Windshield

Good morning from a rainy Slovenia!

Our shop is backed up with the usual autumn peak orders so there is not really a huge amount of free time to work on the Aero.

No time yet for the fabric covering of the centersection, altough some details were finalised on it. Fabric however takes a few days of concentrated effort that must be done in a stretch.

Anyway, we did (almost) finish a nice piece - the windshield.

In previous posts you can see that the metal part was in primer and interior gray was sprayed on the inside. Now it was time to fit the transparencies.

First a SolidEdge draft was made and printed out in 1:1 scale. Then this sheet of paper was cut and and test fitted to frame to check for accuracy. Then the files were sent out to the plexiglass shop for cutting.

After the plexiglass was delivered it was fitted to the frame. Slow and careful work is in order here.

This is the finished piece. Notice the system for cleaning the windshield on the bottom of the windscreen. This hooks up to the fuel system and sprays fuel on the glass.

The two remaining items are the leather seal, for which we are still waiting the material and the other is the handgrip for the student pilot when entering the aircraft. This is the original one.

To make it look like it just came out from the shop, we would have to replace the leather, and the bushing on the metal part. However then it occured to me that I really do not want this part replaced or restored. Every pilot that whenever flew this aircraft gripped this handle. So I really do not want to replace this. A bit of cleaning some touchups and now we have a legacy centerpiece in a most prominent place in the aircraft. Sometime one should not do everything one can.

See you!