Not scared of fabric anymore, progress.

[alexM]

Better Aircraft & Lars told me. It was highly recommended when I was covering in 2016 -17.

Interesting. That's not what he told me in 2021. He still recommends using the adhesive where tape goes over a seam joint (as others have mentioned) but it's more of an aesthetic thing. Lars happily pointed out how I could remove the wide piece over my leading edge in the event it should start looking rough, without any risk of damage to the underlying Oratex 6000. I was able to prove him right when I screwed up a piece of finish tape on my fuselage. With just the right amount of heat it comes off without leaving a trace.

And I think the factory changes the process even more over time. They no longer recommend the tapes over the top of tubes where they come into contact with the fabric. Of course I learned that right after completing the job on my own plane.

I don't know this for sure, but if you omit rib stitching you might have the first Kitfox covered with Oratex without rib stitching.

Not so much. Besides Harlan, Dustin (Shadowrider) and his brother didn't rib stitch when they did Oratex. Also Nate Ashton, Geek, myself...I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

Rib stitching might be easy, but not rib stitching is even easier. It's also smoother, lighter and looks better. I did numerous peel tests and plenty of math before making my final decision.

[jiott]

My 2 cents on rib stitching Oratex: Even though the Oratex adhesive seems to hold extremely well when new, its durability over time is still an unknown factor, compared to the Polyfiber system which has been proven out over many decades. For this reason alone I personally would choose to rib stitch; besides, a fabric job doesn't look quite right to me without the old school stitch bumps.

[klamath101]

After my own testing decided to omit the stiching, like said before can always add after the fact. Chose to cover the vertical using two pieces since I was fighting the curves. So reading the book on the trailing edge of the vertical where a seam is do you wrap around and glue to 180 degrees of tube or a 2 inch overlap? Blue is 2 inches brown is 180 degrees. Promise I can reed just finding the BAF supplied manual a little confusing. Picture is sideways maybe somebody can teach me how to rotate them also.

[buckchop]

Really bad idea to not do the rib stitching, BAD!! U wont find out that its coming loose from the rib till ur flyin one day down the road, a month, a year, or years, or u sell it and it happens to someone eles. You make some crazy move and POOF ur wing fabric or a tail control fabric just turned into a ballon and u loose control. Zoom zoom zoom,,, CRASH!!
Do what u think is best its ur baby but id NEVER NOT SEW any kind of control surface or the wing. And i will tell u right now, dont listen to Larz if he tells you to not sew, ive seem his fabric work for his customers at Birchwood and i wouldnt fly a plane that he has done himself and he owns the company. Im not sayin im any kind of pro and yes he knows the fabric but...........................

[Kitfox Pilot]

Really bad idea to not do the rib stitching, BAD!! U wont find out that its coming loose from the rib till ur flyin one day down the road, a month, a year, or years, or u sell it and it happens to someone eles. You make some crazy move and POOF ur wing fabric or a tail control fabric just turned into a ballon and u loose control. Zoom zoom zoom,,, CRASH!!
Do what u think is best its ur baby but id NEVER NOT SEW any kind of control surface or the wing. And i will tell u right now, dont listen to Larz if he tells you to not sew, ive seem his fabric work for his customers at Birchwood and i wouldnt fly a plane that he has done himself and he owns the company. Im not sayin im any kind of pro and yes he knows the fabric but...........................

So you have seen first hand oratex let good? I would like to see this and what part let go. Please give us this information.

[jiott]

I saw a video several years ago where an unstitched wing had started to let go on a couple of ribs. The pilot didn't know it was happening or how long it had been that way. One day a flying buddy happened to fly above him fairly close and saw the fabric ballooning up and took a video of it. I don't think it was Oratex fabric, but it showed that it was not apparent to the pilot in the air or on the ground even though it was very apparent to someone flying above. A "Stitch in time saves ......."

[Geek]

Really bad idea to not do the rib stitching, BAD!! U wont find out that its coming loose from the rib till ur flyin one day down the road, a month, a year, or years, or u sell it and it happens to someone eles. You make some crazy move and POOF ur wing fabric or a tail control fabric just turned into a ballon and u loose control. Zoom zoom zoom,,, CRASH!!
Do what u think is best its ur baby but id NEVER NOT SEW any kind of control surface or the wing. And i will tell u right now, dont listen to Larz if he tells you to not sew, ive seem his fabric work for his customers at Birchwood and i wouldnt fly a plane that he has done himself and he owns the company. Im not sayin im any kind of pro and yes he knows the fabric but...........................

So you have seen first hand oratex let good? I would like to see this and what part let go. Please give us this information.

Guess I'll join in with Harlan here and ask if you've actually seen Oratex fail or this is just an opinion. If it's an opinion, based on what? Way back in the day, when all aircraft wings were fabric and someone dared to start making some out of metall, there were those that were sure it would never work. Also Lars doesn't "own the company" as you you state. He is just a distributor for the US as Oratex is actually manufactured by Lanitz Aviation over in Germany.