Skid
Well Known Member
I'm not sure where to put this post, under Acts of Charity or Maintenance Issues.
In late December, right after the temps hit 50+ degrees F in SE Wisconsin I received an email from the local Golden Retriever Rescue group. They wanted to know if I could fly a Golden to Lima Ohio, he was to be trained as a search and rescue dog. The flight was on Sunday morning January 9th, the air was calm but cold, a good day for flying. We decided that a good place to meet was KBUU as I needed to top off the tanks first. I had topped off and was waiting around when Jody pulled up with Sawyer, a nice looking dog. He was a lively pup, a large pup but a pup nonetheless. I loaded him in the baggage area and we were off. The trip was a smooth ride I had planned on climbing to 5500? but I had a smooth ride at 3500? and planned to duck under Chicago?s class B anyway.
Sawyer seemed to be having a good time looking at the scenery, he sat up almost the entire way. He did get sleepy after a bit and finally laid down and went to sleep but was back up when I started my descent into Lima. I unloaded Sawyer and handed him over to the trainer, fueled up and was on my way.
Pics of Rescue;
https://picasaweb.google.com/mvande...authkey=Gv1sRgCNu8l-3Eusij0AE&feat=directlink
The air was still, temps were around 20* F on the field so I launched and climbed at about 1200-1300 ft/min to 4500?, which didn?t take long. I think may have been a factor in what happened about 10-15 min later.
I was just west of Fort Wayne IN, autopilot on, IPod cranking out the tunes when I heard a very loud bang. I checked the engine instruments, everything was normal, I looked out to see if I had hit something (maybe a goose?) nothing, then I looked up, the canopy had a crack directly above my head running outward in both directions about 12?-14? from the center frame. Having just read Paul Dye?s post on a cracked canopy I knew I could fly with the cracked canopy, but for how long? I landed at the next airport to have a look and to see if I could make any repairs (stop drill the crack), no luck. I decided to head for home and just keep a very close eye on the crack. The crack did not get any larger and I was able to make it back to home base.
After landing at home base I inspected the crack further. It was a large crack radiating from one of the screw holes in the center canopy brace. The next day I contacted Vans to get pricing for a new canopy but also to see if it was possible to repair the crack. After getting the price of a new canopy; $1059.00 (plus shipping) and a possible fix from Vans I set off to do more research. Vans had given me a lead on a product called Plastifix, although they had not heard of a repair to a crack of this size. I checked out the company?s website (www.urethanesupply.com) and learned they had repaired a top turret gun canopy on a B-25 with the material. I ordered the kit and their headlight repair kit for the post repair polishing of the canopy.
I also sent an email to the company asking for any advice they could offer. I received an email from Scott Bixler, the guy who did the repair on the B-25 gun turret canopy. Scott sent me his number and I gave him a call. Scott explained the process in detail and some advice on how best to handle a crack of this size. Scott was a big help and great to deal with, I can recommend him and the company.
I used metal tape on the inside of the canopy and used a Dremel to cut the crack open in the shape of a V groove. Urethane supply sells the cutter on their website but I had one that was close so I used it rather than buy another cutter. I cut only deep enough to open the crack up far enough to slip a piece of sandpaper through it; I removed the tape and sanded all edges to remove any sharp edges and large surface imperfections left by the cutter.
Following Scotts advice I applied the powder supplied in the kit then added the liquid chemical. I put down about a 1/32? to 1/16? (.8-1.5mm) layer at a time. The process goes rather quickly and in a few hours from pulling the canopy off the airplane I had the crack opened up and filled with the repair material. I left material proud of the surface to allow for removal by sanding, I think I would not do that again. I sanded the material with 120 wet sanding pad, once it was fairly level with the surface I went to 220, then 400, 800, 1500, 2400, 4000, and 12000, both inside and out. Once I had finished the wet sanding it was time for the polish again both sides. I think it turned out OK considering it saved me about $1300+ dollars and countless hours replacing the back half of the canopy. I do plan on replacing the canopy in the future, I will put it off a while if I can, hopefully this will last until I decide it?s time to replace the canopy.
I talked to Scott again after I had finished the repair and he stated the material would get clearer once exposed to sunlight. The canopy will not most likely see that for a while, there is 2?+ of snow on the runway and 5?-6? snow piles between the hanger and the runway, life in Wisconsin.
Pics of the canopy repair;
https://picasaweb.google.com/mvandeb/CanopyRepair?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_cyobvutGKzQE&feat=directlink
In late December, right after the temps hit 50+ degrees F in SE Wisconsin I received an email from the local Golden Retriever Rescue group. They wanted to know if I could fly a Golden to Lima Ohio, he was to be trained as a search and rescue dog. The flight was on Sunday morning January 9th, the air was calm but cold, a good day for flying. We decided that a good place to meet was KBUU as I needed to top off the tanks first. I had topped off and was waiting around when Jody pulled up with Sawyer, a nice looking dog. He was a lively pup, a large pup but a pup nonetheless. I loaded him in the baggage area and we were off. The trip was a smooth ride I had planned on climbing to 5500? but I had a smooth ride at 3500? and planned to duck under Chicago?s class B anyway.
Sawyer seemed to be having a good time looking at the scenery, he sat up almost the entire way. He did get sleepy after a bit and finally laid down and went to sleep but was back up when I started my descent into Lima. I unloaded Sawyer and handed him over to the trainer, fueled up and was on my way.
Pics of Rescue;
https://picasaweb.google.com/mvande...authkey=Gv1sRgCNu8l-3Eusij0AE&feat=directlink
The air was still, temps were around 20* F on the field so I launched and climbed at about 1200-1300 ft/min to 4500?, which didn?t take long. I think may have been a factor in what happened about 10-15 min later.
I was just west of Fort Wayne IN, autopilot on, IPod cranking out the tunes when I heard a very loud bang. I checked the engine instruments, everything was normal, I looked out to see if I had hit something (maybe a goose?) nothing, then I looked up, the canopy had a crack directly above my head running outward in both directions about 12?-14? from the center frame. Having just read Paul Dye?s post on a cracked canopy I knew I could fly with the cracked canopy, but for how long? I landed at the next airport to have a look and to see if I could make any repairs (stop drill the crack), no luck. I decided to head for home and just keep a very close eye on the crack. The crack did not get any larger and I was able to make it back to home base.
After landing at home base I inspected the crack further. It was a large crack radiating from one of the screw holes in the center canopy brace. The next day I contacted Vans to get pricing for a new canopy but also to see if it was possible to repair the crack. After getting the price of a new canopy; $1059.00 (plus shipping) and a possible fix from Vans I set off to do more research. Vans had given me a lead on a product called Plastifix, although they had not heard of a repair to a crack of this size. I checked out the company?s website (www.urethanesupply.com) and learned they had repaired a top turret gun canopy on a B-25 with the material. I ordered the kit and their headlight repair kit for the post repair polishing of the canopy.
I also sent an email to the company asking for any advice they could offer. I received an email from Scott Bixler, the guy who did the repair on the B-25 gun turret canopy. Scott sent me his number and I gave him a call. Scott explained the process in detail and some advice on how best to handle a crack of this size. Scott was a big help and great to deal with, I can recommend him and the company.
I used metal tape on the inside of the canopy and used a Dremel to cut the crack open in the shape of a V groove. Urethane supply sells the cutter on their website but I had one that was close so I used it rather than buy another cutter. I cut only deep enough to open the crack up far enough to slip a piece of sandpaper through it; I removed the tape and sanded all edges to remove any sharp edges and large surface imperfections left by the cutter.
Following Scotts advice I applied the powder supplied in the kit then added the liquid chemical. I put down about a 1/32? to 1/16? (.8-1.5mm) layer at a time. The process goes rather quickly and in a few hours from pulling the canopy off the airplane I had the crack opened up and filled with the repair material. I left material proud of the surface to allow for removal by sanding, I think I would not do that again. I sanded the material with 120 wet sanding pad, once it was fairly level with the surface I went to 220, then 400, 800, 1500, 2400, 4000, and 12000, both inside and out. Once I had finished the wet sanding it was time for the polish again both sides. I think it turned out OK considering it saved me about $1300+ dollars and countless hours replacing the back half of the canopy. I do plan on replacing the canopy in the future, I will put it off a while if I can, hopefully this will last until I decide it?s time to replace the canopy.
I talked to Scott again after I had finished the repair and he stated the material would get clearer once exposed to sunlight. The canopy will not most likely see that for a while, there is 2?+ of snow on the runway and 5?-6? snow piles between the hanger and the runway, life in Wisconsin.
Pics of the canopy repair;
https://picasaweb.google.com/mvandeb/CanopyRepair?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_cyobvutGKzQE&feat=directlink