So what's the deal with wraps for cert. Aircraft?

[Joe_B1]

The paint on my old bird has seen better days and I have been thinking about a wrap vs. Paint. Apparently there were a lot of places that did it but now it seems like they have all gone out of business except for one in FL.

What I heard is that this required some sort of OK from the FSDO because it was considered a major mod.

So what say you PoA? Is this still a thing?

 

[BladeSlap]

Pretty sure our helicopters are wrapped, don’t think it’s a major mod but I can ask.

 

[Joe_B1]

Pretty sure our helicopters are wrapped, don’t think it’s a major mod but I can ask.

From what I read on the interwebs (which is always true) it had something to do with covering the wings. Maybe leading edges?

 

[BladeSlap]

From what I read on the interwebs (which is always true) it had something to do with covering the wings. Maybe leading edges?

Ok, sorry I can’t help with that one, we didn’t even wrap the tail booms

 

[kyleb]

I can't think of any reason a wrap would be prohibited. Certainly, there is a fair amount of vinyl trim on several generations of Cessnas and Cirri. Does it matter if the vinyl covers 10% vs 95% of the aircraft?

 

[Bell206]

I have been thinking about a wrap vs. Paint

Are you talking about adding accents, N numbers, nose art, etc.? Or are you wanting to "wrap" the entire aircraft? If the former no problem with some applications falling under prevent mx. If the latter, you'll need an STC. There is existing guidance on this which explains the reasons why on page 67 below:
https://fsims.faa.gov/wdocs/Other/Major_Repair_Alteration_Job-Aid R5.pdf

 

[kyleb]

Are you talking about adding accents, N numbers, nose art, etc.? Or are you wanting to "wrap" the entire aircraft? If the former no problem with some applications falling under prevent mx. If the latter, you'll need an STC. There is existing guidance on this which explains the reasons why on page 67 below:
https://fsims.faa.gov/wdocs/Other/Major_Repair_Alteration_Job-Aid R5.pdf

That document specifies vinyl shrink wraps. Most of the wrapping I see is not shrink film. It is simply wrapped around the surface - not shrunk into place (they mention blowtorches in the referenced document). And several of the reasons they give for not doing it - scoring the skin and covering ports are legitimate bad things that could happen, but avoiding those should be common sense for anyone dealing with an airplane. Certainly, there are plenty of great ways to do harm when painting an airplane (driving stripper into gaps, painting various ports that shouldn't be painted, plus a bunch of others). I really don't see the difference, but who am I to tell the FAA their new garments are a little transparent...

 

[Bell206]

I see is not shrink film.

FYI: When you talk to someone at the ACO level on this the shrink part is not an issue unless discussing a product like Oratex. The main issue(s) are flight control flutter and what happens if the wrap partially unbonds. Unfortunately when this whole issue popped up 12 years ago or so there was public media out there showing vehicle wrappers covering aircraft and using open flames to set the glue in cooler climates. It was quite the circus then. Currently there are a number of STCs out there to cover various aircraft completely or almost with standard 3M vinyl.

 

[Fearless Tower]

The paint on my old bird has seen better days and I have been thinking about a wrap vs. Paint. Apparently there were a lot of places that did it but now it seems like they have all gone out of business except for one in FL.

What I heard is that this required some sort of OK from the FSDO because it was considered a major mod.

So what say you PoA? Is this still a thing?

That sounds about par for the course with Florida FAA. They’ll regularly turn a blind eye to all the 134.5 operators, but some GA owner wants to wrap their airplane and ‘oh, no, that’s strictly verboten!’

 

[SoonerAviator]

I would also imagine the weight of the vinyl wrap is a good bit heavier than paint in most instances. I can't imagine it being that cost effective from a labor input standpoint either, as wrapping complex surfaces (and doing it correctly) is very labor intensive.

 

[Bell206]

I would also imagine the weight of the vinyl wrap is a good bit heavier than paint in most instances. I can't imagine it being that cost effective from a labor input standpoint either, as wrapping complex surfaces (and doing it correctly) is very labor intensive.

From what I’ve seen, the weight of the vinyl usually falls into the negligible range. I’ve never applied vinyl to an entire aircraft but we have covered substantial areas while staying within the not-applicable spirit of the FAA memo and the total vinyl weights were real low so I doubt an entire small aircraft application would weigh more than 1lb. However, the labor can be high especially applying it around the rivets, etc. Regardless, I think to the OPs point of a paint replacement it would not work as the vinyl needs a good, clean surface to work and if the existing paint is in bad shape I think it would create future problems especially if he had to replace the vinyl. A good place to look for some real world costs/results is to E/ABs as using complete vinyl wraps is somewhat popular in that category.

 

[Jeff Oslick]

I'd think the one place wraps might fail (badly) is around parts of the engine cowling and exhaust, due to heat.

 

[SoonerAviator]

From what I’ve seen, the weight of the vinyl usually falls into the negligible range. I’ve never applied vinyl to an entire aircraft but we have covered substantial areas while staying within the not-applicable spirit of the FAA memo and the total vinyl weights were real low so I doubt an entire small aircraft application would weigh more than 1lb. However, the labor can be high especially applying it around the rivets, etc. Regardless, I think to the OPs point of a paint replacement it would not work as the vinyl needs a good, clean surface to work and if the existing paint is in bad shape I think it would create future problems especially if he had to replace the vinyl. A good place to look for some real world costs/results is to E/ABs as using complete vinyl wraps is somewhat popular in that category.

We leveraged the use of vinyl wraps for oilfield equipment for a while when our external paint supplier was capacity constrained. The vinyl wraps were per cut to fit most parts of the parts we were sending out, but there was still a ton of labor in the application and trimming of the wrap to fit. It allowed us to eliminate flash/cure times and in-transit times when a quick turn-around was needed. However, the cost was just about as much as the painting and used up shop labor that could have been better spent elsewhere. This was on new, clean steel not an aircraft covered in bugs, grease, and grime. The vinyl wrap makes sense in EAB when you're building new or lack the skills to lay down a smooth coat of paint. Doing it on something that will need virtually all of the same prep work as a paint job just doesn't make much sense to me. The composite versus riveted stuff may be easier, but dealing with all of the rivet heads would sway me towards paint immediately.

 

[Bell206]

Doing it on something that will need virtually all of the same prep work as a paint job just doesn't make much sense to me.

Agree. All the extensive vinyl installs I did were for "temporary" requirements vs a repaint for those requirements so it made more sense in those cases. Nothing replaces a good paint job.

 

[Kenny Phillips]

From what I’ve seen, the weight of the vinyl usually falls into the negligible range. I’ve never applied vinyl to an entire aircraft but we have covered substantial areas while staying within the not-applicable spirit of the FAA memo and the total vinyl weights were real low so I doubt an entire small aircraft application would weigh more than 1lb. However, the labor can be high especially applying it around the rivets, etc. Regardless, I think to the OPs point of a paint replacement it would not work as the vinyl needs a good, clean surface to work and if the existing paint is in bad shape I think it would create future problems especially if he had to replace the vinyl. A good place to look for some real world costs/results is to E/ABs as using complete vinyl wraps is somewhat popular in that category.

I just did the calc on a typical vinyl thickness, full coverage, Skyhawk-sized plane. Ten pounds would be closer, more for the thicker stuff, wouldn't use the thin stuff.

 

[Bell206]

I just did the calc on a typical vinyl thickness, full coverage, Skyhawk-sized plane. Ten pounds would be closer, more for the thicker stuff, wouldn't use the thin stuff.

My bad. You're correct. I thought my notes said 1lbs. It's 11lbs. The negligible ones must be the helicopter wraps. But the aviation vinyl with perforations vs the polyester wrap is very durable provided its taken care of.