lml@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

One thing I forgot to mention is that rough primer on the leading edge can affect flight characteristics. When my airplane was in test Len (the test pilot) kept complaining - after we adjusted wing incidence - that it would roll off to the right at stall no matter what. One day he got annoyed enough to get out a sanding block and took both leading edges down to carbon. Problem solved.

I'm not sure what the best solution is there. Maybe someone else on the list has an idea.

Colyn

On Feb 15, 2012, at 8:24 AM, TByrnes133@aol.com wrote:

My first Lancair (LNC2) was finished in 1992. I used WLS primer and it was painted with PPG basecoat clearcoat before first flight. I did need to modify the cowl after paint which was a pain, but more important, when the plane was 3 or 4 years old ripples started to appear. Also if you hilighted some areas you could barley see the weave in the glass cloth. I believe that was caused by shrinkage of the primer.

On my second Lancair (LNC4) which was also primed with WLS did not get painted for about 8 months after first flight. The beautiful paint job (Brad Simmons) is now 8 1/2 years old and does not show any ripples or glass weave. It still looks great. I believe that letting the primer cure for 6 or 8 months is the way to go

Tom Byrnes Lancair IV N54TB