Scott Silver <<scott.silver>>
writes:

I finally got to test my "cure" for wet mylar under real-world
conditions. I fly a full Mylar T2-154. I put Jet-Dri (the stuff for
anti-spotting in your dishwasher -
http://www.finishdishwashing.com/finish-dishwashing-additives.php) on the
leading edge. I squirt a line about 10 inches long and spread it by hand until a
section of LE is covered then move down the LE until done (repeat for the other
side, too!). I have flown this glider fully wet without this treatment. Fully
wet its trim speed comes up and it gets slow to roll into a turn and much slower
to roll out. With the Jet-Dri, I could not tell the difference between dry or
wet and I landed fully wet without any issue.

The first question most people ask is what will that do to the sail. I have no
idea. Seems safe enough (since I can eat it). One treatment lasts only one
flight wet and my guess is that it will wash off in extended rain so one should
probably land in extended rainstorm. I had left a small section untreated near
the tips and, upon ground inspection after the flight, this was still beaded up
while the rest of the LE was completely dry.

I would be interested to know what is in this stuff that causes the water to
sheet off, also if that substances plays nicely with all of our glider and
harness materials.

Scott's on the Oregon coast, and as we all know, it's wet up there.