OK, I'd better elaborate on my previous message. I found peel ply only at
the one location, the root rib. What I peeled from the wing root rib was a
piece of fabric with a weave similar to the fabric sold by Aircraft Spruce
as peel ply. If you have seen only the ugly blue ribbons of peel ply
supplied by Europa (which I have not seen in a while - tossed that junk long
ago) this is a more substantial fabric and is a much finer weave than the
bidirectional fiberglass that comes with the kit. Of course the epoxy
replicates the same weave so even if the peel ply has been removed you
should see the pattern of the fabric - not what you want to hear when you
have doubts and the stuff is hard to see but that's the reality. In the rib
"closeout" it was trimmed perfectly with the wing skin edge, both top and
bottom surfaces, which is why it was invisible. I discovered the peel ply
about a year ago, so my memory has faded a bit, but as I recall there was a
small bubble where the peel ply was not in intimate contact with the rib (or
wing skin) and that is how I noticed what it was. I think the bubble was
near an edge and I fussed with it a bit and accidentally noticed that it
would peel off.
Since there are 120 US kits (and many others worldwide) between mine and
yours you are probably safe (based on the factory's response when I raised
this issue with them at the time of my discovery) but this isn't the kind of
project where we can be casual about structural integrity. You might want
to pose this question to the factory: "What serial number was the last to
use white peel ply without the red stripe?" Of course, the serial number
identifies the builder not the actual kit, but some such definitive answer
should be forthcoming. It would be nice if Andy or another authority at
Europa were monitoring this thread and could give all of us the answer we
need.
Best regards,
Rob Housman
A070
-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of JLW
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: Flap root peal ply?
So far, I have been unable to detect peal-ply, invisible or not, on any of
the
control surfaces supplied in my XS kit number A191. I've tried to find an
edge
or something to grab to peal something off, but have not been able to locate
anything. Is this stuff that hard to see? I haven't even been able to see
it
on parts where there are labels specifically warning to remove the peal-ply.
Jeff A191
Rob Housman wrote:
> Since I made the flaps, not the factory, I can't comment on how the
factory
> builds flaps but I can tell you that the folks at Europa built my XS wings
> using invisible peel ply (white with no stripes) on the root rib. I
> discovered this by accident when I found a slight "imperfection" in the
> glass work just prior to adding the many layers of reinforcing glass to
the
> rib-spar intersection. I understood that the factory had abandoned the
> rather dangerous practice of using invisible peel ply, a practice made
even
> more dangerous by using the stuff in places requiring structural
> reinforcement where the manual gives no indication that any peel ply is
> present.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob Housman
> A070
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ellisonair@juno.com>
> Cc: <europa@avnet.co.uk>
> Subject: Flap root peal ply?
>
> > All,
> >
> > Has anyone removed the foam from the ends of the flaps yet? I tried
> > yesterday . Easy to do but didn't find any peal-ply. From reading the
> > manual it has builders add it when laying up the flaps and then remove
it
> > at this step.
> >
> > My question is ,did the factory use some clear type that can't be
> > detected easily? There sure isn't any like the type that was provided
> > with the kit on the flap I have.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> >
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