[Mark Bolton]

I busted my RV - 4 canopy and found that, whilst the cost of a new one from Van's suppliers is reasonable, half a planet away the freight cost just swallows it right up.

I do know that canopies have been blown localy for various contraptions. The methods employed involve controling heat and pressure and a bit of eyeball engineering and about as much good luck as one might deserve. Concepts I am a little familiar with.

Has any one in the VAF brains trust found any good info on getting such a job done by jury rig ?

THX in anticipation!

http://rv-4builder.blogspot.com/

 

[fixnflyguy]

Ask Van's

I am not sure if you are building or flying right now, but I bet there are shipments from the VANs factory to Austrailia in which you may be able to "share" the freight cost with another person that has an order placed...Also check with Todds Canopies for similar idea. Good luck!

 

[az_gila]

Ask around your local glider clubs.

Mecaplex canopies from Switzerland are much more expen$ive than Vans...

 

[DGlaeser]

There is a guy in Michigan...

check out: http://planecanopies.com/

 

[rocketbob]

I know Jeff and Becky at Airplane Plastics (who make all of Van's canopies and RV-10 windows) and can say that the process for making a canopy is alot more involved than one might think. Not a process for the do-it-yourselfer. They are the best in the business.

I imagine there's got to be someone in Australia that can blow a canopy for you.

If not contact Todd Silver (www.toddscanopies.com), he does nice work also.

 

[az_gila]

....

I imagine there's got to be someone in Australia that can blow a canopy for you.
....

That was my point...

If there is someone down under who can blow canopies, the glider guys will certainly know him.

 

[islandmonkey]

Ask around your local glider clubs.

Mecaplex canopies from Switzerland are much more expen$ive than Vans...

Almost everything is more expensive here Gil. But generally the quality is very good.

 

[DaAV8R]

Canopies

When ordering the finish kit, do the canopies drop ship directly from Airplane plastics to the buyer? Surely they don't ship all the way to Oregon and then back to the end user do they?

 

[rocketbob]

Most of the time they come from Van's but they can be drop shipped on request. You can pick one up directly from them if you're close. They're great people to work with.

 

[az_gila]

Almost everything is more expensive here Gil. But generally the quality is very good.

Given the large size of a lot of the glider canopies, the Mecaplex ones do have great optics and must be hard to make...

 

[hohocc]

You could try
http://www.compositesinternational.co.nz/about/history/
These guys are in auckland NZ, I believe they make canopies for corby starlets among other things, looking at the photos in their gallery they might be useful.

 

[Mark Bolton]

Todd's Canopies

I got Todd's Canopies to build me a canopy which set me back $360 USD. It looks great !! I asked him to build it a little taller so as I had a bit of head room. The old one I was hitting my head when sitting tall.

I can see how wonderfull this canopy is just from the photo. By comparison the old one I had (NOT on of Van's but a locally made one) looked like an old beer bottle.

Todd Silver is a delightfull bloke to deal with. Very enthusiastic and helpfull.

Shipping is usually the killer but fortunately I should be able to share a container coming from Virginia with a guy bringing out a Falco.

UPDATE : The canopy has gone into the container and should be on it's way in the next week or so.

Cheers Todd !!

http://rv-4builder.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/canopy.html