N941WR

N941WR

Legacy Member
Funny but the more I work with fiber glass, the more I appreciate it.

I recently helped a friend make a FG transition from 4" scat tubing to his rectangular oil cooler and this weekend I've finally started making the wheel pants to gear leg intersection fairings. I must admit, I'm just a little bit jealous of what the glass guys can do.

I just wonder if admitting this will get voted off the island.
 
The Dark Side is Calling

If you get voted off, you'll have at least one other person as company.

After 3 failed attempts to make the rear canopy skirts fit on my -7A slider, I decided to try a fibeglass solution. It's not done yet, but shows promise. As much as I appreciate the precision of assembling pre-punched aluminum components, working with fiberglass gives you the opportunity to be a little more creative. Yeah, it's dusty and messy, but it feels more like you are crafting something at least slightly unique.
 
I agree. Fiberglass is strong, light weight, won't corrode, and easily shaped before and after working it. I've done a fair amount of fiberglass work now helping others with projects, repairs, ect. I kinda enjoy it. Just get organized and have plenty of gloves. Some shapes you can get out of fiberglass just cannot be done with metal. Good to be proficient at both processes I guess.

Just don't tell you buddies you like doing it. You'll get volunteered alot!
 
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It's Necessary for development

I used a lot of aluminum inside the lower cowl for post cylinder air flow baffling and to stiffen and seal the canopy side skirts but everything modified on the outside (fairings and wingtips) is fiberglass.

Bob Axsom
 
Hmmmm, when I saw the thread title, I thought you were looking to installing a nose wheel:D
 
The secret to making good rear skirts on the canopy is easy. Lay the AL in place and hold it down with duct tape nice and tight and in the exact right position with the canopy closed. Then draw lines on the AL pieces at two inch intervals exactly parallel to the long. axis of the fuselage. Remove the AL and bend a little bit at each line over a 4 inch piece of pipe. They will need a little adjusting but they will fit perfectly. This will give you the compound curve that is required to make it work.
 
N941WR said:
Funny but the more I work with fiber glass, the more I appreciate it.

I recently helped a friend make a FG transition from 4" scat tubing to his rectangular oil cooler and this weekend I've finally started making the wheel pants to gear leg intersection fairings. I must admit, I'm just a little bit jealous of what the glass guys can do.

I just wonder if admitting this will get voted off the island.
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After finishing a complex part in glass it feels like art work. [to me that is] When I work with aluminium it feels like engineering work.
Both are fun but the art bit gets the satisfaction nerve quite a bit more!

To this day when I walk up to my Glasair it feels /looks so much better than my RV. No comparison. Now let me take cover I think my radar is picking up incoming.....
 
rv72004 said:
...To this day when I walk up to my Glasair it feels /looks so much better than my RV. No comparison. Now let me take cover I think my radar is picking up incoming.....
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No need to run for cover. The RV is nice looking for a metal plane but there is no comparison, in my mind, to the Glasair or Lancair.

I built a -9 simply to get decent cruise speeds and ultra low landing speeds. I look at it as a better replacement for my 65 HP T-Craft. I can spend a day flying around low and slow or I can power up and go some place. The best part is we can still land on all those little grass strips I used to visit in the T-Craft
 
N941WR said:
No need to run for cover. The RV is nice looking for a metal plane but there is no comparison, in my mind, to the Glasair or Lancair.
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From a distance, the first time I ever saw an RV, I thought it was a Glasair. However, those tapered glass wings sure look slick! Especially, as I live under the airport pattern & look up often.

BTW, Ever noticed that the Glasair retractable "nose wheeler" looks a whole lot racier on the ground, than it's fixed gear tail dragger version? I did.... :)

Lancair doesn't even have TD versions, do they?

L.Adamson
 
speaking of dark side, i am just about convinced to go Rocket when wife says doesn't like way rocket is tandem, wants side by side. What are thoughts on Glasair vs. rv7? I know it has the little wheel in the wrong place but is a Glasair a "souped up" rv7?
 
bryanrene said:
...i am just about convinced to go Rocket when wife says doesn't like way rocket is tandem, wants side by side.
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I could be wrong here but I thought there was a side-by-side rocket kit at one time.

In talking to a friend who owned a Lancair 360 we started talking about approach speeds and what would happen if his engine stopped being an engine. That thing comes down so fast I would think they would find parts in the next county, unless there was an airport under your wings when it gave up.

BTW, I still remember seeing one of the first Lancair 200's at OSH back in the 80's. 200 MPH out of an O-200, now that is an airplane!
 
Would I build a fiberglass plane again - NO. Would I build an aluminum plane again - YES. Admittedly my personal preference, but I just don't want to go through all that stickiness, stiff clothes, sanding and dust again. One advantage of composite construction over metal is that it is very forgiving. Almost any construction mistake is repairable, even for structural parts.

Fin
9A Flying
Vari-Eze
 
It's pretty but it's not lighter

FG is not lighter for the same strength; it is heavier. It has many virtues and in my opinion many shortcomings. All these are factual. We make our personal choices with those in mind, hopefully. But it is not lighter.

Van has been eloquent about "total performance" so I don't have to do it here. A glass airplane as found today is a different set of compromises, preferred by some. I'll take a -7A over a Glassair even if the Glassair is marginally faster in cruise. There are some valid reasons why there are more RV's than anything else in the EAB category.

I don't think it's possible to build an RV out of glass; that should prove the point. This takes nothing away from the Rutan types or Glassair nor Lancair.
 
Maybe the RV needs a little more "dark side" help

Although I enjoy working with metal, I have been wondering lately (as I fiddle with my trailing edge surfaces on the RV empennage) just why folks don't make the trailing edge moving parts (rudder, elevators, ailerons, and maybe flaps) from FG or even carbon fiber or Kevlar.

I could be easily mistaken, but mightn't the composite stuff might produce some lightweight, straight and strong, and (possibly) aerodynamically superior trailing edge subassemblies?
 
RE:Fiberglass....emp

Like many things in life what on paper seems easy is in fact pretty difficult.
In my previous life as an aircraft builder I was working on a plans built composite airplane. I won't give you the dirty details......but....it was very difficult/time consuming/dusty/unhealthy activity.

I will admit a slick glass aircraft is beautiful...but don't get them too hot, paint them a dark color, allow bubbles in the glass layups, make sure the parts are heat treated at a specific heat, for a specific time, ............you get the idea.

My hat is off to all you folks that have built a FG aircraft ...especially a plans built aircraft like the one I tried .... www.visionaircraft.com ..... Great plane, great group of builders, great plans, designed by a great guy ........but not all that easy to do.................but remember as always YMMV .......;)

Frank @ 1L8 RV7A last 994 details of which 900 are fiberglass involved


Captain Sacto said:
Although I enjoy working with metal, I have been wondering lately (as I fiddle with my trailing edge surfaces on the RV empennage) just why folks don't make the trailing edge moving parts (rudder, elevators, ailerons, and maybe flaps) from FG or even carbon fiber or Kevlar.

I could be easily mistaken, but mightn't the composite stuff might produce some lightweight, straight and strong, and (possibly) aerodynamically superior trailing edge subassemblies?
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No more compost construction for me.

I built a Dragonfly MKII right before my RV-6. Would I do it again? Never! If other guys want to build them, I will inspect them and never talk them down. But it's just not my "cup-O-tea".
 
bryanrene said:
speaking of dark side, i am just about convinced to go Rocket when wife says doesn't like way rocket is tandem, wants side by side. What are thoughts on Glasair vs. rv7? I know it has the little wheel in the wrong place but is a Glasair a "souped up" rv7?
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There is very little comparison btw a 7 and a GIII .The GIII is in a whole different category , and is a mini P51 [this i heard from several people that have flown both]. I cant comment on a GII as i have never flown one. I would go to glasair, lancair and vans and test fly all 3 makes . This will help you make the right choice.
 
FG vs metal

My decision to go metal vs glass was centered around my ability to get along with FG. That stuff finds any open patch of skin it can and it hangs with me for about a week. I have tried everything to get it off. Even waxing the hair off my arms OOOUUUCCHHHH!!! doesn?t get the glass. I was looking at the Velocity originally but the glass work scared me away. FG has its value in aircraft construction and I like what we are capable of doing with that type of product.
 
rv72004 said:
There is very little comparison btw a 7 and a GIII .The GIII is in a whole different category , and is a mini P51 [this i heard from several people that have flown both]. I cant comment on a GII as i have never flown one. I would go to glasair, lancair and vans and test fly all 3 makes . This will help you make the right choice.
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Glasair is a runway hog compared to any RV, even the 300+ HP Glasair III's that i've flown/flown in. Also, it's marginally smaller inside, extremely expensive to insure compared, and requires a LOT more skill to land. Approach speed is between 90 and 100 mph because at 80 you are literall falling out of the sky, not stalled, but behind the power curve enough that you have an enormous sink rate.

The RV -7 is completely opposite, held in a stall it'll sink pretty good, but you can add full power and literally climb it out of the stall....

Consider a IO-390 powered -7 or even a Super-7 (260HP IO-540)

BTW, sorry for the thread creap.... On the original topic, I LOVE fiberglass work for it's ability to make me look like an artist. I'm currently fixing up a Reno F1's glass work that someone else screwed up, been doing it all week. I also love working with metal though, and I think that an RV is MUCH prettier than the Glasair if done right. Give me a RV-4 with a nice paintjob and a Sam James cowl over a Glasair II any day (looks wise). Of course I'm kinda into classic airplanes, and the -4's lines are more traditional.

Now those NXT's are beautiful....
riduci_400.php
 
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Where were you?

Norman CYYJ said:
The secret to making good rear skirts on the canopy is easy. Lay the AL in place and hold it down with duct tape nice and tight and in the exact right position with the canopy closed. Then draw lines on the AL pieces at two inch intervals exactly parallel to the long. axis of the fuselage. Remove the AL and bend a little bit at each line over a 4 inch piece of pipe. They will need a little adjusting but they will fit perfectly. This will give you the compound curve that is required to make it work.
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Where were you when I needed you. I worked like a dog to get mine to fit. I would rate the fit at just over 90% on my happy scale. What you said makes the best sense of any thread I have read. Van's needs to put this in their directions. Not the "have a helper hold............"

Webb
RV7A N32WW
 
Hi, I'll try your method on the rear skirts. Did you notch the center over the sliding track in order for the skirt to lay flat or snug to the fuselage? Also, did you rivet the two overlapping skirts offset from the track? I'm using Sikaflex to attach the skirt to the aft portion of the canopy. I did the same for the side skirts where they meet with the plexiglass canopy. Also used Sikaflex to adhere the canopy to the frame. No rivets through the plexiglass at all. So far so good. Hope to hear from you soon. any photos of the rear skirt attach?
 
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