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Re: steve's dragon 12 Dec 2013 23:54 #763

I'm following this thread with some interest as, like Kenny, I am in the early stages of planning to build a CD. While I have no need to redesign the glider to accommodate my size/weight, being of a more 'athletic' build (read: skinny/weedy 10stone - I'll probably have to ballast up a little!) I am very interested to hear anyones' thoughts on replacing *all* the wooden parts with carbon composite.

My primary reason for this is that the climate here in Ireland is, more often than not, very soggy (waaay past humid!) and I would like to eliminate the wooden parts that may, over time, distort or warp in the damp conditions here. Is this a reasonable goal to aim at?

I realise that building to the original (largely wooden) design will probably be quicker than going with all composites, but humidity really will be a problem in the long term. Would there be any saving in weight doing this and would I be correct in thinking there would be an increase in the overall strength of the airframe if wood was replaced with carbon composites?

I intend to make a number of comparison pieces (wood only / wood+carbon / carbon only) and test them to distruction to see what numbers they yield.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Phil.

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