PAU Canopy bolts

[David Shriver]

Hello everyone,

As the Viper container drifts closer and closer I've been making some plans for my build. I noticed that PAU uses 4 bolts at the rear of the canopy and it looks like dowel pins at the front. I like to put my switches and fuel dots under the canopy but that really isn't practical if I need to use a ball driver to take the canopy off and on. Has anyone come up with a retrofit to use spring latches at the rear of the canopy or perhaps Secraft one touch canopy locks?

 

[Terryscustom]

Hello everyone,

As the Viper container drifts closer and closer I've been making some plans for my build. I noticed that PAU uses 4 bolts at the rear of the canopy and it looks like dowel pins at the front. I like to put my switches and fuel dots under the canopy but that really isn't practical if I need to use a ball driver to take the canopy off and on. Has anyone come up with a retrofit to use spring latches at the rear of the canopy or perhaps Secraft one touch canopy locks?

That's fine on small electric planes and "kick me" 30cc planes but it is not acceptable in 120cc powerhouse planes. The Dowels on the front are fine, 6-32 bolts on the back with bonded washers are standard and for a proper setup you only need one (two max) switches on the outside.

 

[jhelber08]

Search for @Pistolera posts. He hinged a canopy on a krill I believe.

I would suggest a pin and flag switch for cleanliness. Emcotec makes a fuel dot that is low profile and uses a probe, if you wanted to hide it underneath the plane you could.

 

[Pistolera]

David....the easiest solution is with good quality spring-loaded pins going into hard points at the rear of the canopy. I did that on my Beast (although I used plastic-housed pins) and never had any problem. HOWEVER....the Beast is a much shorter canopy, so probably doesn't have as much torsional/twisting loads during flight....so, i would approach it with some caution. There are some very nice aluminum and stainless pins available, which are stronger. I used them to secure the hinged canopy on my Krill.

 

[David Shriver]

That's the way the canopy is held on my 40% Carden Cap 232, my EF Extra, and my CH Double Vision (and probably a dozen other planes). But I am concerned about it because the canopy on the PAU Viper is quite large and with high energy flying I would imagine the forces placed on the canopy could be rather extreme.

 

[Islandflyer]

The distance between the front and the rear of the canopy is too long for removing all screws from the sides.
The hatch/canopy will vibrate and flex, and will have problems if not installed per design and instructions.
It needs to have 6 attachment points (3 on each side).
4 attachment points (2 on each side front and back) is not sufficient.

 

[Matt]

If you want a no tools canopy removal... McMaster Carr sells little knurled caps that go over the Allen head on screws they are cheap and still look pretty clean... I use them all the time because I too am all about keeping scale outlines and trying to hide as much as I can... You still retain all the screws but no longer need tools

 

[Matt]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#thumb-screws/=zrib4i

Come in bags of 100 for less than $15... Share them with your friends

 

[Terryscustom]

The distance between the front and the rear of the canopy is too long for removing all screws from the sides.
The hatch/canopy will vibrate and flex, and will have problems if not installed per design and instructions.
It needs to have 6 attachment points (3 on each side).
4 attachment points (2 on each side front and back) is not sufficient.

@Pistolera always has some cool stuff but for long term strength I have to agree with Herve. Also take into consideration that Earle's Krill canopy is composite (rigid) and the Beast canopy is short. The canopy on the Viper is 32" long!!

I've seen smaller planes vibrate and have sloppy canopies, I've witnessed canopies broken doing things like pop-tops and crankshafts. Especially if you are looking at installing a DA120, you are guaranteed issues. I was kinda being a smarty in my first response (having forgotten about Earle's creativity) but myself.....no way would I do it on this large of a canopy. My honest $.02

 

[Pistolera]

I agree with all the above, although my Raven canopy is 40" long and I only use the middle and rear screws on each side....plus the dowels up front are 3/8" CF. It has held fine and doesn't vibrate with that. I do use the bonded rubber washers on the 4 screws though.

Of course that doesn't help with your desire to get all your switches/dots easily accessible inside. As for switches you can get away with just one for everything, assuming you're using an optic kill of some sort.

Oh, BTW Terry....thanks for the compliments.....my check is in the mail