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Re: Dan Olsen's questions about the efficacy of the two vents in the two
seater.

Dan, I put most of N235SP's 525 hours on it in Southern Calif. and once you
get moving, the two vents seem to be sufficient. What would really be a help
is a removable overhead sun-shade. A hangar mate with a Falco (which also
has a clear acrylic overhead) had a neat little gizmo sewn up by his wife
that takes care of the problem quite nicely. It's about an 18 inch (maybe 20
In. but could be sized for a Lancair canopy) square piece of rip-stop nylon
with a thin plastic ~1 in. wide stiffener sewed into a pocket running fore
and aft, that has small plastic suction cups attached at the corners and at
the middle of the outer edges. It's easily installed and removed. When you
unroll it and stick this thing to the canopy over your head, the cockpit
suddenly becomes very comfortable.

When waiting on the ground for take-off (or taxiing back after landing) on
sunny days regardless of outside temperature, the Lancair cockpit is a real
oven! Even though the vents seem to be fine for general cockpit temperature
control when in flight, the sun coming through the canopy can give you a
pretty good sunburn - so the two vents plus the sun shade ought to give one
all that is needed. I'm in the process right now of getting my wife to break
out the sewing machine and make a shade for me.

Dan Schaefer


[See the "Shade for the 235/320/360" article in LNN #43, P575 for a commercially available sunshade.  They're available from Van's (503-647-5117) or Cleaveland Aircraft Tool (515-432-7804) and are called
the "Kroger Sunshade".     <Marv>     ]

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