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Tip up instrument rain guard- a permanent solution

trib

Well Known Member
I have previously tried a water resistant fabric rainguard but it still seemed to let some water in if it sat (puddled) in the fabric. Twice I have gotten my radio wet where it malfunctioned, either would not work or would not transmit, and had to remove it and dry it in my oven to get rid of any moisture. As I have gotten my IFR certification in my 6A, it is not acceptable to have any issue here. I have also previously replaced the canopy seal with a somewhat larger one, which I have not seen any water enter when in light rain in flight, but when on the ground and opening the canopy in the rain, the water of course drains into the opening, particularly if it is also raining at the time, and gets the instruments wet between the panel and subpanel. So I decided to work on the 100% solution and make a custom fiberglass watershield. It took me several weeks, but I'm now happy with the shield and comfortable in its protection. It fits very closely to the canopy structure to drain any water which may leak into the area, directing it out the sides of the canopy while minimizing any lost real estate where instruments could project behind the panel.

I started by making a plywood mockup of the space between the panel and subpanel, with the hinged canopy mocked up also (just the 3/4" board which repeats the raising and lowering geopmetry. The mockup was filled with insulating foam and then carefully carved while incrementally operating the hinged portion to get 1/4" clearance at the end between the canopy and foam. Here you can see the mockup with the foam being shaped.

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Next I covered the foam with wax, then placed packing tape over the plywood where the layup would be and then applied paste wax for a mold release. After that I layed up 3 layers of 4 oz. glass with West system epoxy.

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After curing, I popped out the fiberglass raw watershield.

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Next, I fit the shield in place carefully marking it and cutting it into 3 sections. Two holes per section were drilled through the shield and subpanel and cleco'd in place. During final constructions, the holes were enlarged with plate nuts placed in the subpanel to secure each piece with #8 screws.

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Here's a side view.

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Now here's a picture of the three pieces in finished form. Both ends of the center piece have a 1/4" dam added to prevent small amounts of water from dripping between the hinge gap, and the side pieces also have a dam at the inboard end for the same purpose.

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Here is a closeup of the dam, with the drain for the center piece visible. This is just a 1/4" serrated plastic adapter to which tubing is attached and run outboard to the side of the canopy. Any water which drains from the center or sides while in flight is quickly force out the side of the canopy due to the higher pressure inside the fuselage while in flight. If you doubt this, just get your sleeve near the side of the canopy while in flight, it will try to suck your shirt right out of the airplane!

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Here's a picture of the 3 pieces painted and in final condition before installation.

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And here is the final product

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Custom fit, waterproof and no more worries about water somehow getting onto instruments either in flight or on the ground. A lot of work, but I'm now worry free!
 
Nice!

Good work, Tim.

Pull a mold and make some blanks for the rest of us! :D I'd be happy to have a set. The $10k in new avionics about to go into my 6A deserves the same protection, even though I'll only be VFR in this bird.

The only part that doesn't sound fun is installing nutplates on the bulkhead.

-Stormy
 
Custom fit, waterproof and no more worries about water somehow getting onto instruments either in flight or on the ground. A lot of work, but I'm now worry free!

While this is definitely a nice looking addition and will go a long way toward increasing protection from water, I would caution you to still keep your guard up for other leak paths.

Specifically the hinge joint area (kinda looks like you made your original seal continuous across there which is good!) and between your new addition and the subpanel (unless you put a gasket of some sort in there).

Water also has a way of traveling a long way from the source of the leak and ending up in bad places.

Water leaks are the only real reason to dislike a Tip-Up in my experience but according to Van's, they have never had one leak...... :confused:
 
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I'm happy for you

...if you've never had a tip-up leak, but I've encountered it (not in flight but after tie down outside in the rain) and it's no fun to launch and immediately lose a radio, transponder and a RMI uEncoder backlight display power HV supply to water inside the avionics. Thankfully the radios came back after drying out a few days, but the DC-DC supply was toast and it was a worrisome flight home wondering what might drop offline next.

That's with a canopy cover in place and with silicone sealant bead molded in place between the tip up and the forward mating surface. I now tape my seams if expecting rain at a R.O.N. It's a hassle.
 
Great job on that cover!

Here's is an alternative for those that might be looking for something a bit easier to install available from GloCustom paint shop.

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Hinge points leak

Your cover looks great but the real point of leakage on a tip up is the hinges. If the rubber seal is installed properly, the hinges will be the only place it will leak.

I always carried a roll of the blue painters tape, 1" wide, to tape the gap when parked. Tape the gap, put the canopy cover on. Even more important with a tail dragger. Worked great.
 
Your cover looks great but the real point of leakage on a tip up is the hinges. If the rubber seal is installed properly, the hinges will be the only place it will leak.

I always carried a roll of the blue painters tape, 1" wide, to tape the gap when parked. Tape the gap, put the canopy cover on. Even more important with a tail dragger. Worked great.

Yep, except I use vinyl tape.
 
Almost 22 years. No problem!

Mel,

You have said this several times. Would you (have you) shared how you achieved a leak free fitting of the tip-up? I, among many, would like to join the leak free club. Pictures are very helpful.
 
"Magic Dust" What a Great Idea!!!

... This looks like a fabulous new product for us to bring to market. Easy to ship, we have a lifetime supply in stock, easy to stand behind forever, easy to use and install, works on anything, looks like the perfect product. Why didn't we think of this sooner. Even after paying a large royalty to Mel for letting us use his idea it looks like a high profit venture. Let us know your thoughts. :rolleyes: Thanks, Allan
 
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Great job and idea.

One of the main issue with getting water behind the panel is when we open the canopy during rain. I have worked on my seal a couple of times and believe have achieved good result, perhaps a complete leak-free canopy when it is closed. But if I open it during one of those down poor, I am sure I will get a good amount of water on my instruments. The fabric cover ought to do the job for me.
 
In the post I noted that I have replaced the standard seal from the kit with a larger one, which was just a 1/4" round hollow seal that I purchased at Home Depot. I have flown in light rain several times and have not seen any water leak in. It works fine in flight but I think lets some in if it encounters standing water. The problem I have had with leaks came about on two occasions. One, the airplane was parked in Ft Lauderdale and there was an overnight downpour with high winds. I'm talking a deluge. Since a cover was on the canopy, I had not taped the seal. The wind lifted the cover a bit and the water pushed in. When I opened the canopy the next day, there was probably a cup of water on the floorboard. Some had found its way into the radio, and although i could hear, the tower reported only squealing when I transmitted.

The second occurrence happened when I was caught on arrival and landed with storms in the area. Just after I landed and taxi'd to the the ramp, the gully washer hit. Just the brief time for me to open the canopy, jump out and close the canopy put plenty of water in the area, and of course I was soaked. In hindsight I should have just sat out the 30 minutes in the cockpit.

Another time the canopy was wet after rain, and when opening it some water ran down the canopy, and of course found its way to where I didn't want it.

All of these times just made me very antsy whenever I was out and about and it rained. Particularly when camping for days at an airshow or traveling away from home and hanger. Even though I put a cover on the canopy when parked overnight. I feel that there is no longer a reasonable chance that water will impact anything. The gap in coverage at the hinges is the only weak point, but there are not instruments with 1" to either side of it. The lip of the seal flange where the foam seal is adhered protrudes 1/2" aft of the subpanel. The lip of the watershield is screwed to the subpanel underneath the overhang so any water which could possibly get past the seal would drip from the lip into the channel of the shield. I had previously made myself a fabric seal similar to that shown which seemed to work fine, except that when water puddled for a length of time then it seeped through. That was the case with the Ft. Lauderdale incident.
 
In the post I noted that I have replaced the standard seal from the kit with a larger one, which was just a 1/4" round hollow seal that I purchased at Home Depot. I have flown in light rain several times and have not seen any water leak in. It works fine in flight but I think lets some in if it encounters standing water. The problem I have had with leaks came about on two occasions. One, the airplane was parked in Ft Lauderdale and there was an overnight downpour with high winds. I'm talking a deluge. Since a cover was on the canopy, I had not taped the seal. The wind lifted the cover a bit and the water pushed in. When I opened the canopy the next day, there was probably a cup of water on the floorboard. Some had found its way into the radio, and although i could hear, the tower reported only squealing when I transmitted.

The second occurrence happened when I was caught on arrival and landed with storms in the area. Just after I landed and taxi'd to the the ramp, the gully washer hit. Just the brief time for me to open the canopy, jump out and close the canopy put plenty of water in the area, and of course I was soaked. In hindsight I should have just sat out the 30 minutes in the cockpit.

Another time the canopy was wet after rain, and when opening it some water ran down the canopy, and of course found its way to where I didn't want it.

All of these times just made me very antsy whenever I was out and about and it rained. Particularly when camping for days at an airshow or traveling away from home and hanger. Even though I put a cover on the canopy when parked overnight. I feel that there is no longer a reasonable chance that water will impact anything. The gap in coverage at the hinges is the only weak point, but there are not instruments with 1" to either side of it. The lip of the seal flange where the foam seal is adhered protrudes 1/2" aft of the subpanel. The lip of the watershield is screwed to the subpanel underneath the overhang so any water which could possibly get past the seal would drip from the lip into the channel of the shield. I had previously made myself a fabric seal similar to that shown which seemed to work fine, except that when water puddled for a length of time then it seeped through. That was the case with the Ft. Lauderdale incident.

The run off is certainly something that would need to be solved. I have envisioned something like your solution, although just for the center section with the radios. Thanks for posting, I might be in need after my plane is flying!
 
Water leaks are the only real reason to dislike a Tip-Up in my experience but according to Van's, they have never had one leak...... :confused:

I guess it doesn't rain in Oregon ;-).

I'm building a tipper, and am looking forward to the challenge of sealing this beast. Great post; it's been put into my archive as fodder for when I face the same issues. Thanks for sharing.
 
Your cover looks great but the real point of leakage on a tip up is the hinges. If the rubber seal is installed properly, the hinges will be the only place it will leak.

I always carried a roll of the blue painters tape, 1" wide, to tape the gap when parked. Tape the gap, put the canopy cover on. Even more important with a tail dragger. Worked great.

I have the rip-stop nylon cover displayed above and it does leak around the hinges. The worst was the morning after a camping trip, when I forgot to put the canopy over on. It surprised me how much water ran down the canopy into the cockpit and past the cover at the hinges.

This fiberglass cover looks nice and if you could add recesses, not cutouts, for the hinges, it might be the ticket to stop the water.
 
my original plan was to make this a single piece with recesses at the hinges, but found this to be impossible since the hinge arms actually go through the subpanel. They would be a low point- i.e. there is no way to bring the water back to the level of the drain channel, such that all the water would overflow and then drain out the recesses. You can't completely build a recess around the hinges unless you actually cut a hole in the subpanel and ran the recesses forward of the subpanel to enclose the hinge. The hinge mounts would then be the next obstacle which you could not overcome. By constructing the sections with the dam on the ends of the center section and the inboard end of the outer sections, and a drain tube for the center section, it only allows the possibility of water if it actually leaks past the canopy seal at the hinge location, and then it would only drip down where no instruments are located.
 
Website down?

Hi gang.

I'm trying to get to Flightline Interior website to order a rainguard, but it doesn't come up?

Do any of you have contact info to them? An e-mail adress for example?

Thanks!
 
Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I'll send them an e mail.

BTW: I've now tried several ways to get to their website, but it comes up that the "page cannot be displayed"....

Must be something With the entry from abroad then, since you can get in there from the US.
I'll mention this to them too.
 
Thanks for the reply. I'll send them an e mail.

BTW: I've now tried several ways to get to their website, but it comes up that the "page cannot be displayed"....

Must be something With the entry from abroad then, since you can get in there from the US.
I'll mention this to them too.
I sent them an e-mail over a week ago and have not heard anything back.
 
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