Just checked and its over 8 years ago when I first glued the fin and turtle deck covering on… not an easy task as it was 1 long piece per side.

My old post shows the details and (quite handily) the exact temperatures I used at the time.

I wasn’t expecting to undo it … ever .. but, needs must and with some judicious use of the heat gun and easing it off at around 160′ to remove the top pinked doubler strip

Then, similarly ease the overlaps off that were put on so long ago ..

Once the rib had been replaced I cleaned down the previously glued areas of overlap and applied fresh hotmelt glue

Some of the overlap had doubled over at the edge and stuck fast so trimmed a couple of mm off to neaten the edge.

Then, using the heat gun, heat the material overlap and new fin glue edge and press down with the heat matting.. making sure I was pulling it as taught as I could.

The bond was super strong.. and the remainder of the fin started to tighten.

I then left it to cool … overheating at this stage could pull the ‘just bonded’ overlaps.

Pleasantly surprised that the Oratex was so forgiving to a fairly major movement and return !

It’s always good to get the annual test done and dusted but it’s also a time where things might crop up .. it might be recent or it might not …

A few things came up and one particular one was a bit of a pain ..

A while back I wanted to fit a go pro mount and had seen some really good ‘tail looking forward footage.. so drilled a mount and all was well

Unfortunately this is a ‘non standard’ mod so I can either somehow do all the official stress test analysis and load testing and submit to the LAA for approval or … remove and replace it !

As approvals are not the fastest thing to go for I opted to remove and replace the single bar fin leading edge

I’ve not undone the Oratex much before and it was stuck like rock .. judicial use of the heat gun to remove the wide pinked cut band overlay and then start to get the edge of the material loose

An earlier post in this blog shows how I feathered the overlap on each side of the fin to ease the complex curves .. this all needed releasing now

All the time I was thinking I didn’t want to over stress the removal as I was intending to put it back and re tape the join cover

The factory had the replacement material in stock but NOT a trimmed and pilot holed part.

TLACs Emma raised a works order for part T53 .. the final leading edge and 20 minutes later I was in front of the cutting tool with the amazing Chris

Part duly cut .. 2 pilot holes .. and lined up in the now open fin area.. clecos applied and drill through the 6 x M62 large rivets and 6 M41s

Just need to get the 2 new lower brackets paired and shaped and aligned for pilot hole marking and drilling