window material and installation

[Ralph Baker]

The standard window material sent by MAM is Lexan. It is tough as nails
but clouds with continued UV exposure. It is also damaged by gasoline
if I remember correctly. I did not want to be in a crash with a jammed
door and not be able to kick it out. For that and the better optical
performance we decided to use Plexiglass (acrylic). No problem in opera
and cabin roof as the plexi can float in the mountings. It is mandatory
that it be able to expand and contract or it will crack wherever there
is a stress introduced. That's why the windshield floats in its
retainer.

The difficuly was how to fasten (rivet) the window flashing without
compressing the acrylic as well. Finally ended up using a stack of
three small OD washers (an NAS part number found at Sun&Fun) that would
fit around a RV-1410 rivet and float in a drilled hole (5/16" I think)
in the acrylic. The stack was tall enough that the washer stack took
all the rivet pulling force and secured the flashing rigidly. Time will
tell but so far in the shop (not flying yet) no cracks and great
clarity.
Ralph Baker



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