Covering with Oratex

[U2fletch]

We are not. The Oratex guys said that the paint ships as hazmat, so gets expensive. Going to the Commercial Sherwin-Williams, or PPG with some color pieces and having them match it works pretty well.

[kuss]

A question for those who covered with Oratex: did you also use their paint "Oracolor" for the wings and other non-fabric parts? Wondering if that's the best color match to their fabric or...?

[Allen B]

Another question I have is ‘has anyone compared the actual weight of Oratex to Stewart Systems?’ I’ve read the estimates of 15-40 pounds weight savings (for a super cub) with traditional fabrics. There’s a lot less fabric obviously than a Super Cub so what that savings is on a BH I’m not sure. Stewart’s claims there system is 30-40% lighter than traditional fabric systems. If that’s true it would really bridge the gap between the potential weight savings. I have no interest in traditional systems. It’s either Oratex or SS.

[U2fletch]

That stretching and pulling of the trim tapes is one of those times when you need at least 3 hands. One pulling, one applying heat with the gun, and a few more working the felt blade to adhere it around the curves. Works great once you get it sorted out.

[paulodonnell]

I've covered couple of biplanes in ceconite etc in the past and have found that using Oratex was a pure joy in comparison. I used their silver with black backing which seems less dull then their other colours.The hardest thing I found was the stretching of 2 or 3 inch tapes on the rudder and elevator tips without puckering the edges....however having the Germans just a phone call away from me in Ireland sorted things out, it was really just that I wasn't applying the heat over a long enough length of the tape while stretching and pulling. Siegfried Lanitz, the owner even called me back a couple of times to follow up and ensure I was happy. It has worked out very well though I've yet to do the main fuselage which will happen in the next couple of weeks... will be interesting to see how I fare on the tail end transition! On the tapes I only discovered on talking to Siegfried that the pre-impregnated tapes they sell need a primer applied and this was sent to me in the form of some granules that you dissolve in acetone. This means that unlike the normal glue you can just apply heat and pull it off easily to renew it.

[Allen B]

For what it’s worth I spoke to an IA today who I happened to be flying with. He lives up in Alaska and was the first person to put Oratex on a champ. He claims since doing so he’s had issues that I haven’t read anyone talking about. In very cold temperatures he’s had the fabric expanding. He’s had to re-iron the Oratex over the Winter. I’ve never heard of such thing and I wonder how that would effect the longevity of the material. For the record we’re talking sub zero temps, not just normal Winter weather. Has anyone heard of this before?

[U2fletch]

There are several factors at play here besides time. It takes me a day to glue all the parts that need covering. It took me a day to cover each control surface. Then another to do the rib stitching and trim tape. They are now completely done. Painting those parts would add at least another full few days. Repair is ridiculously simple. Clean the affected area and apply a patch. Done. The learning curve is a factor with any covering system. Don't look too close at the tip of our rudder. There are some cosmetic issues up there. The rest were a lot easier after the techniques were learned.

The durability is also something we are hopeful about. We are planning on a lot of off airport ops. Our Sportsman is currently taking a serious beating from rocks on the aluminum horizontal stab.

We have a large paint booth, and area to place it in the hangar, so can't get around the amount of paint required for the whole plane, but it is pretty convenient for us.

[Allen B]

It seems like all the time and energy spent setting up a paint booth, buying equipment, etc is still going to be the same. If I was covering a fabric wing this would be a no brainer but there’s a ton of painting to be done after the fuselage so I see no time savings there at all. The Stewart videos are amazingly well done. I feel like with Oratex there’s going to be more time spent figuring out the product and a potentially higher learning curve. I like the Oratex product but I’m not sure that there’s 100 hrs of time savings. It’s going to take more time to learn and apply the Oratex vs SS product and that has to be factored in as well.

[svyolo]

I used heat shrink stuff on model airplanes 50 years ago, including something called Coverite which is very siimilar to Oratex. I have painted lots of stuff, but have never been a professional painter.

My opinion is that Oratex saves no labor, unless you take shortcuts. If you follow the instructions as best you can (a whole nother subject), it is very tedious. It saves sanding and making a mess. But the application of adnesive also DEMANDS cleanliness. You won't be doing dirty stuff in your shop while applying Oratex.

It does save sanding and making a mess. It is also very light, and that is VERY repeatable. It would be hard to make Oratex heavy.

[Allen B]

I’ve seen several people make claims that Oratex would save hundreds of hours of labor. I’m interested in understanding how that estimate was reached. Even if you don’t paint the fuselage or flaps/ailerons, you’re still needing to paint 70% of the surface area of the plane. I can see how it would save some time but all the issues with painting still exist and I simply can’t get to an estimate of ‘hundreds of hours’ in savings. Has anyone logged how long it took to just paint/prime the fuselage? I’m in the process of heading up to ANC to speak to Lars about it. Very curious about the product. Thanks

[U2fletch]

I also decided to use the cap strip technique on the flaps. Rib stitched all the other surfaces so got to experience that fun. Surprisingly therapeutic after all is done. But I was curious about the idea of no rib stitching and tape on the flaps. Doubt if there is any time saving involved once you factor in the prep work and gluing of the cap strips. But it does look nice. It is hard to capture the look with a camera because there is nothing for the camera to focus on, and our flaps are white, but here is our result.

DSC_0405.jpg

[svyolo]

My first plan was to add a strip of metal forward of the tail to terminate the fabric, then cover the tail separately from the rest of the fuselage. I am pretty sure that would have worked just fine. As I was adding those terminations, someone suggested that he wanted a composite fairing for the base fo the tail. So I covered just the base of the tail with Oratex, which worked OK, and I used that as a mold. Turned out so good I used it. I added some nutplates to the termination strips, and Tigged some tabs to the longerons to attach it.

[Utah-Jay]

I offloaded all my photos onto an external hard drive so not sure. I am happy to try to find them when you need and if I don’t have good photos I can do drawings for ya

[N204jh]

Jay, you have any pictures of the cuts? I poured over your Oct - Nov 2022 builders log photos and see the issue and the finished result, but was hoping you may have some pics of the process. Of course, we can wait until Spring and I'll just have to fly you up to Washington for on-site "consulting."

[Utah-Jay]

Ahhhh, so finally someone ( svyolo ) has asked the correct question, i knew someone would eventually.

No you can’t stretch the Oratex to fit the curve from the top of the fuselage to the rise at the start of the vertices. Colby Osborn tried and it did not work, I did extensive testing after watching Colby’s videos and thought I had the problem solved…. I was wrong.

The only way I found to make it work was to have relief cuts on both the right and left side pieces of fabric. The use of tapes is the final piece to the puzzle.

Oratex wants to shrink, NOT stretch, so the relief cuts are the only way.

The other gotcha location on the BH is the compound bend just behind the skylight and above the window on my Companion, but all BH’s have the same compound bend area. Is “bend” the correct terminology? Dunno… The way to deal with this spot is to go from the bottom up, in my case from the top of the window up to the longeron and wrap the fabric around the longeron. Next when you are putting the whole side fabric tack it all down and then make a relief cut from the low point of the compound bend and let it continue down to the window. The takes one tape as the wide point at the top of the window is only about 1/2” wide.

Hope this helps

There are no other gotcha points for Oratex on the BH