Posted by Lola Jackson (lolaltd@…>)
Can someone tell me why some Freedoms have White Masts, and others Black…if all Carbon Fiber…?..inquiring mind wants to know…Lola
Posted by Alan Kusinitz (akusinitz@…>)
I believe earlier masts (70s and early eighties) were black then
they switch to white to keep heat down.
The external layer on the older masts is not carbon fiber.
Alan F-33 1982
From:
FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Lola Jackson
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:20 AM
To: freedom group
Subject: [!! SPAM] [FreedomOwnersGroup] Mast colors
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Can someone tell me why some Freedoms have White Masts, and
others Black…if all Carbon Fiber…?..inquiring mind wants to know…Lola
\
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Posted by Fargo Rousseau (fargo_r@…>)
I don’t know the actual history or the thinking behind the 'black and white" story of Freedom masts. I can offer this from some related work that I have done:The strength of epoxy systems (carbon fiber or glass fiber) decreases with increasing temperature. As far as I know, every commonly used epoxy in the boat and commercial aircraft industry shares this problem, but they all have different strength-temperature curves. All commonly used structural resins are also have sensitivity to UV radiation and are damaged by longterm exposure. The “cheap” fix is to coat the part (could be a wing or a mast) with a black opaque (UV absorbing) material, then overcoat that with a very durable white (heat reflective) coating…such as the 2 part urethane paints used on Freedom masts. The actual temperature difference
between a sun exposed black part and a white part can be surprising large even when they are surrounded by freely moving air. It has always surprised me how little of this knowledge is known or used in the engineering and architectural field…though few Arizonians buy black leather seats. Perhaps their knowledge approached them from a different and more convincing part of their anatomy.The strength-temperature relationship of resins was also not well know in the beginning…at least not out in the field where these materials where being put to practical use. But after a few black epoxy resin wings fell off, the word got around…and the coating process I mentioned above became almost universal. However some parts are just so over-built that a bit of thermal weakening or UV degradation doesn’t cause enough failure to worry about.FargoEx F30 #12— On Wed, 7/23/08, Alan Kusinitz
<akusinitz@…> wrote:From: Alan Kusinitz <akusinitz@…>Subject: RE: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Mast colorsTo: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.comDate: Wednesday, July 23, 2008, 10:36 AM
I believe earlier masts (70s and early eighties) were black then
they switch to white to keep heat down. The external layer on the older masts is not carbon fiber. Alan F-33 1982
From:
FreedomOwnersGroup@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:FreedomOwne rsGroup@yahoogro ups.com] On
Behalf Of Lola Jackson
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:20 AM
To: freedom group
Subject: [!! SPAM] [FreedomOwnersGroup ] Mast colors
Can someone tell me why some Freedoms have White Masts, and
others Black…if all Carbon Fiber…?.. inquiring mind wants to know…Lola
\
Posted by lance_ryley (lance_ryley@…>)
Alan,
I could be wrong about this, but I think one of the big reasons for
the switch was because Awlgrip is more flexible than the mud they
used on the earlier masts. They could have probably found black
awlgrip, but white looks ‘clean.’ I wonder if white was also a more
acceptable color for the masts - don’t forget, most people still had
to come to grips with a freestanding rig in the first place 
Lance
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, “Alan Kusinitz”
<akusinitz@…> wrote:
I believe earlier masts (70s and early eighties) were black then
they switch
to white to keep heat down.The external layer on the older masts is not carbon fiber.
Alan F-33 1982
From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Lola
Jackson
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:20 AM
To: freedom group
Subject: [!! SPAM] [FreedomOwnersGroup] Mast colorsCan someone tell me why some Freedoms have White Masts, and others
Black…if all Carbon Fiber…?..inquiring mind wants to
know…Lola
Posted by Alan Kusinitz (akusinitz@…>)
Could be. For sure the mud they used wasn’t flexible enough.
When I spoke to Ted Van Dusen from Composite Engineering before I bought my
F-33 he said generally they like to avoid dark colors now due to heat unless
the carbon fiber construction included autoclaving/curing at a higher heat. But
it didn’t seem like a big deal and his impression was these masts were
overbuilt anyway. He said these days they’d be a lot lighter.
Alan
From:
FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of lance_ryley
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 9:50 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Mast colors
\
Alan,
I could be wrong about this, but I think one of the big reasons for
the switch was because Awlgrip is more flexible than the mud they
used on the earlier masts. They could have probably found black
awlgrip, but white looks ‘clean.’ I wonder if white was also a more
acceptable color for the masts - don’t forget, most people still had
to come to grips with a freestanding rig in the first place
Lance
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com,
“Alan Kusinitz”
<akusinitz@…> wrote:
I believe earlier masts (70s and early eighties) were black then
they switch
to white to keep heat down.The external layer on the older masts is not carbon fiber.
Alan F-33 1982
From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Lola
Jackson
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:20 AM
To: freedom group
Subject: [!! SPAM] [FreedomOwnersGroup] Mast colorsCan someone tell me why some Freedoms have White Masts, and others
Black…if all Carbon Fiber…?..inquiring mind wants to
know…Lola
\