Fuselage recover

[Ragwing nut]

In the whole scheme of things... of all the time involved in a recover/restoration, and given the huge downside of a seem letting go on a finished aircraft, I simply can't imagine not taking the relatively short time to stitch the joint.

Then relax with the piece of mind you've enabled.

Nothing really sticks to polyester, we're basically relying on the mechanical grip of the weave. This is adaquate in shear, but when there's no structure the potential for other than shear forces increases.

S

You do realize that in the blanket method, the overlap on a longeron is generally around 1"-1/2". So the glue joint has 75% less contact than the required 4" overlap in open space. Most anytime you see a failure in a glue joint, it will be from improper installation. I've done it for 30 years and never seen a failure on any of my cover jobs.

[Scott]

Yes I understand. Overlap is supposed to be minimum 1" but I hear ya.

There is a big difference in the stability however. When there is structure under the joint, the joint is subject to shear only.

You may have seen the demo, or maybe done the test yourself... glue joints have very little stregth when exposed to even small non-shear forces. Like I said, nothing really sticks to polyester.

Anyway I know there's lots of aircraft flying around that way

My point is simply that for a relatively small additional effort any doubt is eliminated. And after all, there's a reason the practice is no longer published as acceptable by some/most stc's.

[EXPlanes]

If done properly the gluing of the fabric at the tail transition works well. The fabric of the vertical tail is glued to the top fuselage tubes and the radius transition between the tail and fuselage. The fuselage top blanket when installed is also glued to the same top tubes and overlapped to the tail fabric. The transition shown between my fingers in the pic sees reduced shear loading along with tension and compression due to the fabric glued around the tubes. Every application is different for this one it works and has been flown successfully for years.
I would never use this approach or recommend it over any unsupported wing covering or other unsupported fuselage covering.