Steve's Aircraft Skylight STC

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Hello All,

E-mailed the new drawing package, installation instructions, ectetera to my FAA guy today. Now it is a matter of waiting for approval.

Brian

[smcnutt]

Rex sat in my Pacer today and decided the extended sky light might be too much sun for the Texas summer 8-)

Never seen a skylight installed so I don't know if theirs rooom but has anyone ever looked at putting some sort of retractable shade with the skylight mod? Might be way out in left field on this but it was just a thought.

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Never seen a skylight installed so I don't know if theirs rooom but has anyone ever looked at putting some sort of retractable shade with the skylight mod? Might be way out in left field on this but it was just a thought.

The Pacers fabric former channels that wind up being used for the skylight mounting has a few standoffs that are welded vertically from the cross tubes. These standoff's are in the way for any type of retractable shade. Although, I have been thinking about some way to do that recently. We do the Annuals on a 2005 Maule and it has a retractable shade just like you have described. That aircraft has a large skylight with nothing in the way for the shade to work. I am going to look at the Pacer frame we have and see if I can design something that would work similarly that can be installed with our skylight STC. For now though, we use one of those static cling tinting shades that you can buy for cars that are made for your baby sitting in the back seat.

Brian.

[Stephen]

The idea that a skylite will cause over heating in the cockpit seems a little over blown. Think of how many very popular low wing planes exist with full plexi glass canopies and continue to remain popular. I really don't think that a "little old "skylite is going to be that much of a problem. I had a skylite in my J-3 and flew if for years in So Cal, with no problems. Proper ventalitaion is the key, which is really not much of a problem is our planes. Use refletive material is it seems to be a problem. The improvement in visibility with a skylite in our shortwingers during a turn is truly remarkable.

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

For smcnutt:

Straight from our website.





http://www.stevesaircraft.com/skylightstc.php

The pictures are of our 1956 PA22/20. Skylight length is the standard length that we got approved in 1986. Note the vertical supports that are welded to the cross tubes up to the horizontal channel. These are factory stand offs. I have recently applied for an amendment to be able to get the skylight length either at the length in the pictures or to the rear spar carry through tube. We will modify ours to the extended length when we redo our fuselage.

Brian.

[pa23pilot]

hi i am doing a pa-17 can i use your sts?
thanks
doc

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Our skylight STC is not approved on the PA-17. At the moment it is only approved on the PA-16, PA-20, and PA-22 series aircraft.

Brian.

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Doc,

Was just looking at the PA-17 drawings. From what I can tell the upper frame is pretty much the same as the PA-16, 20 and 22's. I need to do a little more research as to dimentions, but it may be an easy one to get included into the STC.

Brian.

[pa23pilot]

let me know.
thanks
doc

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Just to let you all know, I have received approval on the skylight at either the 21 or 32 inch lengths. This is either at just in front of the speaker, or at the rear spar carry through tube. I also got approval of installation of the skylight in PA-15 and PA-17 Vagabonds at either length.

The STC is now approved for:

PA-15
PA-16, PA16S
PA-17
PA-20, PA-20S, PA-20 "115", PA-20S "115", PA-20 "135", PA-20S "135
PA-22, PA-22-108, PA-22-135, PA-22S-135, PA-22-150, PA-22S-150, PA-22-160, PA-22S-160

This is a paperwork only STC and does not include any material for the installation.
Thanks.

Brian.