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Sunvisors

bob888

Well Known Member
I have admired the ROSEN visors I saw on a couple of 10s at OSH. I would like to know how they attach to the fiberglass cabin structure. Self tapping screws would seem a poor choice...how have others done it?
 
The standard installation is to drill through the door trough and install 2 screws on each side with nuts on the inside to hold the base. I think they are #10 screws.
 
It has been mentioned before, but since it has been a while......

The door/windscreen pillar is considered rollover structure (and during kit development it was load tested).

Van's aircraft neither recommends or endorses drilling holes in this structural area. The actual reduction in rollover protection is unknown but there is likely some. Hopefully no one ever tests it with unfortunate results.

It is for this reason that the only Rosen visors sold by Van's is the kit for sliding canopy RV-6, 7 & 9's
 
I just ordered a pair of Blue Sky visors for half the cost of the Rosen. They haven't arrived yet, but people seem to have good reviews for them.
 
The door/windscreen pillar is considered rollover structure (and during kit development it was load tested).

Van's aircraft neither recommends or endorses drilling holes in this structural area.

What other options are out there? Rosen seems very popular, but I haven't seen any alternatives that don't require drilling into the pillar. BlueSky was mentioned in archives, but it too was mounted similarly from the sounds of it.

I've got a thousand pictures of the factory demo -10, but not a single shot pointed at the canopy. What is factory recommended?
 
Try flying without them, then see if you really want to install these or not. I'm in the camp that a visor is something to be removed, not added.

Carl

I thought about this the other day flying around my 172. It seems to get in the way, if it's ultra sunny out I'm wearing sunglasses anyhow. Was thinking about leaving them off in the 10... but we'll see.
 
No visors in my -10. I use suction cup mounted mesh shades available from Sportys or ACS. Most of the time, that is for the passengers. Sunglasses do the trick for me. Much cleaner look, nothing to bounce around or fall down.
 
I've got a thousand pictures of the factory demo -10, but not a single shot pointed at the canopy. What is factory recommended?

There is no factory recommendation (other than not drilling holes in the rollover structure).

The prototype / demonstrator has been flying for almost 2200 hrs over 13+ years without any visors installed. It usually has some of the static cling tint film in the seat pocket but that rarely gets used other than by rear seat passengers.

I wear sunglasses, and if flying directly into the sun, use a hat temporarily.
 
I bought the tinted plastic with suction cups from ACS ($7 each IIRC), removed the suction cups, attached a wood dowel across the top edge; the dowel sits in a block which is clamped to the center post. Slides up/down, or rotates up out of the way; no side window coverage. 99% of the time they're rotated up against the roof, I forget they're there.
 
I used the blue sky visors. I fabricated bracket to hold a continuous shaft which is attached to the center support. they work fine and are not as obtrusive and large as the Rosen's plus much less cost. They won't work with the side windows is the downside.
I also use some of the tinted film you can obtain at Wally world and cut into various sizes. It actually works much better than the visor on long trips and can be positioned on any of the windows.
I may end up removing the visors since the film really does work better, and on local flights just use a baseball cap as needed.
 
I didn't like the idea of drilling through the cabin top either. So I wound up glassing over the front joggle inside the canopy frame. If you look closely the canopy has an area that can be easily foamed in and glasses over as it transitions to the windshield. I then used some potted nuts and when the visor was installed, the screws were secured into these nuts. Details on my build site.
 
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