New Canopy Strap

New Canopy Strap

Postby N111YX » Mon May 13, 2013 10:56 pm

I have heard of the possibility of the failure of the factory cable that retains the canopy when open. It may be possible because the way the cable is stressed at the swaged point. I made a new "soft" system that is lighter and I believe more predictable to inspect for potential failure. It's made from one inch pilot chute lanyard from the local drop zone. A rigger overlapped the ends then stitched it. I used a soldering iron to burn the holes for the same screws that held the cable. I made a couple of aluminum covers that cinch it all down. Works great and does not scratch any interior paint...
Attachments
Strap1.jpg
Strap1.jpg (101.17 KiB) Viewed 11243 times
Strap2.jpg
Strap2.jpg (66.65 KiB) Viewed 11243 times
Strap3.jpg
Strap3.jpg (77.78 KiB) Viewed 11243 times
Last edited by N111YX on Tue May 14, 2013 10:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Kip

2010 Waiex 0082 (first flight May 2010)
Jabiru 3300 #1637 and #3035
Dynon D-180
Becker radios
Garmin GDL 82 ADS-B
1050 hours
48 states visited
Based near Atlanta

Also flying a...
2000 Kolb Firestar II, Rotax 503, 575 hours
N111YX
 
Posts: 705
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:43 am
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby N111YX » Mon May 13, 2013 10:58 pm

Here's a look at the old cable unloaded...clearly stressed.
Attachments
Strap4.jpg
Strap4.jpg (55.04 KiB) Viewed 11242 times
Kip

2010 Waiex 0082 (first flight May 2010)
Jabiru 3300 #1637 and #3035
Dynon D-180
Becker radios
Garmin GDL 82 ADS-B
1050 hours
48 states visited
Based near Atlanta

Also flying a...
2000 Kolb Firestar II, Rotax 503, 575 hours
N111YX
 
Posts: 705
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:43 am
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

New Canopy Strap

Postby Sonex1517 » Tue May 14, 2013 12:32 pm

You just needed ANOTHER excuse to go to the DZ....


Robbie
Sonex 1517

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Aero Estates (T25)
First flight 10/10/2015
325+ hours
Jabiru 3300 Gen 4
Prince P Tip
Taildragger
N1517S
User avatar
Sonex1517
 
Posts: 1649
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:11 am
Location: Chicagoland

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby 142YX » Sun Jun 14, 2015 3:06 pm

About to do this step and never looked at the details until now. Kip, I like your strap idea.

Do people really put a 3/16" AN525 screw through that 1/4" tooling hole in the turtle deck bulkhead per the plans? Seems like a really odd thing to do.. Worried about that hole getting worked really bad over the years. Anybody up-size it for a tight fit?
Waiex # 142 - Taildragger, Jabiru 3300
First Flight - July 13th, 2015
450 hours and counting..
User avatar
142YX
 
Posts: 263
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:18 pm

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby dtwolcott » Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:12 am

To 142YX
I used a bushing that was an 1/4 OD and a 3/16 ID with a flange on one end. Found mine at the fly market at Oshkosh last year.
Don
Waiex 132 N132YX
3MY
dtwolcott
 
Posts: 108
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:26 am

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby N111YX » Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:45 am

The tooling hole does not seem to get stressed. There is just not much relative pressure on it and it's pretty strong. When my canopy caught the wind like a parachute, the canopy frame was bent pretty good and the plexiglas was trashed but the tooling hole un-fazed. I would not worry about it personally but a small doubler in the area may make some engineering types sleep better... :D
Kip

2010 Waiex 0082 (first flight May 2010)
Jabiru 3300 #1637 and #3035
Dynon D-180
Becker radios
Garmin GDL 82 ADS-B
1050 hours
48 states visited
Based near Atlanta

Also flying a...
2000 Kolb Firestar II, Rotax 503, 575 hours
N111YX
 
Posts: 705
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:43 am
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby GordonTurner » Mon Jun 15, 2015 2:08 pm

I think I remember reading about this before, but have experimenters already had poor misfortune with using a gas strut in lieu of strap? Alternatively, what would you think of a carefully designed over-center kind of strut to hold the canopy more rigidly in the open position?
Waiex 158 New York. N88YX registered.
3.0 Liter Corvair built, run, and installed.
Garmin panel, Shorai LiFePo batteries.
GordonTurner
 
Posts: 644
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:14 am
Location: NY, NY

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby LarryEWaiex121 » Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:26 pm

Kip,

You seem to know what I need, right when I need it most. Went out flying last night and as I was pulling the cable to tip the canopy, I felt the sharp jab of frayed cable. At the end of the swag she is giving up the ghost at almost 4 yrs.
Good job.

Larry
LarryEWaiex121
 
Posts: 212
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:53 pm

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby N111YX » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:01 pm

Just following up...after two years the "soft strap" looks as new. Skydiving materials tend to be of high quality as much of it is TSO'd.

:)

LarryEWaiex121 wrote:Kip,

You seem to know what I need, right when I need it most. Went out flying last night and as I was pulling the cable to tip the canopy, I felt the sharp jab of frayed cable. At the end of the swag she is giving up the ghost at almost 4 yrs.
Good job.

Larry
Kip

2010 Waiex 0082 (first flight May 2010)
Jabiru 3300 #1637 and #3035
Dynon D-180
Becker radios
Garmin GDL 82 ADS-B
1050 hours
48 states visited
Based near Atlanta

Also flying a...
2000 Kolb Firestar II, Rotax 503, 575 hours
N111YX
 
Posts: 705
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:43 am
Location: Atlanta, GA USA

Re: New Canopy Strap

Postby DCASonex » Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:14 am

GordonTurner wrote:I think I remember reading about this before, but have experimenters already had poor misfortune with using a gas strut in lieu of strap? Alternatively, what would you think of a carefully designed over-center kind of strut to hold the canopy more rigidly in the open position?


Linkage sounds like good idea, looking into that just went to top of my to-do list.

As to the original question on that over-sized hole. use large washers each side, tighten down with nut, then add the eye of the strap and secure with elastic stop nut left loose enough for eye to turn.

David A.
DCASonex
 
Posts: 900
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:04 pm
Location: Western NY USA

Next

Return to Technical Write-Ups and FAQs

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests