OT - RC airplane boo-boo

[tshort]

I moved a bunch of my RC planes from the basement to the hangar in preparation for moving out (no basement at the new house) ... I sort of wondered about it, but...

I went flying yesterday and while in the hangar noticed all of the Monokote has wrinkled horribly!
The temps have been hot here, and probably 110+ in the hangar. The covering is 10+ years old ... will it go away when cooled or can it be reshrunk? I don't really have a climate controlled place to store them at the new place, but hate to ruin all that work!

Thomas

[Brantel]

Every plane I ever owned that was covered with heat shrink film no matter what brand always did this. It is common to have to tighten it up every now and then.

[Spike]

My experience was that it did generally re-tighten once it cooled. Though sometimes it needed a bit of help.

[aparchment]

Hey Thomas:

I would be more worried about the fluctuations in heat/cold and humidity causing the wood to warp.

Film coverings were the reason I learned to paint! I can't stand them. All that hard work making something look good and then it sags.

Of course for smaller planes film coverings are lighter than paint.

These days you can get much more durability and attractiveness with the painted in the mold ARFs like those made by Composite Arf. Even if you don't want to paint, you can get the base color white painted in the mold model and apply trim decals cut by your local sign shop.

[cjensen]

<snip>Film coverings were the reason I learned to paint!<snip>

Or buy pre-painted styrofoam!