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Patching the skirt
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| During last operation we experienced
skirt damage. After two months it was time to do something about it. Summer
has been here for quite a while now and no hovering. That's got to change
! |
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| I still had plenty of skirt material left and collected
all the tools needed for the job: scissors, heat gun, clamps, acetone,
gloves and overalls. "What else... no we got everything, let's go !" |
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| After getting to hoverport and preparing for the jos we
realized few more things that we should have brought with us, but we could
manage. |
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| Tear was measured to be 75cm (2,5ft) crossing middle skirt
drain hole just aft of ground contact line. I cut 20cm (8") wide strip
and cleaned everything carefully with acetone rag. We placed a plywood
board on ground to serve as table to work on and chipboard inside the skirt.
This was to avoid unwanted wrinkles while heating the skirt material for
patching. |
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| Skirt as well as patch was clamped with both boards and
we started to weld the patch in place. Applying heat with electric heat
gun and pressing partially melted fabrics together. Everything went quite
smoothly because previously we had done this around freezing point temps
and now it was over 20C ambient temperature. We reinforced the sides of
center skirt drain hole to last little bit longer at least enough to move
and put the craft on trailer for comprehensive skirt repair. |
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| All we did patch was the largest tear and left smaller
damages untouched since it is obvious that this skirt won't live much longer
- lucky to get few hover-outs of it ! |
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| Time for test drive... |