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As winter settles in and the mercury drops, we are already planning an escape in mid-February when we will head for Tucson, AZ, and a little sun to perk up our pasty winter complexions. I had a look at some older threads but I would like to know what is the current consensus opinion on the best solution for sun shade? Up here (54N) I use a couple of stick-on sun shades for the days that we need them, but is that gonna cut it in the desert? I have seen some photos of what looks like a zig-zag folded awning inside the top canopy, and I thought that might be pretty nice when we get south. I haven't located it online.

All thoughts gratefully received. If you toss in a few suggestions or comments about our proposed trip (CZVL KGTF KDTA KPRC KRYN) that would be ideal.

February in AZ is great weather! No need to worry about baking temps. During hot months, I use the Bruce's lightweight travel canopy cover (which has unfortunately gotten more expensive recently), but the rest of the time, I just use a cheap car front window/dash fold up sun shield--slides between the canopy and glare shield with the canopy open, then as you close the canopy, it folds down over the panel and protects all the avionics.

What we did for our trip to Alaska was go to home depot and purchase double sided insulation, something like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Reflectix-24 ... /202851855

We then cut the insulation to fit inside the front canopy and also cut sheets to fit inside the rear windows. The front canopy would stay in place without additional help, but we attached Velcro pieces to the rear side sheets to keep them in place.

The insulation folded and unfolded extremely easily and stored folded in the plane without interfering with anything during flight.

Since that trip we continued to use the same insulation whenever we traveled and had to park the plane outside whether in summer or winter.

Incidentally, that one roll of insulation was more than enough to allow us to make several sheets for the front canopy to account for our measurement and cutting errors I would highly recommend getting some newspaper to lay on the canopy to create a template for cutting the insulation (we learned about this trick the hard way). Even with these errors, there was enough insulation left over for other owners to use to make similar shields for their planes.

If you're asking about sun shades for use while flying, we use the very inexpensive Rosen mesh screens with suction cups that fold into a small bag for storage in the seat back pockets:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/p ... ey=3008487

You can even double them up to create a more opaque mesh if necessary.

Thanks for these suggestions! I should have been clearer - I have a canopy cover for exterior protection so I think I can just use that when parked. I was thinking about that long flight headed more or less into the sun. The Rosen screens look good.

I use a product similar to the Rosen, but marketed for automobiles. I am pretty sure I was getting them for a third of the Spruce price.

Here are some for $9 a pair: https://www.amazon.com/Window-Shades-Ec ... 01EF5SB8I/

Colin wrote:I use a product similar to the Rosen, but marketed for automobiles. I am pretty sure I was getting them for a third of the Spruce price.

Yes, but the Rosen sunshades have TWO suction cups each and hence are better at attaching to concave curved Diamond canopies.

I use a stick on (static cling) sun shades that I bough at the auto parts store or WalMart. Works great. You can peel and stick anywhere the sun shines.

CFIDave wrote:Yes, but the Rosen sunshades have TWO suction cups each and hence are better at attaching to concave curved Diamond canopies.

Yep. The suction cups are also larger and stick better.

I have tried several different types of interior shades (two suction & two cling) and IME the Rosen ones work best. At OSH they were only $10 each.

If you live in a hot climate, consider full-window interior cling tint. This installs like regular tint, but is easily removed. I helped a friend install this on the rear windows of his DA40, and his young children were much happier. But there definitely is a clarity trade-off.

Chris

I purchased two of the Rosen ones a while back and the material was so thin that they hardly block the sun at all. Have they improved them and put the darker material back?