Glare off Polished Wings?

I'm years away from having to decide on a paint job, but I know that I've wanted a polished airplane since the first time I ever went to OSH as a 10-year old, and visualizing a finished airplane helps keep me motivated. And doodling with paint jobs gives me something to think about while couch-potatoing in the evening just before bedtime. Ideally I want my airplane to have a paint-and-polish finish with polish mainly on the highly visible upper surfaces of the fuselage (excluding forward of the windshield) and, if glare is not too bothersome, on the upper wing surface. (This is all dependent upon me not screwing up the skins during the build! )

That said, those of you who have RV's (or Sonex's, or whatever) with polished wing upper surfaces, how bad is the in-flight sun glare? Would the low sun angles of evening create dangerous blinding situations? I've never read about anybody piling one in because of this, but I've read everything i can find on this site, and the answers range from "glare is an urban legend" to "the heat and light is unbearable."

Work associated with polishing is not the issue, I have much more time than money at this stage in life. And the arms could always use some muscle tone. I've used Nuvite before on 6061-T6 skins.

Any advice & experience will be appreciated as always.

At Arlington a few years ago, I asked a guy about his tinted canopy. He said he had to replace his old one which was melted, due the heat reflection off his polished wings. When he replaced his canopy, he also painted designs on the wings.

YMMV

I saw an RV-10 at Sun n' Fun two years ago that had the left rear window significantly deformed from reflection from the aluminum wing. I believe the airplane belonged to Dave Saylor and I think he replaced the window.

No Problem

I have 245 hours on my polished winged RV-7 and cannot recall a single instance where I was blinded or even bothered by the sun's reflection. My canopy hasn't melted or become deformed either.

That said, my RV gets awfully hot when it sits in the sun for any length of time. The black paint doesn't help either. I have to be careful about where I put my hands while getting in. But once airborne, it soon becomes very pleasant with the cool air coming in the vents.

People love the polished look at fly-ins.

Hope this helps, Bill

FWIW

FWIW, I found the metal wings extremely troublesome when flying in sunshine. The reflected light and heat were enough that sometimes I would change course a little just to change the angle.

I've only had my polished RV-6 for 8 months, but I haven't had a problem with the polished wings yet. People flying off my wing, however, have commented on how much they appreciate my efforts at avoiding putting them down-sun during turns.

If you stand behind the wing on a sunny day, I think you can easily cut your suntanning time in half, though. It does get warm.

Formation...

Hehe... well I have a couple buddies who love formation flying, but it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe a mirror-finish will give them another reason to stay the he** away from me!!

KatieB said:

Hehe... well I have a couple buddies who love formation flying, but it gives me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe a mirror-finish will give them another reason to stay the he** away from me!!

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Yeah, I have no need to put my life in other people's hands either. However, if, as others have done, you paint or use vinyl for some simple invasion strips on your wings at strategic locations, you'll have no glare and, better yet, no one will get to close for fear of getting shot down!

I forgot to mention that usually it only takes a small course correction to move a sunshot from pointing at my face to pointing somewhere i'm not. If you like polished finishes, and are willing to do the work to maintain them, then by all means do it! It's worth it, in my opinion.

KatieB said:

.......those of you who have RV's (or Sonex's, or whatever) with polished wing upper surfaces, how bad is the in-flight sun glare?.......

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I do not find glare to be an issue. Oh sure, every now and then the sun may catch the wing in such a way that glare may be directed into the cockpit but the effect is usually brief...fractions of a second, like a flashbulb. Besides, if during straight and level cruise flight Old Sol was becoming a nuisance, very slight input on the rudder pedal of your choice is all it takes to skew the angle and eliminate the effect of glare and chances are you won't have to do that for more than a few moments. Glare to me is a non-issue. Perhaps if I lived in a very sunny state I might feel differently but I doubt it.

I was at 12500 ft flying SW (195 hdg or so) in my unpainted (not even polished) RV8 and the sun was rising up in the east. The reflecton off the wing did just so happen to be directed at me and it was annoying. Natural tendency is to not look as much in that direction. On my XCountry (4 hrs) I was unwilling to change heading enough to move the sun reflection. On the way back home, just so happened I got delayed and didnt take off until late in the day...when the sun was setting. Again, annoying reflection on a 5 hr return flight.

I offer that as a special case where you might have an issue with bare metal wings.

Most days, its non existent. However, I recommend you keep your favorite pair of sunglasses handy if youre going to polish the wings.

Snowflake said:

If you stand behind the wing on a sunny day, I think you can easily cut your suntanning time in half, though. It does get warm.

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Never flown a polished RV, but I stood next to one at the pumps once on a sunny afternoon, chatting with the owner/pilot. Very nice polish job (not just unpainted). The warmth and glare was surprisingly strong. That said, I like the look. The melted canopy stories are scary, but it looks sooooo cool! Unless I lived in Arizona type climate, I think I'd go for it.

Polished in Vegas...

So I'm halfway there. First polish done, but paint on the fiberglass still to do (still in primer). It's true that polished wings will eliminate any need to work on your tan under your chin. Fueling time is more than enough to get that golden tan on the undersurfaces.

As far as the occasional glare in flight, I find it just an excuse to work the ailerons a little. So who builds an RV to fly straight and level anyway! Only caution I would add is that if you plan to do any formation flying, a polished airplane might not be a good idea. With the very little bit of formation flying I've been exposed to, it seems to me that a second or two of blinding light off a wing might be a real problem...



Always wanted a polished airplane anyway. You can always paint later...

Blinding, no----Irritating, yes.

I had this happen to me last week, and again today.

Reflection off the unpainted wing is pretty bright, even in January. Luckily I am just bore-ing holes in the sky, and not following a specific course somewhere, so I just altered my heading a bit, and the glare went elsewhere.

frazitl said:

Only caution I would add is that if you plan to do any formation flying, a polished airplane might not be a good idea. With the very little bit of formation flying I've been exposed to, it seems to me that a second or two of blinding light off a wing might be a real problem...

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Wasn't an issue this year. There's a great way to avoid it... Don't fly as lead. #4 in a four-ship is more fun anyway because you get to fly in the slot.

You can always paint later...

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Heretic!