The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Thats a good idea. I've been thinking about mounting my moving map GPS up there to get it out of the glare.... at least until my Google Glass comes in and I project the magenta line, weather and airport locations ahead of my field of view.

Does the top of the center strap connect directly to the fuselage, on the outside of the airplane, or is there an intermediate connecting piece? The parts catalog seems to show an intermediate piece but it's hard to tell. Here's what mine looks like currently. I recently had my A/P replace this connecting piece because it had crack about 3/4 of the way across. After a few hours, the new strap connector is showing signs of flexing and the paint has come off in the areas where I previously had cracks. Does this sound like excessive movement of the windshield or normal flexing?

Looks about right Christine. You even have the normal signs of flexing of this part which leads to the cracks normally found.

Maybe, just maybe, this is why Cessna eventually did away with the strap.

Think about it. The windshield has to be free to slide side to side a bit as the fuselage flexes. The top strap piece has two mounting points on the fuselage fixing it. So as the fuselage flexes a shifts the top of the windshield left and right that piece of aluminum is also flexed left and right until it rips at the T.

If the fuselage flexing is excessive as in rough surface operations, a V-brace installed on the instrument panel will for the most part eliminate the flexing. Atlee Dodge sells a 3/4" SS tubing heavy duty V-brace mostly used on float planes but also works good on wheels and skiis.The Atlee Dodge V-brace is strong enough to be used as a hand hold. V-braces get in the way of the pilot's vision but you quickly adapt to them and don't even notice them after awhile.

The benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. With a V-brace, sealer can be applied to the top of the windshield to stop the usual water leaks and it will not shear away since the windshield stops sliding in the upper channel.

hilltop170 wrote:If the fuselage flexing is excessive as in rough surface operations, a V-brace installed on the instrument panel will for the most part eliminate the flexing. Atlee Dodge sells a 3/4" SS tubing heavy duty V-brace mostly used on float planes but also works good on wheels and skiis.The Atlee Dodge V-brace is strong enough to be used as a hand hold. V-braces get in the way of the pilot's vision but you quickly adapt to them and don't even notice them after awhile.

The benefits greatly outweigh the negatives. With a V-brace, sealer can be applied to the top of the windshield to stop the usual water leaks and it will not shear away since the windshield stops sliding in the upper channel.

What's the price on it Richard and how easy is the install?

TIA,
Joe

Cool, I'll just keep an eye on it and consider the connector to be something that needs to be replaced from time to time. My windshield doesn't leak so I'm not going to mess with a good thing.

Joe Moilanen wrote: What's the price on it Richard and how easy is the install?
TIA,
Joe

Joe-
Looking at the FA Dodge website it looks like they don't make one for the 170! A call to Steve Kracke might encourage them to start making them. They really work well on the 180/185.

They say they will custom fabricate per customer request: http://www.fadodge.com/windshield-v-braces/

Many 170s have these. It's certainly worth calling them.

I'm wondering what use they would be on a 170 as the top of the instrument cowl skin is .032 with no real structure underneath.

I have had an Atlee Dodge V brace in my 170B for years. I have no idea how its mounted but its quite solid. My recollection is that the 337 shows it installed in a manner similar to an early 180. Rather than speculate, interested buyers should call Steve at Atlee Dodge to see what's involved with installation. Its a great thing to have for rougher fields.

Here's a pdf of the installation document:

c170b53 wrote:I'm wondering what use they would be on a 170 as the top of the instrument cowl skin is .032 with no real structure underneath.

It would probably be a good idea to add a doubler like p/n 0713156-1 under the panel as can be seen in the link to SL 62-18 here.

Pete if it works for you great! I only know the v-brace on my XP is a bit flimsy and the cowl skin doubler is tied into the instrument panel structure/radio panel structure which is substantial. On the 170 the instrument panels float, so the structure other than the cowl skin really isn't there. My window does squeak on rough ground and Pete says on his machine a v brace works which probably means no squeaking, so it serves a purpose but I'm suggesting (and possibly a wrong suggestion); maybe the flexing over a period of time might introduce another problem for the cowl skin.