Wing Patching

After a bit of the top side decided to tear off whilst in flight, don't know why, been so careful over these past 4 years too but it did.

Rushed home to patch it in and re-lay new stripes. All was well till I started to shrink the patch. It is pulling away from the edges. I thought it might but......... The ribs are only 1/4 inch wide so there is not a lot of balsa to hang on to and front edge too. As far as I can see I need to put in some balsa sheeting between one set of ribs and recover in one piece up to the wing tip where it is sheeted.

Is this the right way to go?

Footnote: The patch at present appears to be well stuck down so I can fly it tomorrow.

Try using less heat, use the minimum heat you can get away with to get the glue to activate, and then slowly turn the temp up until it shrinks

Thanks Chris. I'll have another go on Sunday/Monday. This time I will overlap the adjacent film by about 1/2 inch. Then seal down the edges first then "carefully" run the iron over the patch to shrink it. I wont use the heat gun this time. Hopefully that'll work. If it does then I will use the Sealit Pen that should arrive on Monday in post

PhilF51 wrote: I wont use the heat gun this time.

There's your problem Phil, guns are ok for large areas but not patching, not enough control.

After sealing the edges, use an iron on the lowest heat you can get away with, as Chris says, for shrinking and keep it away from the sealed edges. The reason it is pulling away is that the gun is softening the glue when shrinking, hence your problem!