I have a radio controlled glider which has a fibre glass fuselage, it has a section which is prone to cracking.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your message. The variation in diameter that you're talking about, dropping from 35mm to 10mm would probably be a little too much variation for any single braid to handle. Our 40mm carbon fibre braid is the closest candidate which can accomodate diameters from 12mm to 52mm but that would put your 10mm right at the extreme of what it could do and so you'd have really considerable elongation to achieve it. Our next braid down, the 20mm can accomodate from 6mm to 26mm so although it's better on the smaller diameter it would simply not be able to get to the larger diameter at all so if you want to do it in one then I'd suggest the 40mm but be prepared for some considerably distortion down at the 10mm end.

That said, I still think this would be a good idea and is probably your easiest way of reinforcing the fuselage. Wet it out with EL2 epoxy and then wrap it with composites shrink tape to consolodate it whilst it cures.

I hope this helps.

--Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales