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Custom-made windshield (and repairing plexiglass)

A lot of the glider canopies are done by Mecaplex in Switzerland.
€1500 seems a fair price. Glider canopies are 1500-2000 (not mounted) for single seater or 2-seater with individual canopies.
I would expect 1 piece canopies for tandem 2 seaters like DuoDiscus or Arcus to be at least 3k€.

Nympsfield, United Kingdom

There is a German (?) firm which always has a stand at Aero Friedrichshafen and which had been mentioned for Socata TB windscreens. I spoke to them this year and they said they no longer do them because they only ever sold 1…

One day I would like to install the thicker (about 6mm) one because there is a lot of vibration on that item from the propeller airflow, and it may well reduce cockpit noise a bit.

I am told the installation requires a lot of skill.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Yes, installing bonded-in sailplane style plexiglass is a giant PIA. Generally it involves cutting out all but a rim, then grinding back to the glue slowly, obviously preserving the frame. Then the new part has to be trimmed accurately and Cleco’d before bonding it in – at least that’s the way I’ve seen it done. Damaging the Plexi anywhere through the whole process is a risk.

Generally a company in the transparency business keeps the tooling for anything they’ve ever done (it is their primary business asset) so they rarely will say they “no longer do them” because a substantial proportion of their business is built to order and involves pulling tooling. I would expect that any statement to that effect means they have production orders to keep them busy and aren’t doing any one offs at all.

The tooling for the parts I bought from Weiss pre-dated anybody working there, and they had no idea why they had it. I explained that the detail design of the plane was done 10 km away from their original facility, the designer lived and built the prototype even closer, and it might just be possible they supplied the OEM parts Since the tooling was OEM (whether they knew it or not) the parts fit well.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 21 Sep 19:13
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