Head in the clouds

Oh hell, I'm gutted. Sincerest condolences to loved ones. RIP Ross.

Quite possibly, though if you're not tall and don't weigh much, as I don't, then by the time you have used half your weight pressing down to lift the nosewheel off so that it can turn, you don't have sufficient weight on your feet for traction. So in my case it's not lack of strength that's the problem, it's lack of traction.

It's been pointed out to me that it's a Gazelle not a Skyfox hence no tailwheel, so I'm wondering why the standard nosewheel towbar method doesn't work? If you don't have one it shouldn't cost much to have one made up in a metalworker's shop. The first three are images with an idea of cost from a net search for "nose wheel tow bar". If you post a picture of your nosewheel Debra, we could see how a standard one of these could be converted to fit your plane? You do have to [provide the effort to shove it around though, but it's much easier than trying to push down on the tail and shove it at the same time, better for the plane too - These next pics show powered varieties of plane movers, the first has been custom made using a 12V gearmotor and rubber donuts which rub on, and drive the nosewheel while you steer it with a towbar like the ones above. The gearmotors can be had by online purchase for about $100 and a mechanical shop might be interested in making the rest up for you. The second one is an electrically driven (probably 12V rechargeable) buggy that clips onto your nosewheel and lifts it off the ground to give weight and hence traction to the buggy wheels, they're about $1000 last time I looked. The third one is similar but the nosewheel rests on the buggy and there is a locking device to hold it there, they were about $1600 IIRC. (Click on the images to enlarge them) EDIT - apologies Robbo, you beat me to it, but they're a bit expensive now aren't they? I actually drew one up some years ago that would run off a small motorcycle battery. I might dig out the CAD files and see what it would cost to have the parts laser cut. There would have to be a market, I guess, and they wouldn't be anywhere near that price.

It's OK Facto, I'm just an insensitive oaf sometimes. Trouble is I don't get any political correctness training at home, my wife and I are just a normal old-fashioned couple. The last week has produced some good examples of that. Monday 4:30am, I'm in the toilet, my sweetheart screams in the shower. I imagine she's being stabbed Psycho-style, or has fallen and cut her head or something. It's just a huntsman spider, although a largish one, about the size of your hand. I used to be quite a hunter but don't like killing anything these days. In fact if it was just me all spiders would be welcome in the house, they eat mozzies which I hate - might be something to do with my Malaria and Ross River ... I digress ... I chase the spider around the bathroom and eventually gently contain it with a chinese food container, slip a piece of card under it and take it down the paddock to release it. I go a fair distance because I'm sure it's the same one I re-homed from the pantry the day before. Tuesday 5:00am, I'm in the shower this time, my sweetheart screams, I come running out naked and dripping - apologies for the imagery - there's a roach exploring the kitchen and darling is standing atop a chair. I see that it's groggy (the roach) so I mention that it must have dined on the roach bait. I'm rewarded with a hateful glare - was I to know she'd actually been brave enough to approach within a metre and empty a full can of insecticide at it? I pick up the offending beast and drop it in the bin, spend five minutes washing the floor, that insecticide is slippery stuff! Gladly it's summer and warm but the same happens in mid winter, then she gets me out of the shower by turning on the hot water in the kitchen and freezing me out of the shower. Thursday 5:15am I'm about to get dressed, sweetheart screams, it's a brown snake in the downstairs laundry this time. Later the same day she had a little weep and needs comforting because Fred the python has returned to live in the rafters of the verandah and the possums that live in the roof and the kookaburras and the pied butcher birds, Maggie the magpie and about three hundred lorikeets all have new babies who are so trusting that one of them is sure to get eaten and how's she going to protect them all at once? So as you see Nev, there's no 'blokey' sort of stuff around here, no time for it in fact, anyway, gotta go she needs the heavy laundry basket carried downstairs ... Just finished typing this and was busy extracting tongue from cheek when Debbie's reply popped up. You sound like one of the world's lovely sensible ladies Debbie, there should be more like you. Actually I've been giving a bit of thought to your plane moving problem as being a rather little-ass type I've had the same problems with all the aircraft I've had to handle. I think the biggest issue is having to lift the tail while also pulling and pushing. A trailer (the type you tow behind a car) is a similar thing. Due to having an easily injured back I can't lift the towbar and manoeuvre the heavy trailer around easily but it's not at all difficult with a large (oversized) jockey wheel that castors easily. If I was you I'd build ( or have someone build) a cradle on four large castoring wheels, preferably with pneumatic tyres. The idea is that you lift the tailwheel onto the cradle and it is secured there somehow, perhaps it drops into a depression, or maybe it just sits on the top and has a strap over the spring. The castoring wheels would need to be set perhaps 800mm apart for stability. Then you just need a handle hooked onto the castoring cart and you could pull the plane around, uphill, around corners, wherever, without having to lift at the same time. Arranged like that it's also much easier to be able to pull it around and also be able to look in all directions to check you're not going to bang the wings on the hangar door. Having a track/path to follow drawn on the ground helps too.

I expect you're right facto, and I will let this be a lesson on how easy it is to offend some of those among us. I should probably apologise to those wilting violets, but I just can't bring myself to do it ... > > > > Though I will mention my heartfelt regret and offer my sincerest apology to any females out there, if my post inadvertently caused them some angst - sorry ladies .

Probably because there are so few men in it with a sense of humour. Heavens rank, you're one of the dourer of us but I thought you still had a life ... do you seriously think ladies would be put off by a bit of spirited male humour? IMH experience the only ladies who consider flying are plenty equipped to deal with a bit of friendly ribbing - YMMV

No, no, no, no, no - it wasn't me, I'm an eight stone weakling - I even had to build a railway to move a Jetranger around ... But my odd sense of humour just reckoned a wee south island lassie like Debbie might prefer to check the classifieds than going to those extremes.

Classifieds - Wanted Strong man with big muscles seeks petite mature lady for fun times - with a view to long term relationship. Must enjoy flying in small planes - SOH essential. Please send a photo of aircraft to ....

Yes, well I didn't want to be the first to say it, but it does rather look that way. Some years ago I was based in a remote area operating a corporate Jetranger. I lived in a beach-house on an island in the middle of a large bay and the hangar was just behind my house. The owner of the machine lived on another island about 20mins away and I was usually called at short notice at any time. It was a very corrosive environment so the machine had to be hangared even for short periods and not being a large person I found it very difficult to install the wheels and manhandle the machine down a couple of cement strips to the pad outside the hangar quickly enough to avoid disappointing the owner. I devised a small railway that I could build with mostly local materials left over from building projects, all I had to order was the flanged wheels. By landing directly onto the carriage it was just a minute or so to roll it into or out of the hangar, I even built 'stations' for refuelling, arming (a lot of the operations were hunting, shooting, fishing, ceremonial, coastwatch and anti-poaching) and victualling. It rolled so easily that we made a video of my partner's 5 year old daughter rolling it in and out. Landing on the carriage was a challenge especially in the afternoons due to turbulence from the sea-breeze blowing over the hangar and if you ended up unsteady in the hover like the above video shows it was best to move away, take a few deep breaths and come back for another go. Most carriages require a very accurate positioning of the skids, on mine it was within about 6"/150mm fore and aft and about the same laterally, and though I made them with kindly steel-faced sloped sides, it was critically important not to trip over the wheel guards which were inside the landing surfaces, like a central hump. The edges of the carriage had sloping skirts which ran within an inch of the ground to avoid having a trip or pinch point also. It looked sufficiently like one, that the aborigines called it the 'turtle'. In that locality I didn't have the means to make an automatic locking system for the carriage so I made a pair of oversize drop-bolts, one each end of the carriage, which were painted in red and yellow stripes. When it was not locked the bolts protruded upward through the carriage about 6"/150mm. When it was locked they disappeared, so when you were doing your final walk-around before departure if you didn't see bright red and yellow warning signs then the carriage was safely locked. Perhaps it was just because I made it and I'm also a pedantically cautious person, but I never had a problem with discovering I'd not locked it. That's not to say we didn't have problems though. When I was due for annual leave we hired a line pilot to fill in for me. He wasn't a novice, having several thousand hours and among other places had experience in Antarctica, Peru, Saudi and with some quite challenging operations like Tuna spotting, offshore marine pilot transfers and powerline inspections. I trained him in the use of the carriage before letting him loose of course and the first two times he rolled the machine out he failed to lock the carriage before boarding for engine start ... ! We always thought that at least the landings were safe because the carriage was locked on departure and left outside until the return. While I was away he apparently didn't have any departure problems but did land on the carriage with it unlocked. Gladly he noticed it moving before he'd lowered the collective and flew off again to land alongside on the grass. He probably wouldn't have mentioned it except that most ops attracted a few indigenous spectators. What had happened was that the gardener had kindly decided to mow the grass around the helipad and had moved the carriage to trim the edges. He'd moved it back but didn't lock it again. The pilot just didn't notice the red and yellow stripes again. I'm not pointing any fingers though, we can all be blind or deaf to very clearly obvious warnings when under stress or distracted. There's a well known YouTube video filmed from inside the cabin showing a pilot and pax landing wheels-up on a strip in the mountains, looks like Austria or Switzerland. The gear warning horn was blaring away for what seemed like minutes beforehand but he didn't notice it.

It seems to me that there are some issues of lack of basic understanding of non-coordinated flight showing themselves here. No doubt there will always be the two schools of thought about how to manage landings with a crosswind, either crabbing on final or slipping on final. I guess the choice is up to the individual, but it appears to me it's a lot like those who choose to drive cars with an automatic transmission compared to those who choose a manual gearbox. With an auto you can drive an auto, with a manual you can drive anything ... Whilst I wouldn't bother slipping all the way down a long final I'd certainly be stabilised in the slip in a minor crosswind by the time I reached 100ft AGL and earlier when the crosswind is stronger. Certainly those only flying tri-gear aircraft can get away with crabbing to the roundout and then giving a stab at the rudder to get something like lined-up with the runway because having the main-wheels behind the CG pulls the whole thing straight once they touch but it's a bit of an untidy affair in my opinion. At the very least also getting the windward wing down in the round-out means that the windward main-wheel touches first and it has the greater effect on pulling the rig straight ... gladly even if you make a mess of it in a tri-gear it invariably ends up OK because of the natural stability of having the point(s) of resistance (main-wheels) behind the point of rotation (CG). But - if you use the same approach with a taildragger which has a natural instability, the mains being ahead of the CG, and get the timing wrong when stabbing at the pedal, or do too much or too little of it, it can get way too exciting far too quickly, so for tail-dragger flyers it's really essential to be fully proficient at flying with crossed controls, not only that but be fully conversant with the effects, and potential effects, of what you're doing. There is absolutely no reason for people to fear a stall or wing drop while slipping on final, not only should it be well ingrained to avoid stalling while slipping, it's not a nasty thing if it does happen. Before rushing into howls of protest folks, just remember that's it's the skidding that's dangerous, not the slipping. Skidding is pro-spin, slipping is anti-spin - and recognition of the difference between them is very easy - if you're un-coordinated and using 'bottom-rudder' you're skidding (eg banked/turning to the left and using right stick with lots of left rudder - the classic scenario for a stall/spin when trying to tighten the Base/Final turn with rudder if overshooting the runway centreline, usually due to having a tailwind on Base) - and if you're un-coordinated and using 'top-rudder' you're slipping (eg banked to the left and using left stick and right rudder - used for traversing sideways into a crosswind to maintain a flightpath along the runway centreline, whilst also keeping the longitudinal axis aligned with the runway). So make yourself a rule - avoid 'bottom-rudder'. If the slipping-on-final technique is adopted, alignment with the runway and direction of travel is established and stabilised very early in the landing phase and so there is no need to suddenly de-stabilise everything in the last few seconds while you're busy during the round-out. And there's no more likelihood of stalling during the slip (which is anti-spin anyway) than when crabbing because you ought to be flying your sightline which, hopefully, is nose downward toward the runway. Unfortunately many folks just decide to avoid the whole slipping thing because they found it difficult and never properly mastered it during training, consequently they then go on to limit themselves to tri-gear aircraft, accept a clumsy stab at the pedals as being the best they can do and remain forever nervous of cross-winds. The sad thing about that is that it's really easy to become fully proficient at crossed-control handling without ever leaving the ground. When I was teaching we used to spend a fair bit of time with all of our students running up and down the runway on one wheel, starting in calm conditions and switching between wheels several times on each run. With two or three runs each training session they could all do it easily and without losing any directional control when swapping sides, in most conditions and always well before solo. Here are a couple of old pics from that era of Wayne Fisher doing it in a Drifter, you can do it with a tri-gear too, with the nose-wheel just off the ground, just keep the speed down and don't extend any flap - to prevent it flying off. If you're nervous about it at first go to a big airfield where it doesn't matter if you get out of line, until you have the hang of it -

How time flies - two months since the last report ... It's my busiest time of the year for the day job so there hasn't been a lot of time to devote to DooMaw. Nonetheless scratching hours here and there and the odd full day has resulted in some continued progress, though much slower than it was. Work usually eases up for me over the Christmas and New year period so for a while things should speed up again then. I cut all the cross-members and bracing then descaled, painted, notched, fitted and tacked them. By a couple of weeks ago I had welded out all I could get at without turning the airframe so it was time to unchain it from the jig and roll it this way and that on the bench. On Saturday I completed the last fuselage structural cluster weld. The contortions required to get at many of them far exceeded the hardest calisthenics work-out so I'm now reminded of several muscle sets that previously had been long-forgotten. It's not shown in the photos, but I then wire-brushed all the welded areas back to bright metal and painted them, so the whole fuselage is now quite well protected from rusting in this rust-prone coastal environment, as long as I keep it covered with tarpaulins anytime it isn't actually being worked on. I can't get the final epoxy coat on until all the ancillary parts are also made and welded on. Because of heir hard-to-get-at location I added the tailwheel oleo cleats before tacking that cross-member to the structure and I have also added the forward fin mount but there are still a lot of additional cleats for the control system and fixing the floors and baggage locker, the harness attachments, instrument panel anti-vibration mounts, engine mount hard points, windshield edge mountings and plates to fit at the wing-roots, but once all the parts are made welding them on is easy compared to the clusters. Yesterday I went shopping for marine ply and coatings to make the floor panels, under-seat anti-intrusion/support panels and instrument panel and started cutting them out. I also found the timber batten material for the ventral and dorsal fuselage strakes which support the fabric covering and blend it's shape behind the central landing gear mounting points and ahead of the fin/HS fairing. Another 59hrs in the log, making a total of 468hrs so far. A few pics -

Welcome to recreationalflying Jim, and may I be the first to say a very big thank you for so generously providing your 'Techniques' book for the benefit of us all. I have saved it as an ebook on my smartphone so will be able to digest it whenever I have a spare moment. And sounds like you've had a fun aviation career! EDIT - Aargh, I see you also posted it elsewhere and I wasn't the first ... but the big thank you still applies!

Welcome. Excellent work AerialEx, I subscribed and watched quite a number of your videos. Great choice of music on all of them too. I liked the vertical up reveals. A 360 panorama might benefit in some of the locations, Khikhani for example, such beautiful scenery. You have some nice close-ups, maybe the best at Gonio. It's really pleasing to see these ancient treasures being preserved and restored. Perhaps just slightly disappointing to see Gremi rebuilt in brick instead of the original stonework, but better that, than let it go to further ruin. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

No, that wasn't discussed. Oh - I forgot to mention the other news items that will have some of you jumping up and down ... with glee for once ... Mike said that one of the Board (I didn't hear the whole sentence but I gather it was MM) was in conversation with Mr Skidmore and the subject of controlled airspace came up. Mr Skidmore took a while to appreciate what was being said until, apparently, his eyes widened with disbelief and he said (as close as I can recall the quote) "What, you mean you don't have access to controlled airspace?" This was confirmed and Mr Skidmore said that the matter should be added to other submissions due for lodgement at the end of this month, for immediate attention ... Mr Skidmore is a keen aviator himself, and he's certainly bringing a breath of fresh air following the repressive years of McCormick. And - MTOW weight increase has been in discussion again with some suggesting it should be no different than for the RPL and others saying that would be stretching things (or words to that effect) but at least 750kg is looking likely. My comment to both of the above is - be careful what you wish for. CTA is bound to end up with associated costs and just as 600kg LSAs cost 2-3 times as much as 450kg ones did, so 750kg LSAs will quite likely be in the $150-200K range.

I attended the AGM of the GCSFC at Heck Field last evening - some snippets of news - Heck Field operations continue as normal as the long-running dispute between the landowner and the GCSFC, who developed the facility, slowly moves toward a mutually acceptable resolution. There's still a way to go but following instruction from the Court, the two parties are making progress toward an agreement which will hopefully see operations continue uninterrupted at least for the next twenty years. A new Committee was elected, the President and Vice President changed, the Secretary and Treasurer remained the same and some Ordinary committee members were added. There were more than sufficient nominations for all positions so no-one had to be coerced which is a good sign for the general health of the club. Hearty thanks were offered to those who have worked so hard through the difficult times dealing with legal issues over the last four years. Mike Smith, SEQ Regional Rep gave an update on happenings at RAAus. I asked about the rollout of log-in details for the new members portal, I mentioned that I'd received mine on the first day and some still hadn't, though it was well over the expected two weeks already. He said it's taking longer than expected but anyone needing quick access, for plane registration for example, should phone or email using the contact form and they would either be given login details or the registration would be handled immediately by the staff. The reported annual hours flown shown in the members area is a bit mangled in many cases, mine included, but apparently that will be editable by the members themselves in due course. I suspect it isn't editable now because things are still changing in the members area, even for those who already have their log-in details. For example - I was missing a few endorsements and didn't bother to report it yet while they're so busy but when I logged in yesterday they had miraculously appeared ... so perhaps some of the matters that have received criticism during the rolling changeover will resolve themselves if people just have a little more patience. Mike also mentioned that RAAus understands that there are some planes still operating unregistered and some people flying without pilot certificates. He reported that RAAus has negotiated an agreement with CASA for a moratorium on those activities to give people the opportunity to 'get legal'. Mike said the moratorium is a once-only thing and is expected to last about three months. He was keen to point out that it's not intended for people to 'dob' others in, but that if anyone is aware of someone else doing the wrong thing they should urge them to contact RAAus and they will not be prosecuted, and will be given the opportunity to get their aircraft on the register. It wasn't made clear what the arrangement would be for them to get a pilot certificate, I imagine they'd have to become a member and pass a flight test, but that's just my take on it. One thing that did concern me - in the past RAAus has made what I consider to be the mistake of losing and/or nearly losing freedoms we already have because it has been suggested that we don't need them. last night it was mentioned that RAAus is intending to bring in a 'Utility' endorsement, primarily aimed at those who are using their planes on the land for checking fences and stock and carrying tools and equipment around. my question is - why? We already have the right to do all and any of that without any endorsements except low-level so why add more hoops to jump through? I didn't speak against it last night, I'd thought I'd see what others think first. Mike concluded by saying that in his opinion the Management and Board was working exceptionally hard, and well, and was the best RAAus had ever had. He said the change over the last 2-3 years is immense and it appeared that RAAus now has a very bright future to look forward to. A couple of other things to do with RAAus website - some have mentioned on the other thread that their phone number won't update, as a test I've changed mine three times in the last few hours and it accepts the changes fine, so it must be a problem with some and not for others ... one for anyone with the problem to report I guess. And - I sent in a feedback about the 'Emergency Contact' field. Naturally I have my wife as my first contact in emergency but if she was flying with me that wouldn't be much use. If we'd both crashed they'd need to contact my brother, so I suggested we need more than one person to contact. I got a response in half an hour saying they thought that was a good point and would refer it to the web team.

Yup, good reason for a chute if you end up like that ... However, I'm curious, if you replay it, right at the very start there's a vertical streamer-like thing that the trike falls away from, does anyone have any idea what it is? Was the trike pilot playing at streamer cutting perhaps?

The answer is in my signature line ...

No, your figures are out by a factor of 10. A google of the subject provides many sources and they're all fairly close in agreement that there are between 101 and 102 males for each 100 females, the UN gives the figure as 101.8 males to 100 females. That's a ratio of between 1.01 and 1.02 to 1, not 1.1 or 1.2 to 1, which is a negligible difference of numbers between the genders as far as affecting the balance of male to female participants in a sport or pastime. I'm inclined to think that fewer females get involved in flying, recreational or otherwise, because of what they most want out of life and that usually includes the security of a home and having a family, whereas young men live a more carefree existence and therefore can more easily adapt to the rigours of the process of gaining experience during the early years of commercial flying and the extended absences for tours of duty later on. And I think it's for similar reasons that vastly fewer women take part in the other various forms of motorsport.

Are you an RAAus member FT? You're always so cynical, I guess you haven't actually been for a fly for years ...?

There are special polishes for acrylic, or you can make your own using rouge and a fine vegetable oil. Alternatively Brasso works a treat on some plastics. Not sure what your windshield is made of so make sure you try it on a scrap piece first. Brasso contains ammonia which doesn't affect most plastics but start cautiously just in case.

I thought it was all about scrambling - then I realised they meant brake and yoke rather than break the yolk ... Dazza will give them some 'stick' about it I expect.

Some of these comments make me rather sad. I always try to be positive about things until I'm proven otherwise. I probably shouldn't have started this thread at all, because it's evidently very frustrating for those who haven't received their login invitation yet. I only would have received mine so soon for either of two reasons, maybe my early member number (I joined AUF on 23rd May 1983) or maybe because my surname is at the beginning of the alphabet ... Anyway I hope the rest of you can get to enjoy and appreciate the work that has gone into this new site - for us, and to satisfy the regulator, and to attract new participants, as much as I am. As far as I am concerned the old site was so boring I couldn't be bothered visiting it - this one is a huge step forward.

I just received my login details and had a quick look around the new site, changed my password, updated my contact details and the like. I think it looks rather good and everything I've done so far is quite functional and quick. I did notice that there's only space for one phone number and one person to contact ICE so no doubt we'll come across a number of improvements as we check things out. The admin are asking for info about things that need fixing but I thought perhaps rather than send them one by one and probably have many people duplicate the same things, maybe it would be an idea to list things here and send them en-masse to save them some time going through them all. Anyway, I'm impressed so far, what do others think?

For those (like me) that missed it in the Aviation News forum the Bugatti has flown again, this time completed a full circuit and Scotty says it is very easy to fly. I'm really looking forward to the more advanced flight tests.

Hi SD, I'm just one of those people who doesn't automatically take what people say as gospel, I like to try things out for myself, then I know what the real facts are - usually. I found out about the polycarb windshield thing by unfortunate experience many years ago when I destroyed my curved Macro windshield with a small fuel spill. From earlier experience with stress cracking I recognised exactly what had happened, nonetheless it had already ruined my day's flying. A couple of weeks later I was in the clubroom when I overheard someone telling another how petrol destroys polycarbonate. I started to say that it wasn't the petrol and he leapt on my comment and told me I didn't know what I was talking about because he'd seen it happen with his own eyes, and then went on to tell me how petrol shatters polycarbonate immediately on contact. As far as he was concerned he knew for certain that petrol eats polycarbonate because he'd watched it happen. Of course it was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to think based on what he'd witnessed. Once he'd settled down he realised it was my windshield he'd watched explode, and then of course thought I must be a complete imbecile if I still thought petrol didn't instantly melt polycarbonate. I went out to my plane trailer and came back with a tin of petrol and a piece of Lexan, an offcut from the new screen I'd made, and dropped it into the petrol ... you can guess the rest no doubt. We ended up leaving that piece in the petrol for the rest of the weekend and it didn't harm it. I also showed a couple of demonstrations of it shattering when curved as Rick did in his excellent experiment video. Your experience may well be different, I have no idea what brand the sheeting on your plane is and there may be subtle chemistry differences between brands. I've only ever used Lexan and Makrolon and not seen them discoloured but I'm not saying it couldn't happen, most things are porous to some extent, and/or to some substances. Certainly the dyes used to colour fuel are very good at getting into most surfaces. I do know that you are correct about evaporative cooling causing cracking around rivets even if the sheet is installed without curvature. I recall a door panel on a Lightwing, IIRC, getting cracks around the rivets after a wing tank developed a leak. That is why I always use elastomeric washers under the fastener heads. The last time I installed a screen with rivets I made a 2mm thick sheet of 60 durometer polyurethane from 2 pack pour polyurethane and laboriously punched the washers out with a wad-cutter and then cut the inner holes with a hand-punch. It was a pain but only took about an hour which isn't long in the scheme of things. I prefer to use urethane because it isn't affected by cleaning chemicals, fuel spills and not much by UV. Bolts or screws are a good option for fitting screens too, because you can better control the pressure on the material, but it's hard to make them so neat. I'll probably use rivets and urethane washers again for the DooMaw screen but just a few of them in the corners, the rest of the screen will be bonded in place using a 3M double sided adhesive urethane tape. This evaporative cooling issue is one reason that DooMaw has a flat panel windshield like the Tailwind and BD4, the main difference with mine is that I will fold the windshield at the front corner pillars instead of making it in three pieces with sharp corners. Polycarb sheet folds quite readily with a white stress discolouration along the fold line, but once it has turned white and stays folded rather than wanting to spring back flat again it has de-stressed itself and so doesn't crack with rapid cooling.