Micro ballooning Cruisair's wings

Bernie Ferrie

Bernie Ferrie

New member
I am planning recovering my cruisair and have read how important the aerofoil shape on the wing is. I read somewhere about micro balloning the wing to get the ripples out of the wing prior to covering.
Has anyone done this? What product did they use and where did they get it ? Is it a difficult task? Was it worth it?

Thanks in advance.

Bernie Ferrie :?:
 
The wing swells in flight. If you take a ride in one and look at the wing it will rise between the ribs. I am not sure you are going to get micro ballons to stay attached. I could be wrong but I think the amount of movement will start to crack the micro ballons. Look at an all glass airplane were the wing attaches to the fusaloge. If it is built up with ballons it will start to crack. The really nice glass planes will fill that area with a glass strip. There is someone here in texas that has started to fill his wings. The way he and his son work it won't take them long to find out if it works . They have built a couple of show planes ( the RV8 on front cover of EAA Mag. is one of them ) if anyone can make it work they can Good Luck. :lol: :lol:
 
The worst part is ALL THAT SANDING...ad nauseum in fact. If I may make a suggestion here-
If you decide to fill in your wing imperfections, try to use as little product as possible. That way the swelling will not affect the attachment.
Add the product in thin layers letting the first layer thouroughly dry. I've heard of some people that slopped it on only to find the outer surface of the filler dried and sort of sealed off the stuff underneath. When they started sanding, it was just one big mess.
I decided to go with Aerolit filler in a few small areas just to smoothe them out a bit. I just can't bring myself to microballoon the whole wing. I'm just too damn lazy.
One last thing- MAKE SURE your covering supplies are compatible with your filler. It just wouldn't do to have your fabric start peeling off during flight. :shock:
 
I have used epoxy and microballoons to "repair" fretted areas of my aluminum 14-13-2 cowl. It is still there after 12 years with no cracking. It is fairly flexible. The EZ builders even use it on the landing gear arch. I personally do not have a problem if the micro is place on the wood before the cloth. Don't think it would work very well on top as the polyester cloth (ceconite, etc.) is used as peel-ply for epoxy layup.
 
The wings on my 14-19 were micro ballooned many years ago by the previous owner and they look great. They do not bulge or deform inflight.

However, although the balloons themselves are practically weightless, the epoxy is not. After the micro ballooning and the heavy coat of paint applied over the previous paint job the airplane's empty weight went up nearly 150lbs. I, naturally, have no way of knowing which added most significantly to this figure.

As the airplane looks nice, and I rarely fly with much of a load, I'm content with it, as is. Still, I'd be judicious about micro balloon application.

Jonathan
 
Bob Petten, of Petten gear fairing fame, microballooned his wings together with smaller horizontal stabilizer ends and the fairings to get 174 mph out of his 150hp Cruisair. My concern, as is others on this forum, is the weight if the microballoning is not applied correctly. Personally, I have no experience with the stuff.
 
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