Tools and resources for maintenance of wood / fabric airplane

I would encourage you to have a look at Oratex, a modern, EASA certified material for covering (not only) wood and fabric aircraft. Oratex is very easy to apply and covered by a 10 year factory warranty.

Oratex would only be applicable if you were doing a complete re-cover. Repairs would normally be the same system materials as the underlying.
There are pros and cons to Oratex. It requires no sealing, painting etc, but is relatively expensive and the finish is not to everyone’s taste.

There are woodwork courses available in the UK; maybe the RSA does something similar if the UK ones aren’t practicable. It isn’t really carpentry in the sense of a furniture maker. Joints are all glue bonded and there isn’t much more difficult than learning how to make a 15:1 scarf joint in 2mm GL1 plywood, such as if you were trying to repair a dinged leading edge skin on a Jodel wing (that may be even thinner than 2mm).

The engines are the same as any old Cessna or Piper and any aircraft mechanic can show you the basics for the annual inspection etc – changing the oil, cleaning the plugs, compression checks, mag timing etc.

I agree with Mark1. I attended a wooden aircraft repair course and in just one day I learnt so much as to be confident enough to make skin repairs to my wooden aircraft. See if there’s such a course near you and go and do it. You’ll learn much more than reading a book and a little more than watching a DVD.