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Wing Storage Cock-up.


Steve

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My wing gets treated better than my kids. It is never folded, always packed loose in a stuff sack after flying and then opened out to breath when back home and stored on a rack in a large dehumidified basement room.

But today I went to take it out for some ground handling as the weather wasn't flyable and as soon as I touched the bag my hand was wet. The wing was covered in what I prayed was only water. It wasn't, it was a blue liquid, looking a bit like screenwash.

Nothing nasty had been stored on the shelf above the wing but there it was all over the wing and the racking. I dabbed a bit onto my tongue, praying that one of the kids had been in and spilled apple juice on it but it was very very salty/chemically tasting - New expletives were invented at that moment.

I spent the next hour and a half in the garden with damp sponges and cloths desperately trying to clean all traces of this stuff off. I don't know what residue may be left but all the liquid was in obvious blobs so the wing's coating was still working.

I don't know if this stuff is corrosive or not, whether it got onto any seam stitching and whether my cleaning has been sufficient. Nobody has held their hand up about putting anything on the shelf above the wing and I doubt they will after seeing me frantically pulling the place apart trying to find the source liquid.

In reality there was probably only a small area affected but having cleaned it I now don't know where those areas were. Maybe a call to The Loft is in order.

The moral of the story is: Build a brick building with security locks, cameras, a sentry and electric fences and use it just for keeping your wing protected.

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Sound advice Si.

I have been tearing the place apart and have found the cause. A brand new Miracle-Gro Liquafeed thing that you plug into a hosepipe for your lawn. It is leaking everywhere so must have been put on the racking at some point. Being brand new you'd expect it to not leak! I feel better having narrowed it down - The ingredients are likely to contain some nasties, does anyone know if any of the following would be corrosive to wing fabric?

Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Boron, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Zinc, EDTA

Some of these are fractions of a percent of the content I think. WIsh I'd been more attentive in chemistry lessons back in 1979.

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Miracle grow is nice and Organic and 'pet and children safe' so I would think that the actual chemicals are fairly mild. Nitrogen is not good for metal (which is why its stored in plastic)

At a 'guess', I would also say that the fabric will be fine. :-)

Just think of it like cow pat.

SW :D

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I would soak it in water, (I once used a kids paddling pool) to be sure it is rinsed of properly. but don't drag it out when wet, take the plug out to drain the water. After it is dried, you could ask the loft to do porosity tests. and check the stitching, ask them to especially test the area where you know the liquid was.

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Cheers guys. Alan, I'll have a piece soaking, great idea. Simon, interesting thought of cow-pat in a bottle. You're probably right, the ingredients are non-toxic when ingested and the container is made of plastic. Paul, I'll explain to the kids that their paddling pool is out of service and it was someone else's idea.

:D

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I doubt it will cause you problems. It's for plants so it's basically a salt solution, can't be too basic or acidic either since the plants would die if it where. Rinse well. The most sensitive part of the wing is the leading edge so take if that's not affected I wouldn't be worried at all.

I once soaked the trailing edge of a wing with 2 stroke oil. Wasn't happy about it but in the end it didn't actually affect the wing.

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