Vintage Robbe Vampir Restoration

[Jarron]

Last summer, I came into possession of this big blue flying wing from a nice widow of a slope pilot. (Which we now know is a Robbe Vampir) As the Sunset slope fun fly is a few months away, I'd like to get it up and running. The only issue I have is that none of us here at Aloft know what it is! Do you?

 

[RafaelAvila]

Its an Blue Bird from Blue angels with Blue mans

 

[Chris]

I don't know, but I WANT IT !!!

 

[thenated0g]

nice wing! cant wait to see it in person.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Jarron,

What's the wing span? It looks like a customized 100" klingberg wing. Next time he's in the store ask Konrad. He can probably recgonize it. He had a 100" klingberg wing back in the day.

Hank

 

[Txmustangflyer]

Erm..umm...I think it crashed and they threw away the fuselage...

maybe those spindley gear and tail feathers on the table behind it go to it....maybe..I seriously doubt its the wing to the P47 though...least I think thats a P47..but its missing some parts..

Jarron..are you trying to Frankenstien a plane together? Surely Wayne gives employee discounts...I think you could probably buy one with all the pieces...

 

[Jarron]

Erm..umm...I think it crashed and they threw away the fuselage...

maybe those spindley gear and tail feathers on the table behind it go to it....maybe..I seriously doubt its the wing to the P47 though...least I think thats a P47..but its missing some parts..

Jarron..are you trying to Frankenstien a plane together? Surely Wayne gives employee discounts...I think you could probably buy one with all the pieces...

Nope!
No P-47 or franken plane here! This is an actual model glider I'm restoring. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

[agarchitect]

It may be a Halleck Razer. High A/R speed wing. Very rare. Very fast. Very cool.

 

[Jarron]

It may be a Halleck Razer. High A/R speed wing. Very rare. Very fast. Very cool.

Actually today at Lunch, I was doing some more research and found that it's an old Robbe Vampir!

Here's one in flight:

They even made an electric power pod for it, here's one with it installed:

And another that's been modified with a tractor prop:

Mystery solved! I can't wait to get her up and running for Sunset this coming year!

 

[Wayne]

A unique plane for sure. This will be fun. Jarron has already started on the rebuild.

 

[Hank GB Z]

Good job figuring it out. Please share your restoration of the old girl.
Hank

 

[agarchitect]

That black and red Vampire looks wicked. Looking forward to seeing yours flying at Sunset.

 

[slopemeno]

I think I knew the previous owner. I'll check my pics. In any event- it flew great.

 

[Jarron]

I think I knew the previous owner. I'll check my pics. In any event- it flew great.

Was his name Ela by any chance? I

 

[Wayne]

Yeah, you knew him. Just been a long time.

 

[Jarron]

Good job figuring it out. Please share your restoration of the old girl.
Hank

Alright, well first thing's first, the old covering has to go. Peeling the old covering off left nearly ALL of the old adhesive/color stuck to the wood. I had heard of a trick where you could iron laminate onto the old adhesive and when you ripped it off, it would take the color with it. I tried it and it worked pretty okay, but then Wayne had the idea of using packing tape, which didn't work. But when we heated the tape with a heat gun after application, the results were actually much better. Here is the end result.

 

[Wayne]

That pile of plastic on the right is the laminate and tape, all of that blue was removed from the wings.

We tried some different weights of laminate as the 10 mil film has a lot more adhesive on it then the lighter weights. This made no difference. So lets try some packing tape, stuck it on, pulled it off, nothing! Well, lets try ironing on the packing tape. That did the trick. Iron it on good and hot (as hot as you dare but not so hot as to melt the foam inside the wings or melt the plastic tape (we put a paper towel over the tape to avoid melting the tape and kept the iron moving). Then while it is still hot, pull off the tape. It even pulled the blue coloring off of fiberglassed areas! The wing nearer the camera was mostly done with laminate, and the further wing was us playing with the packing tape.

 

[RafaelAvila]

hey thats my idea hahaha

 

[Wayne]

True..

The things we think are fun around here.. LOL Lets pull blue gunk off that old plane!

 

[Hank GB Z]

Good job getting started. I hate pulling covering so much that I’d most likely decide that the blue is ok.
Hank