Send me a button...
 

I am now an official member of the "I cracked the canopy" club. Please send me my membership card, and button. :(

Welcome! Eventually you'll spend so much more money on other stuff that the pain of the extra canopy will be long forgotten :eek:

Not replacing yet...
 

I am not to the stage of replacing it just yet. It is a 2" crack on the right side, second hole back from the front. About 1.5" will be visible. I have it stopped drilled, and plan to glue it. Then will likely find a decal or something to cover it. Airplane will probably still fly, though my Gold Lindy is out now. ;)

I can still say that I haven't actually seen a crack happen, but as I was standing two feet from Ben when it happened, I now know what it sounds like. :( I knew what happened immediately before looking at it...like Ben said, it's totally fixable at this point, and it looks exactly like what some others have posted pics of here in the past. Still sucks tho...

We'll get it fixed! :rolleyes: :)

still hurts
 

Cracked Canopy Member. Still smarts. Replacing a $20 part, small cuss word. Replacing a >$1000 part: big cuss word and evil glare from the spousal unit.

I had a period of denial where I was thinking about stop-drilling and gluing. As painful as it was, I'm glad I replaced the thing. If I hadn't, I'd have to relive the memory every time I saw my plane.

Go Sikaflex!

Don

Don't you know it. I'm not sure if I set the stupid record, but close. My canopy was nicely bonded on with Sikaflex. Had it upside down on my padded bench. Walked past carrying a pair of vise-grips, when I tripped, big duh. I never trip. But there it was. The vise-grips flew out of my hand and landed precisely above where the pilot's head would be, making a big star-shaped crack. No debate about what to do with that one. The good news with the Sika was that I got the whole thing off with a couple of razor blades in 30 minutes. Luckily a local builder had a canopy he hadn't gotten to yet, so I got his, then ordered a new one that I turned over to him when it showed up. Took me about 4 weeks to do it the first time. With round two I went from raw canopy to the same stage (except for not dropping anything on it) in 6 days, including cleaning up & re-prepping the frame, and cure time for the Sika :o

Sorry for your loss
 

SikaFlex is really the best modification I made to my slider! There is ONE hole in the entire canopy - where the canopy latch goes through a 1" hole in the plexiglass. That hole was carefully drilled and polished - it's really the weakest link in the canopy.

With the SikaFlex, my canopy can expand/contract with temperature changes without putting any stress on pop-rivets and possibly causing a stress crack sometime in the future. The canopy is supported at 100% around the perimeter, instead of every 1 1/2" with rivets.

All around, the learning curve is not as steep as you may think, and the results are well worth the effort!

Yeah... i have been there and got the T shirt
 

It was a couple of years ago I cracked my canopy in exactly the same position second screw from the front RH side...
The noise is sickening because you know what's just happened.
The problem with cracking a canopy when you live in England is the cost of shipping, is almost as much as the canopy its self :eek:
Oh well that was $1700 down the drain...
Flying my Seven now makes that a distant memory

Me Too
 

I also cracked mine but did not have to replace it. Tap Plastics sells something that is supposed to seal the crack; it is IPS Weld-On 3 cement. I tried that, but was afraid to test the strength. Since I have a tip-up, I covered the crack with a targa strip. Not only does it cover the crack, but seal out the wind and rain quite nicely. I will have to say, that when the canopy cracked, it was the low point of my build.

C A Mansfield
N33WE flying for 3 weeks

Send me a Button, too
 

I'm not proud to announce that I'm now a member of the CC club as well. It's especially hard to admit because it was my own stupid fault. All the gory details are here:

http://www.BrucesRV7A.com

I am back on track now. I'm planning on using Sikaflex as I go forward. I'm not drilling holes in this new canopy.