stressedout72

Ed it's not "they won’t work", the tanks I manufacture have a slight variation in the wing profile and if you want to fly then I say go for it and make it work. That’s what experimental is all about.

 

 

Here is the difference between the 2 ribs types we deal with so here is a STOL rib and a flat bottom "Speed" rib.

I am going to speak with him on the cost of the tooling?? will see what happens, boat builders are not light sport aircraft builders, also i am sure my costs will be far less then his.

Man, you're right on time!    After 20 years of running gas through my old fiberglass tank it started leaking about a month ago.  I've been researching everything there is to find about fixing and replacing and was just about to start to cut my tank open when I came across this post.  Needless to say, I'm very interested.  If you're going to put price and pictures on here that's fine.  If not, I'll email you.

 

Just let me know.  thanks

 

Jim

hey Jim, send me an email. also you might want to look at the posting here

Here is another Issue, "my tank is leaking and what should i do?

If you have a leak greater then a pinhole you might want to consider repalcing the tank.

if you have a pinhole somewhere, this is typically from air bubbles in the resin and from the manufacturing process, then;

A. Sand the area about 3/4" around the hole (using a 36 grit sanding disc) and slightly in the pin hole, BTW us extreme caution not to go to deep,

B. Clean the are with acetone,

C. Finally use Hysol E-50CR  with some glass to repair.

Ok all I thought I would start a post regarding issues with older “pre 2004†wing tanks. I say pre 2004 because after a few years of testing I began manufacturing tanks for a few companies.

Here is a Fix that some have tried. "SLOSHING"

I have many issues with "Sloshing" a tank sealant in any fiberglass tank.

#1. If the tanks are in the wings already you have to rotate, flip the entire wing just too hopefully etch it. This is no good in my book because you will never get the whole tank covered with the etching material or sealant.

#2. The manufactures of tank sealants do not know what types of resins the tanks are made of and it’s pretty much an educated guess on their part if their materials will truly work.

#3. If the tank being sealed is not "abraded" I.E. sanded at least with 80grit for the sealant, 9 times out of 10 it will not adhere to the surfaces. If things are not perfect the materials typically peel off within a period of time. I have witnessed this more than once. You cannot use screws, bolts, nails of any other thing to try and abrade the tank surface other than by hand sanding every area.

My final thought on tank sealants, Bad Idea.

Robert,

     Rod just told me - look at "fng post" in Introduce Yourself - that the STOL tanks wont work with the speedwing ribs because of the TOP profile?   WELL - If yours worked, why not others?

     If memory serves me - we talked about adding another layer of rib caps on top, but you did some grinding and got them to work without adding any caps like I did.

EDMO

Ed it's not "they won’t work", the tanks I manufacture have a slight variation in the wing profile and if you want to fly then I say go for it and make it work. That’s what experimental is all about.

Thanks for the reply Rod,

     I added the rib on bottom of my undercamber Kitfox-type tanks when I made the Riblett modification to my wings - That worked for me - Didn't know that the top of speedwing ribs were different contour than the Avid STOL.  At least he can get tanks from Airdale, if he can ever find Brett.

EDMO

added - Robert just told me that he got your STOL tanks to work in his speedwing - see his post in "Parts for Sale" in Avid and Kitfox Parts Suppliers.  I now remember when he did that - so, if they work for him.......?

ED

Hey ED i do sell the tanks to Brett. If anyone wants a set then send me an e-mail. i will take some pics of the ribs then let youall be the judge.

Rod,

      One of the guys on here was looking for Speedwing tanks - Do you make them, or will the STOL tanks fit?

  I suggested that if he could get the stol tanks, that he could just glue a rib in the center underneath to match profile of speedwing.

EDMO

Hey Ed, the speed wing tanks i build for kitfox are there tools so again i appologise but cannot sell their items. The issue you are going to have with the hi-undercamber tanks I manufacture is that it has the same profile of the rib so it will sit higher when installed in a speed style wing. So its not just the underneth that would have an issue. Hope that helps.

Thanks for all the wonderful posts. I will sell items retail for those of you who are wondering. I do sell the 13gl wing tanks and have a very cool flush mount cap for them. They are a made from my own tooling I created for the Sky Raider. I do also sell them to Brett for the avids also. the tanks are 10.5 - 11lbs which are lighter then the poly tanks. I do not sell any hardware for the fittings seeing how there are so many ways you can run them. You can e-mail me if you want a price quote. rod@qpllc.net I am trying to get a fat airdale flyer cowling to pull a mold off of so i will let you all know how that goes. I am getting togather a list of items and prices to post. for now just e-mail me. Thanks again.

Well Hello all,

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Rod Schramm. I grew up in the kit aircraft industry mostly because my dad BJ Schramm was the father of the kit helicopter known as the Scorpion, Exec, Elite, Windstar and the ultimate kit helicopter the Helicycle. I also designed and built 80% of the tooling for the Helicycle and manufactured of the first 60. As in some father son relationships there is a bit of head-butting and in our case it lead to my going back to college and then ultimately starting my business with my wife.

We started Performance Products LLC in 2006 and manufacture composite parts for Kitfox, Airdale Sport Plane, Sky Raider, Eagle R & D (home of the Helicycle), and a few motorcycle companies. I have built some of our own tooling for some of the above mentioned aircraft they are: Leading Edges and 13gl wing tanks that can be used in the Sky Raider, Avid flyer, Airdale, Escapade and Highlander. Kitfox Aircraft is a large part of our company and we are not willing to sacrifice our relationship by selling their parts. However, we have permission from another great company Sky Raider to sell items that we manufacture for them.

I am happy to announce that we will be manufacturing our own Weight Shift Ultralight in the very near future. We have been working super long hours on the design and tooling. You can check out and like what we have been up to on our Facebook page and our Website at www.performanceproducts1.com. I hope that I can assist you with your projects.

Thanks for allowing me to post

Rod Schramm

we also have a website at www.performanceproducts1.com. I do not have a current list of items that i porduce so i guess it might be time to make one and post it.