Canopy Replacement

[RhinoDrvr]

Like I said above, I recently looked at an SF.260 canopy, which is a fairly large expanse of Plexiglas, that uses a tubular frame like the RV's. The SF.260 canopy has rubber grommets as described above. If it's good enough technique for a production military trainer / light attack airplane, I don't think it can hurt on our RV's.

I know my canopy cracked aft of the passenger seat, near the horizontal brace that goes across the fuselage. I think Wingnut's cracked there as well. I've got a few other small cracks as well, mainly on the aft portion of the canopy.

[NavyS3BNFO]

Is there any concern that the rivet would pull through even though the grommet is superglued in? It looks like the head of the AACQ 4-4 rivets (.226) are smaller than the ?? hole drilled in the plexi. So the only thing the rivet head is bearing on is the rubber grommet. It sounds like those who have done it haven?t had any issues but the sample size is pretty small.

[RhinoDrvr]

Not sure about the rivets, but my canopy was screwed to the frame instead of riveted. Looks like it should work okay.

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by NavyS3BNFO

Is there any concern that the rivet would pull through even though the grommet is superglued in? It looks like the head of the AACQ 4-4 rivets (.226) are smaller than the ?? hole drilled in the plexi. So the only thing the rivet head is bearing on is the rubber grommet. It sounds like those who have done it haven?t had any issues but the sample size is pretty small.

Sample size of at least two....the Val is also done this way. The head of the rivet is bearing against the canopy skirt, which it goes through before going through the larger hole in the canopy. You DON?T enlarge the holes in the skirt, so it acts as a giant washer.