I guess most of us must have the same issue when pulling the net really tight, it kinda bends the hoop back and gives it those weird angles. I I ordered from Paul 4 of the same base tubes - drilled a total of 12 holes in the hoop and new sections - went to Home Depot and got 12 pins long enough to stick out the other side of two tube layers overlapping each other - I then attached elastic hair bands to secure each pin. It literally only takes less than two minutes to put the pins in/out. The crooked tube sections are then forced to realign themselves with the rest of the hoop because they are held under tension once the pins are in. The hoop is perfectly round afterward with the net tight.
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Hmmmm…maybe I misunderstood what you are showing, but it looks like you have an extra set of tubes at each connection point on the outside the original hoop. Looks like it is keeping the hoop straight, but how are you going to do a forward inflation? The lines will get caught on it.
Hi Bill, I have not had any problem so far. The pins (ring side) could be inserted from the bottom need be. It would not be a big deal if you caught a line because unlike a gas machine even equipped with a centrifugal clutch, absolutely nothing would happen, assuming that you would not power the 4 motors before the glider is overhead. With a gas motor you would run the risk of landing part of your wing on a hot engine which could melt it - it happened.
Another solution if you wanted to adopt a similar system, would be to use flat aluminum strip, about 3mm thick x 20mm wide to reduce the overall thickness of the reinforcement. You would only have to bend them to match the hoop curve, then use shorter pins to lock them in place after painting them black. Just an idea.
Seems a bit off that we have to modify things like this surely this is a design fault of the red connecting lugs which may need to be longer to rectify the warping…
Paul is working on it. This was just my tempo fix. I don’t mind, knowing that it is work in progress on all sides and from everyone involved 