• PiperForum.com is a vibrant community of Piper owners and pilots. Our over 1,500+ active members use Piper Forum to swap technical knowledge, plan meetups and sell planes/parts. We host technical knowledge of general aviation topics and specific topics on J3-Cubs, Cherokees, Comanches, Pacers and more. In addition to an instant community of pilots for you, PiperForum.com is a library of technical topics, airplane builds, images, technical manuals, technical documents and more.

    Access to PiperForum.com is subscription based. Subscriptions are only $49.99/year or $6.99/month to gain access to this great community and unmatched library of Piper knowledge.

    Click Here to Become a Subscribing Member and Access PiperForum.com in Full!

Glareshield heat issue...

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CaptTH

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 22, 2017
Messages
922
Reaction score
422
I fly a Tomahawk and unfortunately live in a area where the temp in summer season generally over 90F almost everyday until noon and over 100F during the afternoons.
So, I don't know if they are all made of the same material but that thin, flimsy, black colored glareshield in my plane turns into a flat grill plate 10 minutes after I pull the plane out of my hangar. I mean, I can brake an egg on it and make a perfect omelette.
That material becomes so hot, it can give you a second degree burn if you place your hand on it for 15 seconds.

I don't have an idea how much of that heat goes thru that flimsy material and negatively effects the instruments/avionics below the glareshield or if there's an insulation of some sort under the glareshield. In any case my avionics (SL30 and SL60) was getting too hot.

So as a preventive method I used one of those silver folding windshield over the glareshield at one of my stops last weekend. Plane sit at the tarmac for an hr at 102F day under direct sun and just before I taxi to the runway to fly back at home I removed that silver sunshield and the glareshield was as if it was sitting in my hangar the all day. Cool and cool.

So, it gave me an idea. What if I get the same material used on those sunshields and customize it to fit on top of my glareshield to prevent overheating.
My plan is just to lay it on top of the glareshield maybe hold by some Velcro at the edges and middle.

I already ordered a avionics fan but my A&P is so busy he said he can't install it until after August 15. But I am planning a long cross country from CA-OR-WA-ID and back before that time.
So do you guys see any problem with my poor man's cool the dash (glareshield) and behind the panel solution?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top