Todd's Canopies

[jpolenek]

Is anybody out there in regular contact with Todd the canopy guy. I've tried to email some questions to him a few times, at the e-address given on his website, but no reply. Maybe somebody on this forum can answer the questions.

-Are his canopy shapes limited to "bubbles" or can he drape-mold over a custom-shaped plug.

-Does drape-moulding create a lot of optical distortion?

-What's the canopy size limit (length x girth)

 

Thanks

Joe

[TMann]

Give him a little time to reply and he will. I just got my canopy from him about a month ago and it was a real smooth & fast deal.

 

As far as any custom work, he can handle it.

 

Unless you are trying for more headroom or something, the standard canopy plug should work for you. Any deviations in appearance would controlled by you, the builder (and effect the way you cut the canopy.)

 

My only suggestion.......get the address for the check from Todd's website. I pulled an address from one of the 'supplier lists' on another site, which was out of date and caused a short delay.

[jpolenek]

Unless you are trying for more headroom or something, the standard canopy plug should work for you.

Does he drape it over a plug? I thought the spherical shapes he creates were made by vacuum-drawing the plastic through a big hole that's the shape of the canopy's contour, so the equal vacuum pressure on the plastic sheet is what gives the perfect bubble shape, rather than actual physical contact with a plug.

If he can drape-mould non-spherical shapes, that's good news for me. I'm throwing around the idea of a custom canopy that's not spherical but flatter at the top. One of Bingelis' books illustrates the concept, and it's used by some side-by-side homebuilts (DF, KR2S) to give more sideways headroom.

 

Joe

[TMann]

You need to talk to Todd. All his contact information is on his site including his cell number. He may be at Sun N' Fun this week.

http://www.toddscanopies.com/

[Jerry Schneider]

Todd was at SNF yesterday.

Not sure of his schedule.

[Steve Innova]

Todd Silver made me a larger, custom canopy. No complaints. It took a long time b/c he had to rebuild his equipment b/c my order was too large for his existing rig. But now he can make even bigger canopies.

 

His canopies are free-blown. If you wanted to drap mold a canopy, you'd need to make an (optically perfect) plug. That would take a long long long long time to do, just right.

 

Airplane Plastics in Ohio makes drape-molded canopies. But if you're going that route, you'd do better to buy a canopy from another kit, like the lancair or perhaps one of the many new LSA designs that have large canopies.

[jpolenek]

Airplane Plastics in Ohio makes drape-molded canopies.

Do you have any contact information (like a URL)? I can't seem to find them on the net.

Joe

[Marc Zeitlin]

Do you have any contact information (like a URL)? I can't seem to find them on the net.

See:

 

http://www.cozybuilders.org/newsletters/suppliers.html

[TMann]

Todds site is located here >> Todds Canopies

Marc.....you might want to update the address for Todd's. The address you have is for his X-wife. (which is where I mailed my check! )