Jamie
Well Known Member
A while back while fitting my Koger sunshade, I had my tip-up canopy propped open on the secondary latch. I was standing on the wing, leaning over the canopy trying to put a piece of tape down the center of the canopy to be able to properly center the shade. I leaned into the canopy with my thigh a little bit and cracked the canopy about 2 inches or so. It was along the rear bow, and although I was royally ticked I didn't worry about it after about a week. 
Yeah, I stop drilled it but figured I could live with it.
Last night I went out for a nice little flight, still flight testing my autopilot and trying to get it to track smoothly (new unit on the way from Trio). Long story short, I opened the canopy but it wasn't open all the way. I went back out to retrieve something from the plane. As usual, I placed my left hand on the roll bar and stepped up. The canopy came down on my hand. The downward force caused the canopy to twist enough that the already cracked area impacted the roll bar. I was horrified as I watched a chunk of canopy skid across my left wing and onto the ramp.
Here's the damage. The broken piece of plexi is wedged back into place in this photo. You can also see where I stop-drilled the original crack.
Now the good news: I am going to place a strip over the rear of the tip-up canopy (a la the -7A factory demonstrator and others). I have a 'whistle' from air coming in here anyway so I figure it will actually have a benefit of reducing and hopefully eliminating the noise.
I plan on using an acrylic adhesive to get the broken chunk back into place. I may also use some sort of adhesive between the plexi and the bow. Anyone have a recommendation for which adhesive to use? JB-Weld? I called JB-Weld and they say it's safe on acrylics.
It looks like I have a couple of options:
1) Do an aluminum strip. Although certainly the easiest and least messy, this would not provide as good of a fit as the fiberglass.
2) Do a fiberglass strip using a release agent on the tip-up canopy so that it can be removed for paint, then epoxied into place. This is the easier glass method because I don't have to worry about getting a straight leading edge on the plane...I can just cut and sand a straight leading edge on the bench.
3) Do a fiberglass strip with no release agent, mask everything and paint on the plane. This is the more difficult glass method as I would have to do the black electrical tape masking thing, then sand down to the tape, etc. I think this would have the added benefit (at least in my mind) of having a stronger bond than method 2.
So, VAF...what say you?
Yeah, I stop drilled it but figured I could live with it. Last night I went out for a nice little flight, still flight testing my autopilot and trying to get it to track smoothly (new unit on the way from Trio). Long story short, I opened the canopy but it wasn't open all the way. I went back out to retrieve something from the plane. As usual, I placed my left hand on the roll bar and stepped up. The canopy came down on my hand. The downward force caused the canopy to twist enough that the already cracked area impacted the roll bar. I was horrified as I watched a chunk of canopy skid across my left wing and onto the ramp.
Here's the damage. The broken piece of plexi is wedged back into place in this photo. You can also see where I stop-drilled the original crack.
Now the good news: I am going to place a strip over the rear of the tip-up canopy (a la the -7A factory demonstrator and others). I have a 'whistle' from air coming in here anyway so I figure it will actually have a benefit of reducing and hopefully eliminating the noise.
I plan on using an acrylic adhesive to get the broken chunk back into place. I may also use some sort of adhesive between the plexi and the bow. Anyone have a recommendation for which adhesive to use? JB-Weld? I called JB-Weld and they say it's safe on acrylics.
It looks like I have a couple of options:
1) Do an aluminum strip. Although certainly the easiest and least messy, this would not provide as good of a fit as the fiberglass.
2) Do a fiberglass strip using a release agent on the tip-up canopy so that it can be removed for paint, then epoxied into place. This is the easier glass method because I don't have to worry about getting a straight leading edge on the plane...I can just cut and sand a straight leading edge on the bench.
3) Do a fiberglass strip with no release agent, mask everything and paint on the plane. This is the more difficult glass method as I would have to do the black electrical tape masking thing, then sand down to the tape, etc. I think this would have the added benefit (at least in my mind) of having a stronger bond than method 2.
So, VAF...what say you?
