Hi Mark, Well I'd be lying if I said you didn't scare the hell out of me about using silver paint.( I have two Gal.) Do you see any problems using a handheld with it's own antenna not grounded to the airframe?Would it be the same as in a Spam can? I don't plan on using the Nav on it as this is a day VFR only plane(mine, not the design) As far as the feather fill, I too am not trying to achieve perfection but get close as I can within reason and feather fill is said to be great at sanding and filling imperfections, But I still want the UV protection from the smooth prime. Thanks again, Tim Bellville KR2 N7038V ---- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Langford" <n5...@hiwaay.net> To: "KR builders and pilots" <kr...@mylist.net> Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2003 9:20 AM Subject: Re: KR>paint
> Tim wrote: > > > I plan on using "Nevada silver" as a base and considering a checkerboard > > pattern on the nose. > > The thing about silver is that is entirely composed of metallic aluminum > chips. You might argue that it's very thin, and you'd be right, be so is > aluminum foil, the stuff that people use to make ground planes out of. I > was thinking about painting my plane the same color as my car, which has a > little metallic in it. An electrical engineer buddy whose specialty is > antennas modeled my vertical stab and antenna in some software that analyzes > antenna patterns at specific frequencies. While the signal improved > slightly out front (for 123 kHz), it just about got killed completely from > behind, thanks to the vertical stab and rudder behind it. That's bad > enough, but then it dawned on me that the other half of antenna dipole is > buried INSIDE the fuselage, and beneath the aft deck, so you might as well > throw that leg away entirely! That's when I went to just plain red. Based > on his analysis, and the experience of others, silver paint would seriously > degrade antenna performance, which is why I'm probably going with a very > light gray on top instead. My thinking is that white or light gray is easy > to see from above, and a dark color such as red is easy to see from below. > If neither of those arguments hold water, then it's just because I like red! > > > As A side note, do you see any problem using feather fill over > smoothprime? > > I don't know about Feather Fill, but I sprayed an entire layer of urethane > primer over Smooth Prime on my plane. Not that it proves anything, just > that I don't think there'll be a problem with what I did. Can't say about > Feather Fill, since it's polyester based. Wouldn't you want to follow > Smooth Prime with the primer or sealer that's recommended for your top coat? > For example, DuPont's Ultimate 2K urethane primer is OK for use directly > under DuPont's urethane colors, and it has a great build and is easy to > sand. It's working for me. Feather Fill might be just fine, but I don't > know. I guess I should let somebody that knows what they're talking about > answer that one... > > Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL > N56ML "at" hiwaay.net > see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford > > > > _______________________________________________ > see KRnet list details at http://www.krnet.org/instructions.html
