Badland Part 103 Pilots and Builders Forum

The windscreen installation procedure calls for small screws thru the polycarbonate onto the 0.25" laminations of the "Badland" (butt) ribs over the top of the cockpit. To get a little more material for the fasteners, I epoxied in a length of 0.25" Spruce cap strip to the top inside of the ribs. Picture to follow.

I ordered a 30mm prop spacer ( to provide clearance for the prop from the front edge of the cowling). The extender is only 5 oz and is due via USPS by this weekend. I can then do a better job of positioning the cowl to mark for trimming.

AS promised ... cap strip pictures ...


After sanding and painting ...


Prop extender due via USPS tomorrow, so I once again clamped the cowl in rough position. the stb side exhaust piping and the electric starter motor on the fwd port side seem to be the worst offenders. Come Sunday with the extender in position I'll really have to bite the bullet and start trimming .. still a scary task.

Kurt, I like the cap strips on the butt rib. That should provide some nice "bite" for the mounting of the screen. Once thing you may need to do is lower the butt ribs once you are ready to affix the windscreen to reduce the gap between the plastic and the top of the wing. Typically the overlap of windscreen over the wing is a few millimeters, but with the cap strip you are likely going to end up with quite a bit more.

The other option might be to let the windscreen overhang the wing a bit more than originally intended (assuming you have the extra width on the material - is the windscreen precut these days? I had to cut my own out of a roll of the material). The extra overlap would likely help minimize drag at the joint, if you can make it work.