0316 RearViewMirrors (PDF)

Check
Your Six!
Rearview mirrors for your homebuilt fighter plane.
By Bruce Eicher

You don’t have to be flying a
Grumman Tomcat into combat to
find a need for seeing behind you. Just
like in a car, you have more aft situation awareness with mirrors, without
losing your forward vision. We might
use them to check the control surfaces’

position and movement, ground traffic
taxiing up on our tail, rear seat passengers’ condition, or if you fly formation,
monitor your wingman or flight element positions. I also check my departure climb alignment to the shrinking
runway in my mirror.

My objective was to keep the mirrors
simple, lightweight, adjustable, secure,
and not allow them to block forward visibility. So with more time than money, I
came up with a way to clip some mirrors
to my RV-8 roll bar. I use two, one flat
mirror and one convex wide-angle mirror.

Material List

• .118-inch acrylic mirror from a home supply warehouse. One sheet will make a
couple dozen or more mirrors. (You could stop by my hangar and bum a leftover
piece or two from me.)
• 1-inch thin-wall 200psi PVC pipe to fit a 1.25-inch roll bar. Don’t use schedule 40
heavy-wall pipe. You need 1 inch for each mirror. (Again come by the hangar for
some spare, preferably on aluminum polishing day.)
• 2-inch convex “blind spot” mirror purchased from an auto supply shop.
• Silicone adhesive.
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KITPLANES March 2016

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Cut the acrylic mirror with a fine-tooth
blade outside the line to avoid damaging
the mirror.

Find the right pressure and speed to avoid
melting the plastic and abrading the
reflection image

Finish with the Scotch-Brite wheel, finding
the right angle to give a clean finish

You could fit more and adjust each for different blind spots. If your plane does not
have a conveniently placed roll bar, you
might still use the concept with another
mounting method of your design.

cut and transfer to the back side of the
acrylic mirror. Use a Sharpie type felt
pen on the back of the mirror, being
careful not to scratch through the gray
mirror backing. I cut the acrylic with the
same fine-tooth bandsaw blade as aluminum, but not too close to the finish line.
I slowly belt sanded the edges and then
finished with the Scotch-Brite wheel.
If you are not careful, you will chip or
abrade the edge of the mirror, leaving

visible feather flaws in your refection.
Find the right pressure and angles to polish, but not melt the plastic.
Cut a 1-inch length of the PVC
pipe, one for each mirror. (I tried two
clips for a long mirror but found it was
not needed, and they would apply an
unwanted twist distortion to the mirror
when clipped on) Now mark and cut out
a 13/16-inch slot opening. This slot will
allow the mirror to pivot on the roll bar,

Layout and Cutting

I made mine 1.5 inches wide, 6.5 inches
long, and curved to follow the roll bar
and windscreen/canopy top. Simply
trace the shape on a piece of cardboard,
Photos: Bruce Eicher



KITPLANES March 2016

15

giving you a six o’clock high view to a
mug shot of yourself. Finish the edges of
the clip to your liking.

Assembly

The placement of the pipe clip on the
back of the mirror will define the usable
adjustment rotation and clearance for
the canopy closure. For my application I
placed the pipe clip overhanging the top
of the mirror by 3/16 inch. This gave me
enough clearance for my sliding canopy
to roll and close over the top of the mirror. And the start of the slot is set 11/16
inch from the mirror’s front edge.
I cleaned the parts and roughed up
the PVC pipe and back of the round
plastic mirror in preparation for gluing.
You cannot do the same on the back of
the acrylic mirror without damaging
the reflection image of the mirror. I
found a generous amount of clear silicone adhesive has held the mirrors now
for two years.

Cut a 13/16-inch notch opening from the
PVC pipe clip.

For my application I glued the pipe clip
slightly overhanging the top of the mirror
and 11/16 inch from the front face.

Clip, slide, and rotate to find your best
location to cover the blind spots. It’s easy
to adjust as needed.

Now you can check your six for who’s riding your tail.

In Use

Simply clip the mirrors on your roll bar.
Try different positions along the side and
the top to allow the mirror to tilt up/
down or in/out depending on position. I
would imagine three long curved mirrors
would give you a lot of blind spot coverage for those with the need. I like to adjust
my long flat mirror to see straight back at
the tail feathers and the convex mirror on
my back seater to see if they are having
fun. Now you might need a new placard:
“Objects are closer than they appear.”
Please note: Refection images were staged
or simulated for safety considerations.
Cheers to blue skies and a clear six! J

Simple, lightweight mirrors ready to clip on.

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KITPLANES March 2016

Here both mirrors are adjusted on the high and outside range. And you can see that
virtually no forward visibility was lost.

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