carusoam Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 One day… Somebody is going to try a polycarbonate windscreen… Acrylic is nice for its clarity… PC has come a long way… Best regards, -a- Quote
jaylw314 Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 2 hours ago, GeeBee said: I've had a bat clear the prop, go through the windshield, go between me and a student, hit the inside rear window then flop around. The scariest was a dark night over SNS, hit a bat on descent in a King Air. He hit the windshield, clinging on with all four and bearing his teeth hanging on. Scared the crap out of me to be face to face with him. Then of course there is this really bad day. Bird strike, flame out, ejection. The bat thing would freak me out flying at night. I've heard at night, ATC and weather radar can see the immense flocks of bats taking to the sky to hunt insects. Quote
jaylw314 Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 35 minutes ago, carusoam said: One day… Somebody is going to try a polycarbonate windscreen… Acrylic is nice for its clarity… PC has come a long way… Best regards, -a- Wasn't there something about PC that makes it unsuitable for aviation use? UV resistance or something? Quote
carusoam Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 5 minutes ago, jaylw314 said: Wasn't there something about PC that makes it unsuitable for aviation use? UV resistance or something? PC had issues early on back in the 80s… today, it probably makes more sense… PETG also worth a look… Visual clarity and forming and scratch resistance all need to be there… Cast acrylic hasn’t changed since the 60s… very brittle. Leaving sharp edges. We could probably look up what busses and trains are using lately… Best regards, -a- 1 Quote
EricJ Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 39 minutes ago, carusoam said: One day… Somebody is going to try a polycarbonate windscreen… Acrylic is nice for its clarity… PC has come a long way… Best regards, -a- When I worked at Goodyear Aerospace in the 80s they had a Transparent Products division that made the B-1B windscreens, canopies for F-16s, bullet-proof glass for limos and other vehicles, etc. They had a chicken gun that they'd shoot bird carcases at windscreens and canopies with (they had a blinking lite that they'd turn on when the outdoor apparatus was being pressured up, and I could see it from my office, so we'd all run out and watch). They also had a .50 cal M-2 that they'd shoot at test windows/windscreens for their vehicle security products. Anyway, they were all laminated of multiple layers of apparently different stuff. I don't think any one material was sufficient to get the strength and properties that they wanted, but they weren't doing GA stuff, either. It was by far the most interesting place I ever worked as far as just walking around the place at lunch to look at all the different crazy stuff that was going on. At that time they made the envelopes for the Goodyear blimps there, too, which was really interesting to watch. 2 Quote
GeeBee Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 The inner core of windshields for B-1 and other jet aircraft start as a single billet and are compressed into shape before lamination. Even then, they are not strong enough to make Part 25 standards. They have to be heated, continuously to 90 degrees F which means a coating of conductive material. SnO2 is often vapor applied to make the polymer bonding agents work, then the conductive coating is applied to the backside of the outer pane. The average jet transport windshield will stop a 44 magnum at point blank and a Winchester 458 rifle at 12 feet. A large part of the 250 knot speed limit below 10K is bird impact protection. 3 Quote
Will.iam Posted September 27, 2022 Report Posted September 27, 2022 4 hours ago, Will.iam said: Neighbor hit a vertical land mine. Quite alot of snarge! Included feathers going into the cabin since he smacked right on the air vent! Damn news around my neighborhood travels fast. Neighbohr heard a loud thump on the roof and then saw my next door neighbor’s post about a bird strike. Came over and gave him the split carcuss. Looks like a turkey vulture from what remains. He is lucky it missed the prop as that is a brand new overhauled engine in that 182 with less than 50 hours on it. Quote
carusoam Posted September 28, 2022 Report Posted September 28, 2022 Small world… in 1985 I had a summer job at an acrylic sheet manufacturer called PolyCast… They made cast acrylic sheet in various thicknesses up to a few inches thick… The note on one shelf of sheet indicated it was for F14 canopies…. The factory was in Hackensack-ack-ack…. They specialized in flat, visually clear, sheet… forming and trimming would be the next steps…. 8’ X 8’ was a typical size… they got annealed in giant walk in ovens…. For a day or so… Messy factory, highly flammable raw materials…. Pretty flammable finished products…. Factory blaze erased it from the planet years later… The beginning of the end for the polymer business in NJ…. Sooo… look for the PolyCast logo on your acrylic sheet… Best regards, -a- Quote
A64Pilot Posted October 1, 2022 Report Posted October 1, 2022 On 5/1/2018 at 5:22 PM, thinwing said: Sorry,I find that really hard to believe In flight school during his Solo flight in a TH-55 in Ozark Al., a Norwegian student had a Turkey Vulture fly into the cockpit (doors were off) and beat him up pretty badly. The radio calls were on a PA speaker so we all could hear, he spoke perfect English, but slowly. Very calmly and slowly he said “There is a big bird in the helicopter with me”, then a short pause and “it smells very bad too” Bird scratched and we assume bit the snot out of him, threw up all over him and left out the door it came in As it takes both hands to fly a helicopter he pretty much just had to let the bird have its way with him. Then at Ft Hood we had one hit the front Windshield of an AH-64, hit right at the bar between the two pieces of glass, basically it busted the Vulture like a water balloon and the guts went in all over the pilot, who pretty promptly threw up. Luckily he had his visor down. We were told by the flight Surgeon those things are so nasty that it’s likely if it gets in your eyes the infection can have you lose your sight. We took the birds feet and had them mounted on a plaque and gave them to him on his going away party, he left them on the table. Quote
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