Question on skirt to windshield fairing intersection

Quick question for you guys. You know how the windshield fairing overlaps the canopy? What about on the sides where the skirt comes up to the metal. My skirt butts right up to the windshield fairing here, but i didn't make it overlap. Mistake?

Here is mine.

You can see ive made more of a butt joint here. will this be ok?

It can go both ways

I have seen both on the flightline at OSH and have not heard of any downside to the butt joint. Yours looks very well executed.

Matthew,
From that angle yours looks good. I have my canopy skirt slide under the fiberglass of the windshield fairing about 1/2", but I don't think there is any issues with a straight butt joint there. Like Steve said there is a lot of different ways to tackle that area.

Matthew,

Really nice looking fit! A couple of questions if you don't mind: Is that the Vans supplied skirt or did you fabricate your own? How did you mount it to the frame: glue? rivets? screws? or some combination?

Thanks!
J. Baker
RV8 Finishing

rockbottom said:

Matthew,

Really nice looking fit! A couple of questions if you don't mind: Is that the Vans supplied skirt or did you fabricate your own? How did you mount it to the frame: glue? rivets? screws? or some combination?

Thanks!
J. Baker
RV8 Finishing

Click to expand...

That is the vans supplied skirt. It was pink fiberglass and came in two halves that overlapped in the back. We fit it up as best we could and cut the back to make the two halves butt together. The back is now fiberglassed together and is formed over the slider rail very well. I will get you a picture of that tonight. Everything is mounted to the frame as per Van's instructions. Throughout our build we have tried our best to not deviate from the Van's instructions. There is alot of information and variation out there, but what Van's says to do has always worked out the best. So everything is attached to the frame with rivets. The windshield is screwed into tapped holes in the roll bar frame per the instructions, everything worked out very well.

One thing we did modify, is the most forward part of the skirt where it meets the windshield fiberglass. This is the reason we didn't make the overlap when doing the windshield fiberglass. The skirt is blind riveted to the frame, and it laid much more inboard than the metal skin there so at the time the overlap wouldn't have worked. So we completed the windshield fiberglass and then tried to determine how to make the skirt match up. What we ended up doing was drilling out i think 3 of the rivets in the most forward upright bar of the frame and putting washers as spacers in between the skirt and the frame to get it to lift out and match the windshield fiberglass. I'll have to get you guys pictures tonight to better explain.

So anyway Im very happy with our whole outcome. Everything fits very well. One thing I would recommend for someone doing this the first time is try to get your skirt to match the forward top skin sides before glassing in your windshield and then make an overlap. I talked to Steve i think it was at Vans, he said both the butt joint or an overlap are fine, their plane there has a butt joint. He said its kind of a low activity area so you dont get any wind or water in. He said the area where air will get in is in the back of the skirt because that doesn't always sit down perfectly on the aircraft skin. Here he puts foam weather stripping up under the skirt where the skirt should contact the top skin. I will probably do this there as well.