Heat/Cold and Foam Plane Storage

[DDawg]

I've recently got back into RC flying and discovered these wonderful foam planes.
Since January 2019 I've bought a FMS P-47, FW 64mm F-18, Votec 322, FW 90mm F-22 and a FW 80mm Avanti.
I got my old runway back up and running at the farm and now I just need a place to store all my planes.
We have an old completely enclosed dairy barn out at our farm that hasn't seen cattle since the 40's. I'm thinking I could store planes there and I'll kill two birds with one stone, a place to keep planes and I won't have to transport my planes to the field. There is no insolation in the barn, and where I live in North Georgia it gets very hot and humid in the summer, winter is not so bad, but we do have days in the 20's/30s. I would expect the lower level of the barn would never heat past about 85 degrees on the hot summer days. I will put shades on the windows to prevent direct sunlight from getting in.
Does anyone know of any potential issues with storing foam planes in non climate controlled areas?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
David

[BRGT350]

I store mine in the garage, which has no windows for sunlight to enter, and the temp ranges from 30'F in the winter to 90'F (very rare) in the summer. I have not seen any issues with my foam planes and some of been hanging in there for 7 years.

[xviper]

In your barn, you are not seeing what I consider temperature extremes. It's sunlight (UV) that causes gatering. Humidity, I'm not sure. It's very dry here year round. I have flown regularly throughout the winter. My limit of temp is about 17F, no wind. The only thing I've noticed is that most of my planes go out of trim and needs to be re-trimmed that day since I transport the planes in a heated car. Storage in those temps should not be a problem.

[BRGT350]

While I have not noticed the trim issue, mostly because I rarely fly in temps that are low, other club members have described exactly what xviper described. They also have said that trimming a plane on a very low humidity day will result in a need to retrim on high humidity days. The temps and humidity are pretty constant from my garage, the car during transport (only about a 5-8 minute drive), and the flying field. I don't see much difference.

[RRHandy]

I've recently got back into RC flying and discovered these wonderful foam planes.
Since January 2019 I've bought a FMS P-47, FW 64mm F-18, Votec 322, FW 90mm F-22 and a FW 80mm Avanti.
I got my old runway back up and running at the farm and now I just need a place to store all my planes.
We have an old completely enclosed dairy barn out at our farm that hasn't seen cattle since the 40's. I'm thinking I could store planes there and I'll kill two birds with one stone, a place to keep planes and I won't have to transport my planes to the field. There is no insolation in the barn, and where I live in North Georgia it gets very hot and humid in the summer, winter is not so bad, but we do have days in the 20's/30s. I would expect the lower level of the barn would never heat past about 85 degrees on the hot summer days. I will put shades on the windows to prevent direct sunlight from getting in.
Does anyone know of any potential issues with storing foam planes in non climate controlled areas?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
David

You should not have any problems with the planes in the barn, I keep some planes in my enclosed trailer all year round (insulated) and have had no problems with any of them in there.

I want to do the same thing as you have going on when I retire and buy a track of farm land and fly my retired years, Got that from TI aka George.

Ron

[Dnn]

In your barn, you are not seeing what I consider temperature extremes. It's sunlight (UV) that causes gatering. Humidity, I'm not sure. It's very dry here year round. I have flown regularly throughout the winter. My limit of temp is about 17F, no wind. The only thing I've noticed is that most of my planes go out of trim and needs to be re-trimmed that day since I transport the planes in a heated car. Storage in those temps should not be a problem.

Actually it's the heat the causes the gatoring. I've been doing testing on old air frames to practice refinishing, and as part of the experiments with different methods, I have been applying a heat gun to the foam, to make it expand. So no sunlight is involved.

[xviper]

Actually it's the heat the causes the gatoring. I've been doing testing on old air frames to practice refinishing, and as part of the experiments with different methods, I have been applying a heat gun to the foam, to make it expand. So no sunlight is involved.

He's talking 85 degrees. What's your heat gun working at? 85F isn't going to do it. To make foam "expand" after a foam plane crashes and compresses it, it needs near boiling water. That's over 200 degrees and even then, it doesn't always work. I believe in the absence of extreme heat, UV will do harm. I have some planes with a temp probe on board and flying in winter when the temps are near freezing but in sunlight on a cloudless day, the foam on a sailplane will come down gatored after a couple of flights of 1/2 hour each. I suggest you do more experiments with the heat gun set at 85. Then leave a foam plane out in the sun on a cool day and record what happens. Oh, and I'm talking about a plane that's got darker paint.