Tail cover done

The thunderstorm that we anticipated did arrive so it was lucky that I took the precaution of covering the X-Air’s tail and prop up again before I called it a day yesterday. But it was only a weak affair and although I was woken by thunder in the early hours, it didn’t look this morning as though a great deal of rain had fallen. I’d left the tail cover that I’d cut out on the kitchen floor all night ready to start on it again this morning and I started off by trying to create a strong edge by turning it over and sticking it with the HH-66 vinyl cement that I mentioned in my previous post.

This was totally unsuccessful, much as I’d expected after my previous experience with the wing cover, so reluctantly I decided that I’d get my good old Singer sewing machine out that I’d used to make MYRO’s covers and that I’d brought with me from England and run around the edge with stitching. When cut, the black tarp’s edge doesn’t fray or tear, which is a big bonus, but I want to have a double thickness for additional strength at the points where I position the securing brass eyelets. So all I need to do is turn the cut edge over and secure it with stitching and I’d found earlier that the Singer can quite easily handle a double thickness of the black tarp. I have to use the strong white thread that I bought for MYRO’s covers and in fact the contrast of the white stitching against the black tarp looks quite fetching 🙂

But it was a tough job that took a long time and as I type this I feel as though I’ve done a day’s work. Not having used the sewing machine for some time, I had to climb up a short learning curve again, but I pretty soon got the hang of it once more, even filling up the bobbin. But what I find is much tougher now is threading the needle because I can hardly see its eye without a magnifying glass. Curses for this getting-old lark 😐

I also managed to break about four needles because of the weight and lack of flexibility of the material, but when I’d finished, I was quite happy with the finished job. Here are a couple of pics of how it turned out.

As can be seen, it’s a relatively unsophisticated affair, which is why I referred to it previously as a ‘bag’. However, I’ve seen quite a few sets of X-Air covers with tail covers like it, so it must work, which is the sole aim at the end of the day. Beauty contests I am NOT interested in. So all that’s left now is for me to run up a prop cover. I’ll use the sewing machine for that now that I’ve got it out which will make it easy to make two long, thin bags to cover the blades, which I’ll connect either with Velcro or a couple of thin bungee straps. But in any case, it shouldn’t take too long and then I’ll be able to get back to working on the X-Air itself in readiness for the flight across to Galinat, whenever it occurs. I’m getting quite excited now at the prospect 😉