A

avi8tor50

Well Known Member
Getting rady to fit the windscreen. Have a couple of questions for those of you who have completed this step.

1. How far forward on the forward skin did you set the forward end of the windscreen? Does it matter?

2. How did you deal with the aft end laterally where it meets the skin at the rollbar? Did you make the slit in the skin and tuck the plexi behind the skin at the rollbar?

3. Have heard the Vans recommends butting the plexi against the skin at the rollbar instead of tucking it-anybody do this?

4. Did you trim the bottom edge of the windscreen to be level with the bottom edge of the slider?

As always, all help is appreciated and the more photos the better!
Thanks.

Peter K
9A QB slider
 
My lower forward windshield edge is just aft of the row of sub panel rivets.

My aft side edge extends approx 1/2" below the aluminum skin. The drawing shows the plexi being tangent to the skin. Vans tech help confirmed that but said it was OK to have some overlap but NOT to slit the skin like the RV-6.

I don't have the drawing with me but I think I remember a 1/16" gap between the windshield and the canopy plexi.

Steve
 
avi8tor50 said:
Getting rady to fit the windscreen. Have a couple of questions for those of you who have completed this step.

1. How far forward on the forward skin did you set the forward end of the windscreen? Does it matter?

2. How did you deal with the aft end laterally where it meets the skin at the rollbar? Did you make the slit in the skin and tuck the plexi behind the skin at the rollbar?

3. Have heard the Vans recommends butting the plexi against the skin at the rollbar instead of tucking it-anybody do this?

4. Did you trim the bottom edge of the windscreen to be level with the bottom edge of the slider?

As always, all help is appreciated and the more photos the better!
Thanks.

Peter K
9A QB slider
Click to expand...
Can anybody add to Steve's comments above. I'm right at this stage and trying to visualize where the cut off the glareshield will be on both the front and at the sides. Specifically, the part that prompted me to search for this thread was Steve's question #4 above. Will I be cutting the bottom sides of the windscreen on approximately the same line as the bottom side edge of the slider portion.

Also, I assume that where the forward part of the windscreen meets the fwd top skin, you just keep trimming back a little at a time until it starts to follow the contour of the fwd top skin? Seems like there a going to be LOT of cuts, 1/8" or so at a time until you figure out where to stop.

Thanks for any further help.
 
I just trimmed the windscreen today on my RV-7A. The front is just in front of the row of rivets on the sub panel and I curved the sides down to about an inch below the skin that wraps around to the side of the roll bar (the bottom of the windscreen is about even with the top of the rail track).

I'm by no means an expert and got tired of wondering how it went together and just started trimming it. That's probably not the best way to go about it!

I'm going to glue the canopy to the frame & windscreen to the rollbar with sikaflex (thanks Pete Howell for the great write up!). I put spacers under the frame and roll bar and the bubble is pretty much even with the top of the windscreen. I guess I can't ask for much more.

I did have to trim the top of the windscreen a little bit because it was hanging over the roll bar too much at the top, but not the bottom of the sides...now I've got a small gap (maybe 3/16" max) between the canopy & windscreen all the way around...at least it's even! I'll probably put a fiberglass fairing over the top, so I'm OK with it.

So far, so good.
 
It looks like the fit on the bottom of the windscreen is going to be better if it overlaps the aluminum over the roll bar. I called Van's yesterday about this and he said it isn't critical to cut it above the aluminum like the plans say, just do what feels good. I cut it about 5/8 inch lower than the aluminum. Still going to take a fair amount of pressure to make the lower side edge of the windshield conform with the fuselage. Wish the plexi had a little more cuvature in this area.
 
lostpilot28 said:
I just trimmed the windscreen today on my RV-7A. The front is just in front of the row of rivets on the sub panel and I curved the sides down to about an inch below the skin that wraps around to the side of the roll bar (the bottom of the windscreen is about even with the top of the rail track)...
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Thanks Sonny and John. That's really helpful information and the type of help I was hoping to get.

Sonny-From the above quote did you intend to say that the front of your windscreen is just in FRONT of the row of rivets on the sub panel or just AFT? The reason that I ask is that I just looked at this on a lot of RV's at Arlington last weekend and it seems to be that the windscreen falls just behind (maybe by about an inch or so) that subpanel row of rivets. Not sure if there is a right or wrong though.
 
#1 pic

This shows the side view (like on dwg 43) of the windshield. Note the aft side edge of the plexi is approx 1/2" below the forward skin. Dwg 43 shows the plexi tangent to the metal. Vans tech help says some overlap is OK.

img1517dw8.jpg


Steve
 
#3 pic

The shows the windshield sitting on the roll bar in the free-state. No screws. No clips. Other than along the top of the roll bar and along the forward edge, there is an ever widening gap all around.

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7920/img1520du4.jpg

It's 95 deg in the hangar. It's too hot to paint the innside of the canopy aluminum. I'm leaving for OSH on Sunday.

Steve
 
Hi Steve,
I noticed that the other RV's I've looked at had the windscreen trimmed with the forward edge just behind the sub-panel row of rivets, too...but mine is forward of it about an inch. Because of the ambiguous nature of the plans in this area I think it's going to be whatever the builder makes of it.

I think the reason mine turned out this way is because I chose to trim the aft part of the windscreen (the "big cut" line) to align with the roll bar. I am guessing that most builders leave the "big cut" alone and trim the forward edge of the windscreen back instead. Doing so will let the bottom aft corners of the windscreen line up with the roll bar and also bring the forward edge behind the row of sub-panel rivets. I guess I'm a backwards thinker. :D

However, I think either way works fine, and I actually may have a slightly more aerodynamic windscreen than the other guys. I suppose if you measured from the "big cut" to the forward edge of the windscreen I would have an extra inch or two. Anyway, it's just the way I went about it...probably would've been easier to do it the other way, though. :rolleyes:

Steve (the "other" Steve), those are some nice looking straight lines you've got on your windscreen. I think I'll run out to the garage and spend an hour or so sanding my edges and try to make them look as good as yours (if that's even possible)!
 
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Middle o'the night thoughts

The forward center point of my windshield may end up forward of the sub panel rivet line as I install the .032 x 5/8 x 1 clips working forward from the roll bar and alternating left to right toward fuselage centerline.

painting canopy at 6 am tomorrow,
Steve
 
I just uploaded a few pictures of my setup to Picasa:
http://3limafoxtrot.com/photos/Windshield

As several people have already pointed out that the fitting is not critical. Do leave a small gap between the windshield and the canopy plexi. You don't want them to rub against each other when the canopy is closed. The gap is covered by the fiberglass fairing over them. So far I have flew through rain (light) and did not have leak.
 
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Update and advice for future builders

Steve's pictures above show the canopy overlapping the forward skin where they meet the rollbar. This is only possible if you do not follow Van's directions to the letter. I followed Van's advice and trimmed the sides of the bubble up to the bottom of the square tubes before making "the big cut." If you do this, the windscreen will be cut right at the top of the side skin where they both meet the rollbar. In fact, if you look closely at the side view on Drawing 43, it shows a butt joint where the canopy and fwd skin meet, so this appears to have been Van's intention.

If, however, you want to have the canopy overlap the skin, as Steve's pictures show, you NEED to make the big cut before trimming too much off the sides of the bubble. In this case, I'd recommend making the big cut while the side of the canopy is still an inch or more below the bottom of the side rails (square tubes) of the slider frame.

I don't suppose it matters which you do, but the one advantage of going the route of making the big cut early, at least you have a choice where to leave the bottom edge of the canopy. On the other hand, one thing in favor of Van's butt-joint: there will be less to fair out on the side. Not by much, but by a little.

Anyway, hope this is understandable and can help anyone coming along behind us. It's only in the mid-70s here today, and a couple degrees cooler in the garage, so I'm going to hold off cutting the windscreen for a day or so. Just want to get it done! :mad:
 
alpinelakespilot2000 said:
If, however, you want to have the canopy overlap the skin, as Steve's pictures show, you NEED to make the big cut before trimming too much off the sides of the bubble. In this case, I'd recommend making the big cut while the side of the canopy is still an inch or more below the bottom of the side rails (square tubes) of the slider frame.
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Steve - Your experience matches mine. In my case, I followed the plans and trimmed the bubble even with the bottom of the square tubes before making the big cut, and ended up with maybe 1/4" of overlap, tops, between the bottom corner of the windshield and the forward skin. If I had it to do over* I'd lop off the mold flanges and then make the big cut right away, to save as much windshield material as I could. But, I think with some clips to pull it in and a decent fairing to cover it, nobody but me and you will know...

mcb

(*no way am I doing this canopy over)
 
mburch said:
Steve - Your experience matches mine. In my case, I followed the plans and trimmed the bubble even with the bottom of the square tubes before making the big cut, and ended up with maybe 1/4" of overlap, tops, between the bottom corner of the windshield and the forward skin. If I had it to do over* I'd lop off the mold flanges and then make the big cut right away, to save as much windshield material as I could. But, I think with some clips to pull it in and a decent fairing to cover it, nobody but me and you will know...

mcb

(*no way am I doing this canopy over)
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Now I know what my problem is. I"m following you too much, Matt! :eek: (In reality, if I just would have read a couple pages ahead on your website I would have learned not to follow exactly what you did!)

Actually, I think we're doing it "right" and everyone else is doing it "wrong," if we are to go according to Van's drawings! :cool: I don't think I will have quite the whopping 1/4" of overlap that you have, but once I cut more of the forward part of the windscreen off, I may pick up a little more. We'll see. Either way, I don't thing the fairing part would look any worse or better if we had left ourselves a larger overlap.

The worst part of the canopy is not so much the doing part, but the trying to figure out what you're supposed to do and being able to visualize it all in advance so that you don't back yourself into corners!
 
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alpinelakespilot2000 said:
The worst part of the canopy is not so much the doing part, but the trying to figure out what you're supposed to do and being able to visualize it all in advance so that you don't back yourself into corners!
Click to expand...
No kidding... really the best way to know how to properly build an RV canopy is to have built one already. :)

mcb
 
Yukon said:
Still going to take a fair amount of pressure to make the lower side edge of the windshield conform with the fuselage. Wish the plexi had a little more cuvature in this area.
Click to expand...
Has anyone else had John's problem where the plexi sticks out away from the skin as it approaches the roll bar. Mine sticks out about 3/8" on both sides and is at it's worst right above the F704 bulkheads. Everything else fits perfectly up front, so I'm hesitant to cut any more off there just so that it MIGHT fit better farther aft. I've already done that once. I can push the plexi in to contact the skin, but I can't imagine this would be a good solution because it would induce stress on the plexi. Anyone have similar experiences or any thoughts about how to address this? Thanks.
 
I had the problem too! I pushed the sides in, add clips and glass them in. When looked closely, you can see my right side bulged slightly. I don't think there is much stress though. I only have 210 hrs on mine and so far so good.
 
This was actually the reason that I started this thread. My windscreen sticks out about 3/8-1/2" at the side where it approaches the rollbar. I did some more trimming as the windscreen curves back to the sides and that seemed to help but there is still a gap and it still requires more pressure then I would like to bring the windscreen to the roll bar and the lower aft corner.
I may do some more trimming. Right now the forward apex of my windscreen is just beyond the row of rivets a the subpanel
I will probably also add some fiberglassed styrofoam to bridge the gap between the windscreen and the aft forward skin.

Peter K
9A QB
 
Thanks Ted and Peter.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this problem. I think I may be able to trim a little bit more, right where the canopy starts to head back to the rollbar (about the 10 and 2 positions, looking forward), since that's currently the place keeping the canopy from sitting down any lower, but I don't want to cut too much off there as that's where others have had a little bit of an issue as well. I'll maybe take off a 1/16" at a time and see if that helps.

A styrofoam/fiberglass spacer between the canopy and the skin back toward the rollbar seems like a good idea to minimize stress on the plexi. The only concern I have then is how to lay up the fairing without showing a big bulge where the plexi sticks out from the side of the fwd. skin. Fairings on inside curves look natural. I've never really looked at a fairing over an outside curve. Maybe it looks OK... I just don't know.

BTW Peter- the front edge of my canopy is now just beyond (fwd) of the subpanel row of rivets. Again, it fits pretty nice up front so I'm hesitant to do anything to solve the sides if it will mess up the front.

Thanks again.
 
I don't think the bulge is obvious unless you look for it. I mixed some flocked cotton fiber and use it to fill any gap before laying the fiber glass fairing. So my plexi is not just held by clips and the fairing. I will take a few pictures this afternoon and post them in my Picasa album. I am not a perfectionist and am happy with what I have.
 
Thanks Ted. Any additional pics of the finished, or in-progress, product would be appreciate as you have time. One of your previous posts seems to suggest that you used clips on the side, just forward of the rollbar. Is that correct? If so, am I correct to assume the shop heads of the rivets appear on the inside of the top skin just forward of the rollbar?

Again, all the help is appreciated. With almost no one at Van's this week, I'm not optimistic about getting help from them for a while.
 
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You're right, Ted. Once the sides are faired out, the bulge is not very apparent at all and the shop head on the clip rivet is no big deal either. It looks like you did a nice job finishing that off. I'm tending toward fixing mine the same way. Although I know it's best not to have tension on the plexi, the canopy can still float in the clips. Pulling in the plexi at least slightly will make the fairing easier to construct. Thanks for taking the time to post the pics.
 
tc1234c said:
I don't think the bulge is obvious unless you look for it. I mixed some flocked cotton fiber and use it to fill any gap before laying the fiber glass fairing. So my plexi is not just held by clips and the fairing. I will take a few pictures this afternoon and post them in my Picasa album. I am not a perfectionist and am happy with what I have.
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Ted, it seems to me that the construction of your clips is not as per the Vans plans. As as a result it may be possible to see those clips through the windscreen from inside the cockpit. Is that a concern.

Regards Bob Barrow
 
Bob,

I did follow Van's instructions. The optics of the plexi when looking straight down on the side made the clip looks higher than it is.
 
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