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RV14 Canopy faring

Tom Martin

Well Known Member
I have done a number of canopy farings in the past and had intended to proceed as normal. In the spirit of learning new techniques I followed Van's videos and plan directions for laying up the canopy glass faring.

This picture shows all the glass pieces cut, as per plans and laid out ready for layup.

o5tb47.jpg


The process took a little less then the four hours that they suggested. The only change I made was to add another couple of layers of tape to the windscreen and thus more glass cloth for a bit of a thicker edge then specified. Absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with the plans, I just like a bit thicker edge.

Sanding today, with the suggested sanding block, took about four hours, including a layer of microballoons that I added to the faring after sanding. There were no real low spots but quite a few pin holes, that a 'runny' mix should fill nicely.

5uhhxd.jpg


I purchased a new rotary cutter for the job. I knew that lots of people used them but I had always gotten along fine with scissors. What a dope, the rotary cutter is LOT better. It took no time to cut all the parts, with no stray edges. The other nice thing that they suggested was a proper shaped sanding block. They send a template that gives you the radius required and I just used a hand plane to shave the wood block to the correct radius. The block was just a 4" long piece of pine, 2.5"? wide and 3/4" thick. Nothing fancy. This really took the guess work out of the sanding an although my eye is pretty good, the block is better!

Nice job by Van's with the videos and plans. Easily within reach of a handy first time builder.
 
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Just curious why you installed the engine mount before completing the canopy installation?
 
Question

Tom,

I may have missed a previous post, but what's the large hole in the forward skin for? Big air scoop? Laser cannon?

I've read thru the plans several times but I still didn't realize how many fabric strips there were.
 
No real reason for the engine mount out of order other then wanting the outside air temperature to be a bit warmer then a month ago; better for plexiglass work.
The plans are great but I do no always follow the order of assembly.

As for the hole in the boot cowl, this is an inspection cover. It is NOT Van approved. I like to be able to get into the forward panel area for wiring and maintenance. I have already saved many times over the time it took to install the door. I would not recommend a modification like this for a first time builder.
 
A few more pictures for you. The first one shows the glass work done and sanded. The white is the remains of epoxy and micro-balloons that was applied as a filler and then sanded off. This fills pin holes, sandpaper scratches, small imperfections etc.

mai0xg.jpg


This picture shows the final primed part. I used a fillable primer that was mostly sanded off and then a final coat of the same material. This will also be sanded off before final prime and paint but as the plane will be flown without paint for a while the glass will have a covering. Mostly following the plans the part turned out really nice with a clean sharp line on the plexiglass.

2s8s5c4.jpg


While working on the canopy faring I was also getting the tail faring to fit. It is a pretty good fit but I hate screws and so I do a bit of extra work to eliminate as many screws as possible from the faring. I can do this by laying up a glass strip and flox mix under all the edges. This serves two purposes: one it makes all the edges fit perfectly, and two the edges are now thicker that will greatly reduce the chances of the faring bulging later in life. The two strips of wood are used to apply a consistent pressure against the faring as the epoxy cures. This work was done over a number, 4?, sessions. First around the front at the fuselage, next around the VS, then each side on the HS.
My rocket has flown for 11 seasons now with a total of four screws holding the tail faring on. The RV14 faring is a bit larger and will need four at the lower front corners, two per side, and two on each side at the back.

vwwcch.jpg


Note the bottom and aft metal faring that goes under and behind the HS. I cut this piece in halve immediately aft of the HS. The forward part gets screwed into place and will never have to be removed. There is nothing to inspect under it that can not be seen from above. The aft bits get screwed on as per plans.
All this work will mean that for inspections you will have about 20 FEWER screws to take out, and a part that actually fits well!
 
Cover seal

I've done a couple planes with a made in place proseal gasket. Works good. Message me if you would like details.

Don Broussard
RV9 Rebuild in Progress
57 Pacer
 
The "seal" is simply a small bead of silicon around each screw hole and another bead connecting the screw holes. On top of this lay a strip of household Seran Wrap (sp?) and then screw the cover in place. Let cure and trip excess warp off.

The glare shield was painted with a flat black as in the Van's instructions. The painting was done after the plexiglass was fit to final shape then removed, again just following the instructions. All the canopy parts were then painted before final assembly.
I used a black dye in the first layer of glass to match the glare shield and it turned out nicely.
 
Great post

It is great to see a post like that as it will archive now and be available for other searches.

I did mine exactly to Vans plans and the video, a few things did not come out in the video but were easily handled while doing the project.

My RV 7 canopy took about 10 hours and i still have some final sanding and primer work to do.

That is a nice line you have on the window.

I used a leatherette cover on the glareshield deck and i finished the glareshield edge with Classic Aero glareshield edge it worked well

Dave
 
Tom I must ask an even more basic question. What is that shiny silver material the airplane appears to be of??? How slow is it??? What screwdriver do you use?

This is in fun Tom!

Thx!
HR
Glasair IIIRG
 
Hey buddy, nice to hear from you. I miss those race days at M01, Memphis, good times! Thinking about Sun&Fun, are you going?
 
Doing good, in the Bahamas. Bonanzed in, out Friday. I will take GIII RG next year to SNF, OSH & I hope RNO.

Good to see u still in the shop. BTW I made an access door in the tailcone of the GIII. All composite & very pleased. CF reinforced.

Love to see Tom's work, all profit. I did on the F1. Tom I reacquainted myself with Al on the instrument panel. Still satisfying.

Regards
Howard
 
Hidden in the back of the builder's manual they mention this technique and I used it on the canopy on my -9 years ago.

Like Tom, it took me right around four hours to lay up the fiberglass and with the help of a lot of peal-ply strips, sanding it went very quickly.
 
FWIW if I were to do another I would not use black electrical tape as an edge, I would get another color, probably white. It's hard to discern the point where the black tape and the black colored fiberglass layup meet when you are sanding.
 
Just out of curiosity, wouldn?t make it easier to impregnate the cloth first with resin in between two layer of plastic and then cut them in the sizes that is needed? It would take less resin to sand off and less of a chance for the edge strands to unravel. This is how I did my RV7 and turned out really good but I also saw VANs video which is the method that is used here.
 
Good tip!

FWIW if I were to do another I would not use black electrical tape as an edge, I would get another color, probably white. It's hard to discern the point where the black tape and the black colored fiberglass layup meet when you are sanding.
I like that tip. I've got a lot of blue, will use that.
 
flox fairing?

Question for fiberglass experts: is there any reason not to make the entire fairing out of flox?

To wit, I'm imagining something like, lay down a thick bead of flox, cover with plastic sheet, press down with 3d-printed forms to give it the final shape, let cure.

It seems to me that the bond to plexiglass or aluminum would be the weak link, glass is not there for tensile strength but to keep it from cracking? Cotton or milled glass fibers could accomplish the same with much less work, and end up a bit lighter.

What are the forces acting on the canopy fairing?
 
For posterity: mothership advised against this.


Question for fiberglass experts: is there any reason not to make the entire fairing out of flox?

To wit, I'm imagining something like, lay down a thick bead of flox, cover with plastic sheet, press down with 3d-printed forms to give it the final shape, let cure.

It seems to me that the bond to plexiglass or aluminum would be the weak link, glass is not there for tensile strength but to keep it from cracking? Cotton or milled glass fibers could accomplish the same with much less work, and end up a bit lighter.

What are the forces acting on the canopy fairing?
 
I wonder how hot that would get during the cure if you laid down a something that thick in one shot? I wonder if it would get hot enough to do something bad to the plexiglass. I have seen a runaway reaction with epoxies in a hood. It was crazy. Epoxy formation is very exothermic and without evaporation it keeps getting hotter.

If you can't do it in one shot, then why not lay down fiberglass.
 
I wonder how hot that would get during the cure if you laid down a something that thick in one shot? I wonder if it would get hot enough to do something bad to the plexiglass. I have seen a runaway reaction with epoxies in a hood. It was crazy. Epoxy formation is very exothermic and without evaporation it keeps getting hotter.

Good point. I'm guessing the thickness of the fairing is low enough that the aluminum would quickly suck out all the heat. Most likely the runaway would occur in the mixing cup.

If memory serves, Long-EZ fuselages are held together with flox beads thicker than this fairing, and no aluminum to draw away the heat. Question for a different forum then.

then why not lay down fiberglass.

To save a week of work and, more to the point, to avoid work I suck at. :p
 
The "Fiberglass Techniques for RV Aircraft" Sportair workshop teaches a hybrid technique. A layer of fiberglass is laid down as per the first layer in the plans. Then the overall shape of the radius is formed with filler of choice. Then the outer layer is another fiberglass layer. They teach that this is quicker and easier than the plans method of multiple fiberglass layups.
 
I was going to post the same thing about the EAA class. It took about 4-5 hours to layup--all the glass and rough shaping. Then Areo-Epoxy light the next day to get the final shape. Then sanding using the straight corner edge with a block sander by 45 degree passes parallel to the curve. Aero-Epoxy light is much easier to sand than west epoxy.

The only screw up I did was leave the two layers of tape in place while sanding between the layup and the skin. It left a lip. I sanded and more aero epoxy. That took more time than the initial layup. I finished that this past weekend. Not perfect, but looks OK.

In addition, Scott (teacher) suggested using PTM&W 6247 epoxy as a skim coat between skin and first layer of glass. This stuff is adheres to the skin like ****. Amazing stuff but a bit expensive considering you only need an ounce or so.

Send me a PM if you want a better description. We can talk on the phone. It was one of the more fun projects along the way.

cheers
ken
 
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