Bomber_12th
February 10th, 2012, 18:03
I don't know why, but I've had a bit of fondness for those fabric-covered aircraft you can find at air shows, or your local airport, that show signs of not being a show-piece, but one that is cared for just the same, and flown often.
With a fabric-covered aircraft, it isn't all that hard to put holes in the fabric without being careful. In order to fix such a problem, you either have to patch it, and live with a blemish on your aircraft, or take the expensive route and completey re-cover and re-paint the aircraft.
I took some photos of a Stearman at Oshkosh in 2008, that had a number of duct-taped patches around the area of the cockpit, that I thought was rather cool (in an atmosphere of show-piece warbirds). I decided to look into it, and evidently, when you are reaching over into the cockpit, for instance when you are conducting a pre-flight/quick cockpit check, if you aren't careful you can easily put your knee into the fabric, and with enough weight pushing against the farbric, it will pop open a hole.
Here are a couple of the images I took, as well as another instance of the same kind, that I found online. I would expect that one could find more examples than these. I think it would make for a unique repaint when the VS Stearman is finished (it wouldn't have to be this exact scheme either - when I took the photos, I was planning on making a similar repaint for the Dave Eckert model, but never got around to it).
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/ducttaped_1.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/ducttaped_2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/Whoops.jpg
With a fabric-covered aircraft, it isn't all that hard to put holes in the fabric without being careful. In order to fix such a problem, you either have to patch it, and live with a blemish on your aircraft, or take the expensive route and completey re-cover and re-paint the aircraft.
I took some photos of a Stearman at Oshkosh in 2008, that had a number of duct-taped patches around the area of the cockpit, that I thought was rather cool (in an atmosphere of show-piece warbirds). I decided to look into it, and evidently, when you are reaching over into the cockpit, for instance when you are conducting a pre-flight/quick cockpit check, if you aren't careful you can easily put your knee into the fabric, and with enough weight pushing against the farbric, it will pop open a hole.
Here are a couple of the images I took, as well as another instance of the same kind, that I found online. I would expect that one could find more examples than these. I think it would make for a unique repaint when the VS Stearman is finished (it wouldn't have to be this exact scheme either - when I took the photos, I was planning on making a similar repaint for the Dave Eckert model, but never got around to it).
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/ducttaped_1.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/ducttaped_2.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y282/Bomber_12th/Whoops.jpg