What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Lance Logan's AeroCanopy

David Paule

Well Known Member
Lance Logan's AeroCanopy (Was Todd's Canopy)

Bottom line first, AeroCanopy is a class act and I am a delighted customer.

I decided that I wanted a lightly-tinted canopy instead of a clear one for my RV-3B. Originally, I?d ordered a clear one from Todd, but he?s no longer with us.

His tooling and so on have been taken over by VAF?s own Lance Logan (we know him as judoka5051) under the name AeroCanopy. I went to the www.aerocanopy.com site and saw RV-8 canopy photos and they looked pretty good.

The first thing to do was get samples of the plexiglas. He sent a sample of 2094, a medium-dark gray; and 2515, a light tint. I took the samples outside and to my old eyes, the 2515 was the one to get.

I had a choice, either order through Aircraft Spruce or through Lance. The price after shipping was roughly the same so I ordered through Lance and mailed him a check for the canopy plus shipping.

About when I thought he should be receiving the check, he sent me an email saying that the canopy was shipped. I nearly fell over. I hadn?t expected it anywhere that fast.

Here are some photos of the AeroCanopy that Lance made for me. Below that, I?ll post some similar photos of the one I bought from Todd.

It arrived, well packaged in a light wooden crate. He?d left a bit of flange on the canopy for protection.

Out of the crate and resting on my RV-3B fuselage box:

gRBRCtS.jpg


Here?s a look at the aft end while still in the shipping crate - the disk is a cut-off disk:

1v8LVHd.jpg


Notice that Lance has some protection to keep the canopy from moving around much.

The base dimensions inside the flange are
Length, 65.15 inches
Width, 23.5 inches
Height, 13.3 inches.

For comparison, here is the same look at Todd?s canopy. First, out of the crate:

k8gncd4.jpg


Notice the extra height.

And a look at the aft end of the canopy still in the shipping crate. In Todd?s case, the ?crate? is a heavy cardboard box. And if you look closely, you?ll see that the aft end of the canopy poked a hole in the cardboard - fortunately there seems to have been no adverse effect by that. There was nothing to keep the canopy from sliding around in the box.

maZCWum.jpg


Todd?s has no flange, what?s there is there.
Length, 62.3 inches,
Width, 21.9 inches,
Height, 15.4 inches

Todd?s canopy is a ?tall man? one. Having sat in one with a regular canopy while using adequate cushions, I think a regular-height one will be fine.

Not long after the canopy came, a surprise arrived: Lance sent a refund for some excess shipping money he?d charged. It cost less than he?d expected to get it here.

So all in all, I?m very pleased with my new canopy. And I strongly recommend AeroCanopy and Lance Logan, the owner, too.

Dave
 
Last edited:
So pleased to hear that Lance has taken up where Todd sadly departed.

Your photos of Todds canopy reminded me so much of how mine arrived! Bear in mind it came by sea freight from Florida to Brisbane.

I was away on a layover when it was released by customs, so my wife and close friend collected it on my behalf. She was well briefed not to accept the delivery if there was any damage... Todd had marked the outside, NO FORKLIFT and THIS WAY UP, sure enough out it came, on a fork lift, and upside down! Despite one end of the cardboard box hanging off, she accepted delivery as the contents 'appeared' to be in one piece.

When I returned home I surveyed what I saw. It was evident that it had travelled the entire way upside down as the saran wrap had worn, through constant motion. My heart was in my mouth during the un-wrap! Thank goodness Todd was generous with the wrap as I was literally down to the final two layers of at least fifty, when the hole that had been worn through the earlier layers finally closed to reveal a couple of untouched layers, and a perfect canopy! Dodged a major bullet there.

Glad to see Lance's packaging is somewhat more robust! I love my canopy and I'm sure you will too.
 
Ditto....

Bottom line first, AeroCanopy is a class act and I am a delighted customer.
Not long after the canopy came, a surprise arrived: Lance sent a refund for some excess shipping money he’d charged. It cost less than he’d expected to get it here.
So all in all, I’m very pleased with my new canopy. And I strongly recommend AeroCanopy and Lance Logan, the owner, too.
Dave

Dave,
Not surprised.
Lance purchased my RV6"X" several years ago. From our first correspondence to my re-purchasing my RVX back from him several years later, my two word summation of the experience mimics yours, Class Act.
When my wife and I traveled back to FL to retrieve the X, Lance showed me the Todd's Canopy equipment and several canopies he was making in his hangar to refine his craft before going into production.
Imagine that, someone who is concerned for their products quality and places customer satisfaction first....

This coming from a guy who ran into burning buildings for a living.
Yup, Class act personified...

V/R
Smokey

Epilogue: During the re-purchase of the RVX there was some issue with our bank issuing the funds on time and Lance simply said, "Get outa here, I know you're good for it".
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the kind words!

Hey David,

Thanks for the very kind review! I definitely want pics of the finished plane too.


Hey Rob,

Thank you for taking the time to add your input. In other news, I've finished everything on the 8 except for paint and final assembly. It took longer than expected, since I've been playing with plastic. I'll send pics of the finished plane.

I'm concentrating on keeping it fast and light; with hopes of racing it. We'll stop by for a visit if we take it to Reno.

Thanks again guys, Lance
 
Back
Top