Marauder Posted April 25, 2016 Report Posted April 25, 2016 A man much smarter than I shared this with me. " A plane is like boat with barnacles on the bottom. If you remove one barnacle, you don't notice the increase in speed. You remove a lot of barnacles, then suddenly you can get on plane and go faster. Every little thing on our airplanes is like a barnacle. You streamline one thing, you don't notice. You streamline 50 things, then all of those minute increases in speed add up to something. " Art Mattson Unfortunately to remove enough barnacles on a vintage Mooney, you would spend enough to buy a new cabin cruiser size boat without any barnacles! 1 Quote
Raptor05121 Posted April 25, 2016 Author Report Posted April 25, 2016 Just got a call back from LASAR. Kit is $59. I'm having them send me an invoice. I figure I'd get her something for her 53rd birthday tomorrow. 1 Quote
Bob_Belville Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 5 hours ago, pstone said: A man much smarter than I shared this with me. " A plane is like boat with barnacles on the bottom. If you remove one barnacle, you don't notice the increase in speed. You remove a lot of barnacles, then suddenly you can get on plane and go faster. Every little thing on our airplanes is like a barnacle. You streamline one thing, you don't notice. You streamline 50 things, then all of those minute increases in speed add up to something. " Art Mattson I took my 50 year old E up for an hour today. Leveled out at 7500 before doing a hold and a GPS approach. 157 KTAS was as much as I could milk out of her on an 85 deg day. Quote
DonMuncy Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 12 hours ago, Yetti said: Not that much of a bend. Could probably clamp the top edge, heat it up and let it droop a bit. Hold it till it resets It is not hard to make a mold to put a convex dip in Plexiglas. Rigging a router to smooth the edges on a piece that small is a different story. Quote
bonal Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 24 minutes ago, DonMuncy said: It is not hard to make a mold to put a convex dip in Plexiglas. Rigging a router to smooth the edges on a piece that small is a different story. Or you can spend 59 dollars get the complete ready to install kit. What's your time worth 2 Quote
Yetti Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 22 minutes ago, DonMuncy said: It is not hard to make a mold to put a convex dip in Plexiglas. Rigging a router to smooth the edges on a piece that small is a different story. Sand paper, Sand paper attached to a Sanding station, Works on glass edges also. you can cut yourself badly and things can melt and splinter. A shaper table would work also. You can cut yourself doing anything I suggest. Quote
Yetti Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 3 minutes ago, bonal said: Or you can spend 59 dollars get the complete ready to install kit. What's your time worth Probably about 15 minutes and I would make two, since I put a split in the last one by getting a little too tight on the screws. And the knowledge that I fabricated something myself... Priceless. Plus I would put it down on my hours to get an Airframe Certificate... Quote
bonal Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 You still need to fabricate the bracket to attach it with. It's always satisfying to make your own pieces. But as far as airplane mods go I doubt you can find any part that costs less Quote
Pritch Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 Back in the early 90's I made my own lens cover. Piece of cake. couple of small pieces of angle aluminum screwed to the inside edge, cut a piece of lexan on the bandsaw and heated with a torch to get the bow just right ( several practice tries on scrape). Maybe five dollars worth of material. Back then I was young and cheap and hungry for speed. Pritch Quote
DonMuncy Posted April 26, 2016 Report Posted April 26, 2016 35 minutes ago, bonal said: Or you can spend 59 dollars get the complete ready to install kit. What's your time worth About 10 cents an hour. But I sure would not fault anyone for buying the kit. It is priced right. I get a lot of satisfaction making things for myself and friends. Quote
Raptor05121 Posted April 26, 2016 Author Report Posted April 26, 2016 I called Dave Nolan at LASAR and mine is on the way. Kit includes lens, brackets, and screws. $59 + shipping. Easy peasy. 1 Quote
Raptor05121 Posted May 6, 2016 Author Report Posted May 6, 2016 My LASAR kit finally came in. It was $85 after shipping. I'll have to drill into my landing light retainer x3 to mount the three screws to hold the bracket, and I have to get a plastic drill bit to drill the lens (kinda hoping it would come pre-drilled). I'll start on this as soon as she's back in my hangar (LASAR advises no STC and W&B change is necessary, so its able to be installed by the owner). I wonder if I should do anything to that piece of aluminum? It goes around the top half, so if I leave it bare metal, it should theoretically, reflect more light downward, but then again, if I paint it to match, it will look neater on the ground. Quote
bonal Posted May 6, 2016 Report Posted May 6, 2016 Its real easy to do just try different orientations of both the bracket and the lens and you will find the sweet spot before you mark and drill the holes Quote
Raptor05121 Posted May 6, 2016 Author Report Posted May 6, 2016 Right, so I was thinking of doing masking tape, marking, and drill. Then add a plastic washer before and after the lens as so isolate it from being scratched or cracked from vibration. Quote
RLCarter Posted May 6, 2016 Report Posted May 6, 2016 don't over tighten the screws that hold the lens, lexan / plexi cracks easily. 1 Quote
mooniac15u Posted May 7, 2016 Report Posted May 7, 2016 On May 6, 2016 at 10:13 PM, Raptor05121 said: (LASAR advises no STC and W&B change is necessary, so its able to be installed by the owner). If you are drilling holes and mounting this on your aircraft I believe the FAA would call that a minor modification which would require an A&P sign off. 1 Quote
bonal Posted May 7, 2016 Report Posted May 7, 2016 I installed mine during the annual and it was signed off Quote
Raptor05121 Posted May 9, 2016 Author Report Posted May 9, 2016 3 hours ago, daver328 said: Yeah, that's what I said. But no one listens to me either. If it is not an STC, then it is an "owner produced part." Requires a logbook entry. Very least. STC requires 337. Did I say no one listens to me? I'm sorry, what were you saying? Quote
Guest Posted May 9, 2016 Report Posted May 9, 2016 7 hours ago, daver328 said: Yeah, that's what I said. But no one listens to me either. If it is not an STC, then it is an "owner produced part." Requires a logbook entry. Very least. STC requires 337. Did I say no one listens to me? I thought that reading and comprehension were the weak points. Clarence Quote
RogueOne Posted July 26, 2019 Report Posted July 26, 2019 Top photo is install of that cover in my E. Lower is what cover looks like on a Missile... Quote
dmevans Posted July 27, 2019 Report Posted July 27, 2019 On 7/26/2019 at 12:46 PM, RogueOne said: Top photo is install of that cover in my E. Lower is what cover looks like on a Missile... Wow!! The E looks really nice? Did you remove the rivets around the light bowl? Quote
RogueOne Posted July 28, 2019 Report Posted July 28, 2019 7 hours ago, dmevans said: Wow!! The E looks really nice? Did you remove the rivets around the light bowl? Thanks!! My A&P did with install. Like the result Quote
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