by Bill Cummings » Tue Apr 25, 2017 10:12 pm
Here are a couple of tips for folding a glider and fastening it to the vehicle rack.
One thing I should pass along, after having to pull out the Mylar and ironing the curl out of the Mylar. Now after flipping the glider upside down and taking apart the control frame I loosen the glider ties and no longer leave the Mylar curled snugly around each wing tube.
I pull slack from the under surface so that the Mylar can uncurl and take the largest circumference inside the glider bag. The Mylar no longer takes the set/curl that it once did from being wrapped too snugly around each wing tube.
For ironing out the Mylar I used water in a steam iron and covered the Mylar with a sheet. Ironed it so that it was too hot to touch and the Mylar is no longer curled. I now have a cambered leading edge like new.
Another thing I just recently started doing is when tying the glider to the rack I measured where each batten pocket would be when it is rolled up inside the glider bag and only tie in those locations. That way if the Mylar is deformed from being tied onto the rack the batten when inserted for set up will hold the Mylar at the desired camber. Hope that made sense.
PS: To put it differently, don't tie your glider to the rack by fastening it between batten pockets.