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Sealing the rear canopy skirt

N999BT

Well Known Member
Patron
Over the years I have tried a number of methods to seal air from coming in between the rear skirt and the fuselage. I've tried stick on felt, P shaped weather stripping. It usually works for a while, but then starts leaking, and then my wife gets cold. Especially when flying in 10 deg F weather at altitude. Has anyone found something that works for the long haul?
 
What I did

I have no seal on mine, but a simple "bumper seal "at the very aft end. Air normally flows out there and I have never heard any pax saying air comes in. Most RV-4's differ greatly in that area, as its a hard skin to form. Mine sits about 1/32"-1/16" above the fuselage skin when latched. My sides however have a very soft rubber bulb seal the entire length and do not leak at all. Are you sure the air isn't coming in the straight sides?
 
On my -9a, a diligent search on a two-pilot flight to Sioux Falls indicated that the air comes in the sides and out the back. Sealing the back with the loop-velcro didn’t help, sealing the sides did.
 
Inflatable

Recently did a conditional insp on an RV-8 that the owner (Big airplane engineer) installed an inflatable skirt seal. I think he said it came from a door seal on a big airplane. He used a bulb, like from a blood pressure tester, to inflate. Might be too costly.....
 
Bulb seal I used

Unfortunately, my bulb seal material is something I liberated from a dayjob discarded surplus (Heavy jet maintenance) years ago in my airline days. I have no part numbers for it, but its a lightweight hollow 3/8" or so diameter grey silicone based seal stock . The important part is knowing the closed and latched canopy gap and finding a material that fills that with little compression. I attached picture I had on phone, but its hard to see .
 

Attachments

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    Canopy seal.jpg
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Unfortunately, when it gets cold, that plexiglas shrinks a little and makes that small gap at the back even worse. But fortunately I have found something that works for me. It’s called air conditioner weatherseal. Get it at any big box home store. I use simple double sided tape to attach it to the underside of my aft canopy skirt. Attached right next to the aft canopy frame tube because of it’s thickness, it crushes down easily forming a tight seal. It is pretty resilient and should hold a tight seal for at least a year, at which time, just replace it with a new piece. This $2 piece (below) should be enough to last a couple years.
Works for me anyway....

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-K...ERCH=REC-_-searchViewed-_-NA-_-100059869-_-N&
 
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