I spoke at some length with Joel Milloway this week. I was referred to Joel by Fred Weaver and Joa Harrison regarding construction techniques and some possible improvements/modifications to the S7. Joel is a serious guru of construction regarding the Rans S7. Unfortunately, using a quick-build kit precludes several of Joel's modifications.
I did order one of his glare shield panels. This panel modifies the placement and angle of the instrument panel, bringing it closer to a verticle position. This provides several benefits. First, it brings the panel a little closer to the pilot. In stock configuration, the angle of panel causes the instrument lights to reflect in the windshield severely limiting the view outside at night. Several guys have described having to shut off the panel lighting on approach to landing while flying at night. Yes, my S7 will be a very basic VFR equipped plane, but I think I'd rather be able to see the instruments on short final, particularly the airspeed and tach.
The modified glare shield also has a slight overhang (glare-shield) that allows installation of some LED strip lighting for panel lighing.
The glare shield unit arrived on Friday. It looks very good. It is fiberglass, and appears to have been vacume-bagged. Very strong and very light-weight. Joel included a CD of construction photos. In those photos I discovered that Joel apparently built the planes that I used as graphics models for my paint job (or at least worked on them).
