Leading Edge Armor

Here you'll find helpful hints on making your planes stronger.

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tashley
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Leading Edge Armor

Post by tashley »

What's everyone's favorite leading edge material for wing cores? F/G rod? Hardwood dowel? Poly rods? C/F rod?

Tom Ashley
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Which_way_is_up
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Post by Which_way_is_up »

It depends on what class of plane you're building? Open B, SSC, etc. As an example, for SSC all I use is BiDi tape on the LE but have used a variety of materials for Open B, including rods, wire, spars, etc.



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Post by wparmenter »

I have had great luck with the 1/8 fiberglass rods. full length, top/bottom/leading in 40 psi or 60 psi foam.
Dowels are almost like nothing in impacts. They may stiffen up the wing, but are no help in hits.
Even though you don't mention it, tubes are worthless in my opinion.

Wes 'Sheepy' Parmenter
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montague
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Post by montague »

I've gone to nothing but 25psi foam and a layer of bi-di tape and packing tape over that on all my wings in all classes. Even in 2610, it holds up well enough. It's not as strong as some other LE arrangements, but most of the mid-air damage I get is from props anyway, and there's not a lot out there that will help that.

Kirk Montague Adams
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dareman
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Post by dareman »

I flew at the Hobby Visions TOC Demo in Las Vegas this week-end.
We flew 3 rounds of Combat. I was flying a Go Devil.
Open B

The wing is 25 PSI Foam.
Leading edge is 1/4 Poly Rod, 1/8 Fiberglass Spars, covered with one layer of Icarex, put in place using 3M 77 Spray. Leading edge also has 2 layers of Bi-Di tape.
Wing Holddowns are Carbon Fiber Arrow Shafts.
Non skid surface on the wing saddle.

I made the mods suggested by C/F (Mike Fuller) in the forums a few months back in regards to the Go Devils.

I had 2 midairs.....

Round 1 I flew out of it.....no damage.
Round 2 I was to low to the ground going after a balloon to recover, I collided with a pilot going after the same balloon.....no damage to airframe or wing....broken prop.

I ended up with 3 cuts for the day and taking home $60.00 for having the most cuts!

These are the only planes I am flying now.
I have heard that the Go Devils will be back in production by the end of the year.......YAHOO!!!![8D]

I have also modified the engine mount by bolting on an old Pirahna Engine mount to fly SSC. (10 minute change over)
Bad News is the "SSC" Go Devil weighs 46 OZ.
Good News is it flys great!

I can convert back to Open B by unbolting the Pirahna mount and bolting on the .25 O.S.

Al Tomlinson
Bisbee, Arizona
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tashley
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Post by tashley »

Al, where do you get your poly rod?

Tom Ashley
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Post by thojo »

Tom,

on the net at http://www.mcmaster.com/

or in Sugarland at Regal Plastics
http://www.regal-plastics.com/l_houston.htm


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Bert Dodson
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Post by Bert Dodson »

Tom, Seems like I recall Ben Morrow had a bunch of poly rods for sale, you might contact him for some.

Bert Dodson
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Post by dareman »

Tom,

I just finished ordering 1/4" Polypropylene Rods and 1/8" Fiberglass Rods from http://www.mcmaster.com

The Poly Rods come in 8ft lengths (2)
The Fiberglass Rods come in 5ft lengths (10)

Shiping is steep though!!!! $22.00

Al Tomlinson
Bisbee, AZ


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slam
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Post by slam »

just tried a new material for a leading edge. seemed to work o.k.

cut 2" off of my leading edge of the core. put in a solid wood spar and cut some water noodle to shape. covered with a layer of strapping tape. seems to be pretty flexible and it was pretty cheap to do.

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Post by Which_way_is_up »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by slam</i>
<br />just tried a new material for a leading edge. seemed to work o.k.

cut 2" off of my leading edge of the core. put in a solid wood spar and cut some <b>water noodle </b>to shape. covered with a layer of strapping tape. seems to be pretty flexible and it was pretty cheap to do.

slam
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I must be a little slow this morning but is there a joke in here somewhere? <b>"water noodle"?</b>

<hr noshade size="1">

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slam
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Post by slam »

sorry, a water noodle is that round thin stick you play with in the pool. wal-mart or pool stores carry them. i can pick them up for about $1.50 each, they are 60" long and i can get 2 leading edges out of them.

if you do a google search on water noodle i know you will recognize them.

ron horten says they are extruded epp.

can cut them with a band saw then trim them to shape with my grinder.

i like the idea of a soft leading edge. i have been using poly rods, and i even vacuum formed some leading edge out of hdpe. nothing seems to work well without considerable damage. i am now onto the soft leading edge philosophy.

time will tell

slam
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Post by wparmenter »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by slam</i>
<br />sorry, a water noodle is that round thin stick you play with

slam
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Hmmmmmm.

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Post by Which_way_is_up »

Oh, a "wet noodle"![:0][:o)]

Actually, I've been very happy with the Enhanced Cobras using EPP for the LE. I've seen at least one Enhanced Cobra last almost the entire season of combat until it was finally T-boned. Nothing can save you from that! [:D]

Glad I've got the CNC for cutting the EPP. I can't imagine all the work you're doing to grind the EPP LE to shape.[:(]

<hr noshade size="1">

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Dawg
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Post by Dawg »

Roy, what do you use to get tape to stick to the EPP LE? Jim Grizzle was building some Smack II wings w/EPP LE and said he could not get BI DI nor packing tape to stick.

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