How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

[wingman]

Recent posts from Laminar and Mike Nixon have commented on the remarkable on site repair job done after Strega's canopy exploded on Tuesday. Birgitta happened to end up in remarkable places during this drama (as usual), and got some pictures of the various players as things unfolded.

First the Mayday itself. Strega taxied in clean with nothing immediately obviously wrong. Tiger walks in from the left...

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

The crew chief discussing matters with Matt, and Matt considering the state of his dream...

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

On the long walk back to the pit, Dennis Sanders offers a ray of hope. Dennis already has phone in hand...

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Another look at the damage, and a shot of the airplane the next day with canopy partly disassembled.

[supercub]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Does the canopy just mate up with the windshield.....ie: plexiglas to plexiglas......Do they seal the seam of the two mating surfaces....and if so, how do they seal it? Thanks
Brian

[Race5]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Does the canopy just mate up with the windshield.....ie: plexiglas to plexiglas......Do they seal the seam of the two mating surfaces....and if so, how do they seal it? Thanks
Brian

It used to just mate up plexi to plexi. There was no "seal" beyond having a really good fit between the two halves. When they installed the new canopy, Andy Chiavette made a really nice carbon fiber canopy bow / seal. Voodoo and 232 have an aluminum canopy bow at the windshield / canopy interface and Rare Bear used to have what looked like a fiberglass bow. I didn't pay attention to what they had on the new canopy this year.

[BuckyD]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

"BRAVO!"~Birgitta for this historic Strega photo-doc capture set! (& Big Thx~Neal for posting these remarkable shots)

"TWO Thumbs-UP!" The first trio of pics are especially-amazing...Thanks for being-there, B!!!

DBD

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Thank you, Buck. There are some more, I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

Birgitta has a quite remarkable nose for news. She just seems to consistently be in interesting places when interesting things are happening. She is utterly professional in her approach to shooting an event, and her results are quite unlike what anybody else is doing. It was a real pleasure to work my way through her stuff this year -- I learned a lot about the event...

Here's Matt Jackson with Jack Rousch in the Strega pit on Thursday morning, while Andy was working on the canopy down the ramp:

Neal

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Down in the Sport Class hangar Andy Chiavetta was working away.

Andy is a world class expert in composite materials, and especially carbon fiber construction. He and Darryl Greenamyer have been partners in a firm called Aerochia for several years. Andy has designed a very effective series of mods to the Lancair Legacy -- used on Darryl's #33 as well as several other fast runners in the class. The canopy can be seen behind Andy...

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

In a few minutes Matt Jackson and Darryl turn up to check things out. Darryl looks like he has more confidence in Andy's work than Matt...

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Dave Morss stops in, as Andy continues to work away...

[CJAM427]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Another look at the damage, and a shot of the airplane the next day with canopy partly disassembled.

I noticed this before when it was happening and fail to ask, but why did they take the bottom of the cowl off?

Thanks for sharing these pics Neal; super cool!

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

I'm glad y'all are enjoying these. There's more in this thread than I usually post of one subject, but these are so good I thought there'd be interest in the whole set.

Here are two final shots of Andy working, and one of the whole canopy at this stage of redo. The guy on the right is named Paulo Iscold. He is a Professor of "airplane design, flight tests, and applied aerodynamics" at a University in Brazil (I think). He is part of a team designing a remarkable looking new composite airplane. He says he's been aware of Andy's work since the early days of #33, but never actually met him til this year. He jumped at the chance to help, and to get a better sense of how Andy works. I quote:

"Andy is an artist, and I learned a lot with him! He works fast and precisely, and it was a tremendous lesson to see him working on that plane. Besides, it's not everyday that you can work on a Mustang, especially a racer one! Andy worked with the Strega team the night before to fit the new plastic canopy. On Thursday we started at 10 AM, stopped to race #42 in Sport Class at 1 PM and then back to work. Andy finished his work at 3 AM.

What he did was a new frame to connect the windshield and the canopy -- almost like a roll-over bar, but not strong to act like that."



Neal

[wingman]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

It all worked...

[MIKE NIXON]

Re: How did Strega's canopy get fixed?

Some of the steps in the process were:
LD and the team had a cold one.
Then the new parts arrived from Sanders.
The frame was inspected after the old plexi was removed and found servicable.
No damage to fin or turtleback.
The new canopy had about 12" extra all around but a test fit showed it would not match the old front.
By 11 that night a plan was in place and we got some sleep.
In the morning (Wed) the front screen was replaced.
The rest of the day was spent removing smaller and smaller amounts of plexi fron the Canopy.
In aviation you don't get many "do-overs".
Once it was close (late night) Andy helped with the final fitting.
The next day was the design, makeing of the carbon fiber mating part and installing it.
Once it was all ready the plexi with sealer and hardware was installed.
Friday as the sun rose over the mountains to the east,
Strega taxied out for the test flight.
And then, as they say (whoever they were) the rest was history.
Pop to flight was ******hours and ******min.
As amazing feat by a great bunch of air racers who represent the best this nation has to offer.
MN