressed! You must be the talk of the neighborhood (not to mention a constant source of worry for your wife!).
Have you taken it up yet?
Have you taken it up yet?
Cracked hull
- Thread starter SailorHunter
- Start date
Thank you. Yes I have flown it many times, and it handles well too. The credit for good handling goes to the designer; I just built it following the plans.
Being very light, this plane needs to have calm air to fly, and in any case winds not exceeding 5 to 7 mph, which is rare in the eastern plains of Colorado. This place is slightly windy, so chances to fly are limited. This is also the reason I turned to sailing , because if it is a windy place, why not take up a sport that uses the wind !
Last edited:
You really like to create a lot of work for yourself.
What I did....
I tried the gorilla glue. Dont bother as it is hard to get in and cant really bond to the Luran. The area I did has debonded some a few years later.
What does work is to use 5200 and drill a hole you can put the tip into. With a very strong high quality cault gun you can inject some into the void. With a finger over the hole you pump the area and will get the 5200 to spread about 6" diameter from the 1/4" hole I drilled. Then I put tape and something heavy to cover the hole.
The 5200 is rubbery when cured so it can move. It can stick fairly well to the Luran. Plus I ended up peeling up the non-skid and most of the holes were covered after I was done.
Of course, 3 years later it now the deck is still holding solid where I did the 5200.
I decided my path after doing some experiments. I have some scrap lexan (a close relative to luran) and put some gorilla glue on the surface and put another piece of luran on top. As expected it just popped apart with minimal glue sticking to the surface of one piece. Also the gorilla glue gets stiff and crunchy so flexing and temp variation will stress the bondo causing it to debond over time.
The 5200, well it did not want to let go.
You can spend many hours doing stuff to your boat. I like quick and effective for a long time. What I have seems to fit the bill.
What I did....
I tried the gorilla glue. Dont bother as it is hard to get in and cant really bond to the Luran. The area I did has debonded some a few years later.
What does work is to use 5200 and drill a hole you can put the tip into. With a very strong high quality cault gun you can inject some into the void. With a finger over the hole you pump the area and will get the 5200 to spread about 6" diameter from the 1/4" hole I drilled. Then I put tape and something heavy to cover the hole.
The 5200 is rubbery when cured so it can move. It can stick fairly well to the Luran. Plus I ended up peeling up the non-skid and most of the holes were covered after I was done.
Of course, 3 years later it now the deck is still holding solid where I did the 5200.
I decided my path after doing some experiments. I have some scrap lexan (a close relative to luran) and put some gorilla glue on the surface and put another piece of luran on top. As expected it just popped apart with minimal glue sticking to the surface of one piece. Also the gorilla glue gets stiff and crunchy so flexing and temp variation will stress the bondo causing it to debond over time.
The 5200, well it did not want to let go.
You can spend many hours doing stuff to your boat. I like quick and effective for a long time. What I have seems to fit the bill.