How do I know for sure what my slider windscreen is? When buying one, say from an individual, how would I know which I’m looking at/ buying? If no one here knows, next I’ll call Jeff at airplane plastics inc. Old sage builders…. any ideas ?
When the sliding canopy option was introduced around 1990 it was offered with two wind screen choices.
The standard used the portion cut from the front of the molded canopy and the optional version was to purchase a stretch molded wind screen that was just a bit thicker and also a bit different shape.
All of the first sliding canopy builders that I knew of at that time (I and Tony B. were a couple of the first to receive a slider finish kit back then) used the optional wind screen.
The most notable difference between the two was in the shape / slope angle, when viewed from the side.
The easiest way to tell if the optional wind screen was used was used is to see if the fwd base of the wind screen is just barely fwd of the roll bar brace (windscreen from the standard canopy issued at that time), or if it is a couple of inches fwd of it (optional canopy). This is evident in the photo of the plans sheet that you posted. The optional wind screen (if installed as intended) reaches fwd near to the F-6105 bulkhead.
The following was a long time ago so I may not be remembering all of the details 100% correct, but it should be pretty close....
At this pointy in time, none of this really matters any more though if someone has to replace a canopy on an early RV-6, because some time in the mid 1990's there was an accident at the canopy vendors shop (a shop fire I think, but I don't remember for certain) that resulted in the loss of the wind screen and canopy molds.
Because of this, new molds had to be produced.
In the process of doing that, the new canopy mold was changed to incorporate the shape that resulted if a canopy and optional wind screen were used, and the production of a seperately molded windscreen was discontinued.
This is the canopy shape that has been supplied in kits since that time, such that the side view shape of the entire canopy is the same on the 2 seat side by side RV's (6, 7, and 9) regardless of whether it is built with a slider or a tip up canopy.
Because of that, if you get a replacement windscreen that was manufactured anytime since the mid 1990's, it should have a shape that is very close to what was obtained by using the optional wind screen, if that is what you have (If you own the RV-6A that Tony completed in about 1992, I am quite sure it was built with the optional wind screen because I remember that when were were talking to each other about our airplanes at OSH 92).
Side Note - There is a visible difference in the fwd shape of the canopy between early (prior to a about 1993-94 finish kit) RV-6's, the and ones that were built from finish kits delivered after that time frame.
The early ones had a shape such that the slope got steeper near the fwd bottom (see the side view in the plans sheet posted in this thread).
Hope that helps
