JJ on Trailer Condensation

Q

Are you saying ... size does matter?

Dad. Why is the water on the out side of the trailer yellow???? I think thats from some of the kiddie glider owners dogs!!!! John jr.

...i.e. 'TINSFOS', quoting Platypus, who's been saying that in Sailplane & Gliding for 20 years... with its corrolaries like 'little gliders have the advantage of being easy to derig, but that's something you don't need to do when you make it home everytime in your big glider'.

Wonder why so many of the 'Kiddy' sailplanes are stored inside trailers while the big, open class machines often stay assembled to cook in the sun. Not often do we see girlfriends involved with the open class pilots ,unless they are 'Brunhilda' types. If the giants are loaded to the gills with water, they go like stink...straight and true. Fun to watch ...from a distance...when the towplane is strugling through the brush.

Ah, yes, but what modern conveniences we are blessed with!! I can put my glider together by myself (with the aid of a little one man rigging tool) and I cover my sailplane with Jaxida covers, thus not cooking in the sun.

Gary (another long wing convert)

Rigging a 18M Ventus takes about the same amount of time as releasing the same glider from a tie down, taking off the covers and stow them. IMHO storing a glider in a well insulated trailer like a Cobra is much better for the glider than prolonged tie-down with Jaxida covers on.

My 2 cents.

Ruud.

Yo Rudd, We once were *on tow* 45 minutes after driving on the field with the ASH-25.

That's six wings on, taped, PC check, water(drinking) snacks, maps, kiss Brunhilda, And Away We Go!

Note, This is mostly due to Udo's magic little tool.

Hi JJ, Taping my (4) wings is the most time consuming part of the rigging process. The Ventus is usually ready for take-off within 20 minutes after opening the trailer and doing a one-man rigging job.

Next year I'll be flying a Duo, so I don't have to kiss 'Brunhilda' I'll simply take here along with me.

JJ, remember, not everything your mom told you is true. It might keep us from knowing what we need to know...

Mom meant to say ' the moisture from the warm air condenses on the cold glass'. Why is this important? It is important to know where the moisture is coming from.

Mooooooooommmm, according to the above ice tea analogy, the moisture should be forming on the outside. But we know it isn't. This doesn't make sense. Geez.

How about ' the moisture in the inside air of your trailer/glider condenses on the cold uninsulated shell of your trailer. That shell gets colder than the inside air/glider because it is exposed to the big wide sky that lets it loose heat quickly.' Whatever, whereever the surfaces get to dewpoint, you get dew!

Because Aluminum looses (conducts) heat just about as quickly as anything we know.

Because outside air infiltrates with its' moisture whenever the airmass brings it along. So unless you want to let the moisture out every morning (!!) then you had better take better steps, JJ.

#1) Buy that trailer vent that is solar powered, so that at least the air gets changed, and any moisture that the air will absorb will leave with it.

Put some of those drying chemicals (what is it, Dri-Eze?) that absorb the moisture between the times you are able to visit your toy... One by the trailer door that leaks rain, and one in the cockpit near that $4000 pile of instruments.

Thirdly, wouldn't it help to insulate our trailers? It would slow the mechanism of rapid heat loss, allowing the moisture to circulate out? Or is it better to let the moisture form on the trailer than on our ships/instruments?

Living in the moss capital of the world, we still manage to keep our 30 year old fiberglass glider in good shape, sans moss and mold, even though it is parked out all winter. Any comments or suggestions to the above are welcome.

And now, if I could only get my boy's mom to say 'moisture' or 'water vapor' instead of 'steam' for what we see rising off of the hot tea!

John Gilbert Seattle,WA Std. Cirrus - PY

If you nitpick, do so correctly. See, kid, when the air touches the surface, it's cooled down. At the moment it reaches the dewpoint, the vapor condensates and falls out as droplets. These typically attach to the surface.

Why only at the surface? Well, air is a damned good heat insulator. So only the outmost layer of it gets cooled. Now build that trailer with something that conducts heat as poorly as air, and you won't have condensation at the surface but rather homogenuous mist in the trailer. Whether this would be better or worse, i don't know, and I think it doesn't matter anyway because you'd have a hard time trying to insulate your trailer well enough.

Just knitpicking, as I said.

Physically speaking, vapour and steam are the same thing. Incidently, in German there's only one word for both, 'Dampf'.