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Canopy Crises

acroboy

Member
I have been building the long long long long build RV-4. Plans 1705 from the 80's. I retired, sold my other airplane, and got busy finishing the RV-4. Today I guessed I was a week from setting up my DAR inspection for first flight. After building the canopy assembly I kept the canopy covered in plastic to protect it.

Today was the big day and I uncover the canopy for the first time in many years. I am crushed, the canopy has a big crack as shown in the photo. Note this canopy was secured purely with Sika and has no rivets or screws. The crack does not propagate to or from an edge. The crack is simply in the middle of the canopy.

So now the questions.
Are there alternatives to Van's canopy like Todd's used to make? Or should I just buy Van's?

How likely am I to save the frame, skirts, etc. ?? I am really depressed think of redoing all of the canopy assembly.

While I am sure its much easier to repair with the canopy assembly off of the aircraft, can it be done on the aircraft? Should I even try? Once quite a long time ago I tried removing the hinge pin unsuccessfully. If I have to remove the assembly I probably need to drill out the pop rivets and plan on some repainting.

Any suggestions that make this go easier?

Thanks for your help. It is a really sad day....

Brad
 

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I forgot to ask, is there a reasonable way to fly with this initially? Stop drill, cement,...?

Wow, That sucks so bad it should be the picture in the dictionary under "sucks"

Ac43.13 has a section on temporary repairs of windows and windscreens, but they're not typically for use in the pilot's line of sight. They range from scabbing on an external patch to lacing it together with safety wire. They are all equally ugly, but might be something to look at in the short term.
 
Move on !

Stop drill, grind a groove in the crack, fill with acrylic and fly. You will be amazed at how you dont notice the crack when flying 😊 if your priority is resale, you may need to review your objectives.
 
Oh, man, that's too bad. I feel for you.

When I was in USAF, a long time ago, I was a flightline mechanic. I saw an old-timer lace up a cracked helicopter window, not a windshield, using thin copper safety wire. That sort of wire was more commonly used to secure emergency equipment because it could be broken readily. But in this application, it seemed to work.

Looked utterly awful, though. So bad I still kind of cringe when I remember it. So I don't recommend this - although it did do the job until they could get a replacement window in.

At a minimum, stop-drill the ends of the crack.

Here's a link to an excellent discussion.

Dave
 
Just another useless fact in my head, that’s not safety wire, it’s breakaway wire, because as you stated it’s Meant to breakaway when the control is needed.

Bob burns
Rv4 n82rb
 
Plastifix

Hey Brad, I can empathise, after all that time building it's time to FLY!

There's some good suggestions here and I think the Plastifix repair is the way to go. There's little to lose other than the cost of the repair kit (less than $100), a Dremel bit, plus a couple of days effort. It would probably be better to take off the canopy for the repair. This is probably the easiest way to get flying safely and then longer term you can make a new canopy (if necessary).
 
...
Today was the big day and I uncover the canopy for the first time in many years. I am crushed, the canopy has a big crack as shown in the photo. Note this canopy was secured purely with Sika and has no rivets or screws. The crack does not propagate to or from an edge. The crack is simply in the middle of the canopy.

...

That has got to be one of the strangest canopy cracks I've heard of. Good luck with whatever path you choose to fix it. I can't imagine what that punch in the gut must have felt like.
 
Canopy fix

If he can take it, you need to contact Lew G. In Greenville, SC.. He is an absolute magician at fixing cracked canopies. He's done work for the CAF and fixed a 7 that I owned for a couple of years. I know of others, including some 8s that he's fixed also. To the best of my knowledge, not a single repaired canopy has failed. If you'd like, you can PM me your contact info and I'll see if I can put you two together. Obviously, you'd have to ship it to him....others have done that.
 
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I’m one of the 8’s Lew fixed. It is still holding,2 years, and the crack gets less noticeable every year.
 
Thanks to everyone for the responses. I am on travel this week so my response time is slow. After some soul searching and forum research I bit the bullet and ordered a new Van's canopy for about $1700. Getting ready to order Sikaflex. I debated about Silpruf but am falling back on Sika since that is what I used before with good results.

I am still quite worried about how much de-construction will be required on the canopy assembly. Ideally I could cut the old canopy out, trim the new one and glue back in. I can't visualize how it will be possible to get the new canopy in the frame without removing the skirts. Instead, I expect I will have to drill out rivets and cut the adhesive holding the skirts to the frame and the canopy. That will allow me to final trim and glue the canopy to the bare frame like I did the first time. The main downside is now I have to re-rivet, and perform all of the prep and final paint. I used Stewart Systems waterborne polyurethane in Metallic to paint the airplane. This paint like a "candy" paint that is VERY difficult for me (at my skill level) to match to existing paint. In hindsight, the metallic paint is a choice I would change if I could.

If I were already flying I probably would just do the Plastifix solution. Where the crack is I would not notice it while flying. However, after over 30 years of building I decided I wanted it to be as good as I could make it prior the first flight, mainly as a matter of pride.
 
If he can take it, you need to contact Lew G. In Greenville, SC.. He is an absolute magician at fixing cracked canopies. He's done work for the CAF and fixed a 7 that I owned for a couple of years. I know of others, including some 8s that he's fixed also. To the best of my knowledge, not a single repaired canopy has failed. If you'd like, you can PM me your contact info and I'll see if I can put you two together. Obviously, you'd have to ship it to him....others have done that.

could you send me the info I also have a cracked cannopy that I would like to get fixed .

regards

Chrstian
 
Oh, man, that's too bad. I feel for you.

When I was in USAF, a long time ago, I was a flightline mechanic. I saw an old-timer lace up a cracked helicopter window, not a windshield, using thin copper safety wire. That sort of wire was more commonly used to secure emergency equipment because it could be broken readily. But in this application, it seemed to work.

Looked utterly awful, though. So bad I still kind of cringe when I remember it. So I don't recommend this - although it did do the job until they could get a replacement window in.

At a minimum, stop-drill the ends of the crack.

Here's a link to an excellent discussion.

Dave

Yes! When I was a young helicopter mechanic we would stop drill and lace up the crack with 0.020" safety wire :eek:
The repair was just a temporary one but it did look ugly...usually happened when clients dropped a camera through the chin bubble.
 
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