Draft blocker

[Bryan Cotton]

My seat cushions go right to the side of the airplane, and block off drafts from the wing root. When I fly aerobatics, I take them out. I have a seatpack chute. That makes for drafts, and it's cold out.

open space seat pan.png (383.34 KiB) Viewed 9919 times

You can see velcro on the edge of the seat pan, as well as above the extrusion on the side. I cut a piece of vinyl to shape and sewed velcro onto it.

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I'll try it out tomorrow!

[Skippydiesel]

I made a slightly oversized witches hat out of felt (the real stuff) for each wing root /aileron rod hole.

The height of the hat cone is a little longer than the total movement of the aileron rod.

The max diameter of the cone fits snugly in the hole with the circular brim sticking to the surrounding metal like a gasket.

The pointy top of the hat is open, just enough to make a snug fit over the aileron rod - rod can slip if needs be.

Whole thing results in a completely draft free aileron/wing root.

Leading edge of wing root / pitot/static tube entry, has a shaped piece of sound/temp. insulation sheet in place - draft free.

Would like to send photos but Forum doesn't seem to accept photos from Australia

[Murray Parr]

I have Vinyl wrapped wings and vans wing root seals resulting in no draft at all. I believe the rivets are sealed from the vinyl and the only place air can flow is through the Aileron control rod holes which probably draw air out instead of pressuring air in.

[Bryan Cotton]

Skippydiesel, I had considered a witch's hat and will probably still do that someday. Maybe at the next annual.

Murray, I should probably renew my gap seal. I use orange electrical tape and I did notice that after 190 hours it had rolled at the leading edge.

[Skippydiesel]

On my last aircraft I used Bowlus gap seal tape from https://wingsandwheels.com/tapes-seals/ ... -tape.html briliant stuff. Looks like electricians tape but soooo much better.

The Sonex has white channel rubber sealing the wing/fuselage intersection - its okay, not great. Various profiles & types of gap seal for the cockpit canopy - work well.

[Bryan Cotton]

On my last aircraft I used Bowlus gap seal tape from https://wingsandwheels.com/tapes-seals/ ... -tape.html briliant stuff. Looks like electricians tape but soooo much better.

The Sonex has white channel rubber sealing the wing/fuselage intersection - its okay, not great. Various profiles & types of gap seal for the cockpit canopy - work well.

I'm familiar with that tape. I'm a former glider pilot. I used to use electrical tape on the gliders too because I'm cheap.

My draft blocker worked pretty good. It was in the high 30s, so I need some really cold weather to further evaluate it.