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Sunshade and New Lock Installation

Date: September, 2006

After seeing Don Herzstein's beautiful COZY MKIV at the Columbia, CA fly-in in May, my wife decided that we needed a sunshade just like Don had. I poked around a bit and found that Don had the "Koger Sunshade". I've seen them on a number of RV's, but only one or two COZY's. A couple of months ago I ordered one, and I just got around to installing it today (since I ran out of baffling material and couldn't finish the engine compartment work). It goes on reasonably easy, although there's a bit of bending and fitting to do, since all canopies are slightly different.

I will say that it's very well made and does a great job of covering the top of the canopy. It's customizable - you tell Koger the width and length you want, and he makes it for you. Mine is 30 " wide at the back and tapers to 22" wide at the front, with 4 panels (5" each, for a total of 20" from front to back). If I didn't have my compass on the canopy top, I'd have gotten another panel (5, for a total of 25" long), still 22" wide at the front.

According to Don does a terrific job of blocking the sun, and in the one flight I've had so far, it seems to do the trick. It rides on a rail down the center of the canopy and can be slid completely back out of the way over the top of the headrests. I think I paid $168 for it. It's a lot more than those slap on tinted plastic things, but you only live once.

If you're going to order one, give Koger a phone call - he doesn't check his email much, if at all.

I also installed a new keylock for the canopy latch so that I could eventually get rid of the stupid fuselage door, which leaks both water and air like a sieve. I drilled a hole in the fuselage in the appropriate position after a bit of test fitting and verified that the latch on the backside blocked the handle from moving when in the locked position. Bingo - $20 gets a canopy latching scheme that doesn't need the fuselage door. Now I just need to mount a couple of small tabs to let me easily lift the canopy from the outside.

I used McMaster-Carr Part Number 1682-A21. You could probably use one that was slightly shorter if you recess the key into the outside of the fuselage. I might do that - what I've got now is just a test fitting until I permanently remove the door.

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