Today's Message Index:
----------------------
1. 06:14 PM - Canopy Skirt Buzz... (Matt Dralle)
2. 06:40 PM - Re: Canopy Skirt Buzz... (Francis Herr)
Message 1
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | Canopy Skirt Buzz... |
Hello Listers,
After the very first flight on the RV-8, I discovered that the fiberglass skirts
around the canopy loved to buzz against the turtle deck skin at anything over
about 100mph. To soften the intersection between the skirt and the skin I added
a row of Velcro-brand "loops" tape all the way around the base of the canopy
skirt on the inside including around the bottom of the windscreen so that
when the canopy was closed any skin to skirt areas were cushioned with a thickness
of the Velcro.
That worked great and totally eliminated the buzzing and also sealed up the cabin
nicely. I was pleased.
But, after a Summer in California and 112 hours of flying, the Velcro just didn't
hold up. In the Summer sun, the glue became gooey and the tape slipped out
of position along the curve behind the passenger and looked like grandma's slip
was showing. Along the extreme rear where the skirts come together and the
fit is pretty tight, the glue squeezed out from the heat and kind of goo-ed all
around on the metal.
So, I removed the skirts a couple of weekends ago and literally spend a whole weekend
removing the Velcro and all of the glue. I was lucky and the in the process
I didn't remove any of the textured paint on the skirts or windscreen frame
- whew, that was a scary two days.
This weekend I finally got to take her out for a flight after the oil cooler replacement
(all went fine, btw) and try out the new "tape-less" installation.
Holy COW!! It was SOOOOOO noisy! At 200mph I took the headphones off and couldn't
believe the DB level. I really couldn't stand the noise level with the headphone
ON, and without then it just plain hurt. I slowed down to about 150mph
and the noise decreased slightly, but not that much. I slowed down to a stall
and finally the buzzing stopped, but as soon as I pushed the nose over and
speeded up a little it started again.
Obviously I'm going to have to put something like the Velco back on the inside
of the canopy frame. But what? I'm guessing that all RV-8's must have this issue.
I surprised there isn't something in the plans to deal with it. Is there
some magic tape/insulator that people are using for this that will hold up
in the heat of the Summer sun?
Thanks in advance!
-
Matt Dralle
RV-8 #82880 N998RV
http://www.mattsrv8.com - Matt's RV-8 Construction Blog
http://www.youtube.com/MattsRV8 - Matt's RV-8 HDTV YouTube Channel
Status: 112+ Hours Total Time Since May 2 2010 Test Flight!
Message 2
| INDEX | Back to Main INDEX |
| PREVIOUS | Skip to PREVIOUS Message |
| NEXT | Skip to NEXT Message |
| LIST | Reply to LIST Regarding this Message |
| SENDER | Reply to SENDER Regarding this Message |
|
| Subject: | Re: Canopy Skirt Buzz... |
Matt,
Is there room for a thin Delrin strip (e.g., 1/6" thick by 1" wide) in
place of the velcro? Countersunk pop rivets could hold it on and it
would fill the space.
See McMaster-Carr catalog (white):
http://www.mcmaster.com/#plastics/=9i9osy. Colors are white,
off-white, brown, and black. The strips can also be "shaved" to fit.
Just a thought.
Francis
RV-7A N968BF
12.1 hours and testing is going very well.
On Oct 30, 2010, at 9:12 PM, Matt Dralle wrote:
Hello Listers,
After the very first flight on the RV-8, I discovered that the
fiberglass skirts around the canopy loved to buzz against the turtle
deck skin at anything over about 100mph. To soften the intersection
between the skirt and the skin I added a row of Velcro-brand "loops"
tape all the way around the base of the canopy skirt on the inside
including around the bottom of the windscreen so that when the canopy
was closed any skin to skirt areas were cushioned with a thickness of
the Velcro.
That worked great and totally eliminated the buzzing and also sealed up
the cabin nicely. I was pleased.
But, after a Summer in California and 112 hours of flying, the Velcro
just didn't hold up. In the Summer sun, the glue became gooey and the
tape slipped out of position along the curve behind the passenger and
looked like grandma's slip was showing. Along the extreme rear where
the skirts come together and the fit is pretty tight, the glue squeezed
out from the heat and kind of goo-ed all around on the metal.
So, I removed the skirts a couple of weekends ago and literally spend a
whole weekend removing the Velcro and all of the glue. I was lucky and
the in the process I didn't remove any of the textured paint on the
skirts or windscreen frame - whew, that was a scary two days.
This weekend I finally got to take her out for a flight after the oil
cooler replacement (all went fine, btw) and try out the new "tape-less"
installation.
Holy COW!! It was SOOOOOO noisy! At 200mph I took the headphones off
and couldn't believe the DB level. I really couldn't stand the noise
level with the headphone ON, and without then it just plain hurt. I
slowed down to about 150mph and the noise decreased slightly, but not
that much. I slowed down to a stall and finally the buzzing stopped,
but as soon as I pushed the nose over and speeded up a little it started
again.
Obviously I'm going to have to put something like the Velco back on the
inside of the canopy frame. But what? I'm guessing that all RV-8's
must have this issue. I surprised there isn't something in the plans to
deal with it. Is there some magic tape/insulator that people are using
for this that will hold up in the heat of the Summer sun?
Thanks in advance!
-
Matt Dralle
RV-8 #82880 N998RV
http://www.mattsrv8.com - Matt's RV-8 Construction Blog
http://www.youtube.com/MattsRV8 - Matt's RV-8 HDTV YouTube Channel
Status: 112+ Hours Total Time Since May 2 2010 Test Flight!
Other Matronics Email List Services
These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.
-- Please support this service by making your Contribution today! --
|