REFLECTOR: Interior foam

[John Dibble]

I agree.  A supplier of sound proofing foam told me that any openings will allow a lot
of noise in and nullify much of the benefit.  Also a lot of noise comes in through the
windows.  I agree that noise cancelling headsets is the best solution.  The only thing
I didn't like about headsets was maintaining the batteries.  I have modified my
Lightspeeds to operate off 12 v, no more batteries.

John

Velocity_AZ wrote:

> I've been hearing about various products that builders are interested in
> putting in their Velocitys.  I've got a LWFG with an IO-360 with
> hi-compression (10:1) from Lycon that, they say, has dynoed at 230 hp.
>
> My recommendation to anyone building is "Keep It Light". I'm empty at 1630
> lbs and if I had to do it all again, I would build it lighter. I put in
> nicely padded leather seats, thick aviation carpet, fiberglassed a keel
> cover with glove box, re-designed instrumental panel, tool box below rear
> shelf, a loaded instrument panel, constant speed prop, etc. etc.  My payload
> is only 770 lbs. (360 lbs for full tanks leaves only 410 for adults and
> passengers - not much).  A two hour trip with 4 adults and baggage from PHX
> to LAS required 1/2 tanks (30 Gallons) - not a very comfortable fuel margin.
>
> Also, I can tell you that you'll fly slower heavy - I would have loved to
> have seen more speed out of my plane.  If you're going to wear headsets
> anyway, why put the extra weight in insulation? If you need more heat, they
> are probably other ways to get it without adding much weight.  Most of the
> stuff we put in our planes, we don't use very often and probably wouldn't
> miss those items.
>
> Happy building.
>
> Kevin Steiner
> 170 hours