Wing bladder pinhole repair tip
Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 3:26 pm
Hey everyone, Here's a tip to locate very small leaks in wing/kite bladders. I've recently had to repair 4 very tiny tiny pinholes in my wing strut bladder. Let me tell you finding them was a bugger! I first noticed my wing strut would get soft after an hour or longer, not catastrophically soft, still able to wing but noticeable degradation, pretty much limp if left overnight.
So, I pulled out the strut bladder and began the hunt for leaks. I pumped up the bladder very lightly, otherwise it will grossly distort the shape at any significant pressure, and again could find no visible areas of leakage (even with magnifying glass) on the strut or with usual suspects of inflate valve and dump valves. Same for trying to listen for any leakage. Getting frustrating! Going to the soapy spray bottle test, gently massaging/squeezing the strut bladder and still no obvious leaks which usually show up with soapy bubbling action. I assume the air pressure was insufficient to cause a bubbly leak with these little buggers.
OK, put the bladder back into wing and pump it up to maximum designated pressure. Begin to spray all over the wing to try and get a general fix on the area I should focus on, and voila, soapy bubbles are coming from a few spots near the rear handle and toward canopy from it. Pull out the bladder thinking I've got the 1 sq.ft area to look at and again can see nothing obvious even with magnifying glass and again not enough pressure to get any soapy bubble effect to show me where the holes are. These things are so small you can't see them, they look like any other miniscule imperfection using a magnifying glass and you get no audible air or soap bubbles from them at low pressure. Very frustrating!
The TIP: I had my face and ear up against the bladder listening and I passed a spot that gave the slightest little feeling on my eye/cornea. Turns out, if you get your eye up really close it is sensitive enough to feel this little little little breeze and you can then focus on this little little little blemish to then slap a patch on the sucker and it's fixed! Yay!!
So in conclusion, to find these incredibly annoying miniscule holes, isolate the area with a soapy spray on the wing fabric with it pumped up to max pressure and it should show you the general area to search for on the bladder itself. With bladder removed, if the holes aren't obvious, jam your eye very close to the bladder and start moving slowly across the area and feel for the very light air pressure on your cornea. Once you feel the tiny breeze/pressure, you've got your micro-pinhole isolated and slap a patch on that thing!
Hope this helps you out when you encounter these super slow, hard to find leaks! Cheers ULR
So, I pulled out the strut bladder and began the hunt for leaks. I pumped up the bladder very lightly, otherwise it will grossly distort the shape at any significant pressure, and again could find no visible areas of leakage (even with magnifying glass) on the strut or with usual suspects of inflate valve and dump valves. Same for trying to listen for any leakage. Getting frustrating! Going to the soapy spray bottle test, gently massaging/squeezing the strut bladder and still no obvious leaks which usually show up with soapy bubbling action. I assume the air pressure was insufficient to cause a bubbly leak with these little buggers.
OK, put the bladder back into wing and pump it up to maximum designated pressure. Begin to spray all over the wing to try and get a general fix on the area I should focus on, and voila, soapy bubbles are coming from a few spots near the rear handle and toward canopy from it. Pull out the bladder thinking I've got the 1 sq.ft area to look at and again can see nothing obvious even with magnifying glass and again not enough pressure to get any soapy bubble effect to show me where the holes are. These things are so small you can't see them, they look like any other miniscule imperfection using a magnifying glass and you get no audible air or soap bubbles from them at low pressure. Very frustrating!
The TIP: I had my face and ear up against the bladder listening and I passed a spot that gave the slightest little feeling on my eye/cornea. Turns out, if you get your eye up really close it is sensitive enough to feel this little little little breeze and you can then focus on this little little little blemish to then slap a patch on the sucker and it's fixed! Yay!!
So in conclusion, to find these incredibly annoying miniscule holes, isolate the area with a soapy spray on the wing fabric with it pumped up to max pressure and it should show you the general area to search for on the bladder itself. With bladder removed, if the holes aren't obvious, jam your eye very close to the bladder and start moving slowly across the area and feel for the very light air pressure on your cornea. Once you feel the tiny breeze/pressure, you've got your micro-pinhole isolated and slap a patch on that thing!
Hope this helps you out when you encounter these super slow, hard to find leaks! Cheers ULR