A need to know for all Sport Cruiser owners and pilots

[Chad Boot]

Chad Boot Came across an interesting "gotcha" that all Piper Sport owners and pilots need to be aware of. I had my aircraft outside the hanger getting ready for flight today with the canopy up and the sun behind the aircraft. The parabolic shape of the canopy concentrates the sunlight just like a magnifying glass straight into the aircrafts dash, within minute thick white smoke was coming out of the dash, I noticed it straight away and was able to close the canopy. Had I been conducting a walk around or disappeared into the hanger at the time and not noticed I fear the aircraft could have caught on fire. It's also winter here in Sydney Australia the temp was 7 deg c, something you wouldn't think happen at this time of year. Hope this may help others!!

[Urs Heim]

Use the sunshade supplied with the later models (can be retrofitted and is available from CSA). Make sure it is all the way forward whenever you open the canopy. This will solve the problem.
Urs

[David & Jean-Marie Bonnar]

After burning our dash a couple of times, we purchased a heat resistant dash cover for our SC and insist that users place it on the dash before opening the canopy. Problem seems most severe when sun is over or behind the tail. We have a sun shade and leave it forward, but we still note the problem just due to the large size of the canopy.

[Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor]

We've done a short document summarising the various Gotchas, or things to be aware of in the SportCruiser / Pipersport and it is located on the CSA UK website at http://www.czechsportaircraft.co.uk/content/pipersport-formerly-spo... - NB you need to be logged into that to view the attachment, but this is an easy process.

In here we cover a number of things that we've (and others) learned which we think will help others.

Regards Ben

[Randy Kapp]

I too had this happen in November in Ohio, burnt a hole the size of a quarter in my dash. Like you had I been inside for a while loner ,I believe at would have erupted in flames.