RV-3 Roll Bar...

Does anyone have any pictures of how a roll over bar installs on a "3". Ours didn't come with one; and I would like to determine how hard it would be to add one "after the fact"...

We're going to soon order in some preview plans from VANS, but would like to start contemplating now if it will be possible or worth the effort, etc.

Thanks.

Doug Lomheim
RV-3 / Lycoming O-290 torn down

RV-9A / Mazda 13B / on hold for now...

You'll have to make one. And then you'll have to make some holes in the top of the skin aft of the seat bulkhead for it.

It looks pretty straight-forward, as much as any retrofit would be for an RV-3.

Dave

When you get the plans, you'll see two options Doug - one made from tubing, and one built up from aluminum sheets and angles. I think the tubing one is going to be easier to retrofit for you. Since we were building from scratch, we were able to have a one-piece, custom-made roll bar that mounted to the longerons before installing the turtle deck skin. I don't weld, but have a good friend who does....priceless!

Paul

RV-3B Roll Bar

Installing a roll bar in a completed fuselage will probably require
removing the upper part of the seat back bulkhead, and maybe even
part of the fuselage rear top skin.

I installed the roll-bar during original fuselage construction
construction. Much easier!

The first photo shows the wooden pattern used to
check clearance with the tip-over canopy structure. This was
essential to making the roll-bar as tall as possible without
causing interference. It came out close to the height indicated
by the plans, but not exactly. Don't skip this step!



The next photo shows the 4130 steel components jigged for welding.



Here it is installed on the fuselage.



Detail of the .063 brackets securing the roll bar to the seat back
bulkhead.



After the roll-bar was in place I was able to notch the rear top skin to
clear it with a minimum gap.

Good luck with the retrofit. I will be interested to hear how it goes!
Cheers,

- Dan Benua
RV-3B (and others)

RV3 overturn structure retrofit

I installed this behind the cockpit after flying for a year. It seemed to me the cockpit overturn structure must do two things: protect against a point-impact upon the initial flipover, then survive a backwards slide against the ground without bending downward on top of the pilots neck. I looked at Vans plans sheets, and came up with this. It does a couple other things as well: provides a much stronger attach for the shoulder harness lugs; provides an attach point for the canopy hold-open gas spring; and you can hang things on it - that's my old altitude encoder for the (equally old) King transponder. I used .040 2024-T3 sheet (wish I'd used .063) and 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8 bar for the stiffeners. Only had to cut two holes in the skin for the vertical stiffeners, each of which go all the way to the fuselage longeron. The gas-spring is a stainless McMaster-Carr 4155T621, which had the longest throw for the smallest compressed length for the space I was fitting it into (Randy Lervold pioneered this geometry on his RV3). I make no claim that this structure will perform properly if it's ever needed.

- Steven
(700+ RV3 hours
... another one last Wednesday!)

one more pic of the overturn structure

... sorry for making the earlier pic too big. Here is one more shot, showing the gas-spring extended. The structure is merely a modification of Van's original box-design, same materials.

- Steven

Roll Bar

Thanks guys for the great pictures and ideas...now to start collecting the stuff to make it happen...

Doug