Rosen Sun Visors

[n2582d]

I bought some sun visors from what I thought was a C-170B. Here is a picture of the attach fitting on this visor.

C-170B Visor Attach Fitting

It fits onto the leading edge of the spar carry through on my '52 C-170B . There are two 10-32 nutplates attached on each side of the carry through as pictured here:

Sun Visor Attach Point

Now what is interesting is that the sun visor in the IPC for the C-170A and the C-170B appears to be different. In the IPC it is attached with one nutplate on the bottom of the spar carry though. The holes for this nutplate are present on the left and right side of my carry though but there are no nutplates installed. (See picture above.)

C-170B Sun Visor.jpg (31.72 KiB) Viewed 16784 times

C-170B Sun Visor Nutplate.jpg (50.75 KiB) Viewed 16784 times

Now in looking at the Rosen sun visor installation instructions it appears that my plane's carry through spar and the visors that I bought are both from a C-172.

[907Pilot]

I have that exact piece that you have in picture 1, and that is where I get lost. That piece is on the side of my airplane where you would in a car call your "a" pillar. It is on the piece that has the airvents coming through it. Even if I had regular visors, I can't see that making sense.

That being said, I got the Rosen's that do not have an articulating arm. I think they would work on your plane, but I can't see them working on mine without drilling. I am going to ask Floats Alaska to do it when they do my oil change this week. If they can't, its looking up the contacts above.

Which ones did you get?

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Gary,

I had the same visor and visor attachment hardware that you show in picture one in my first 170. Of course we have no idea where they came from, they could have been from an early 172. As I recall mine were attached to the bottom of the spar with one screw through the center. I never wanted to question why the holes used for it were there but noted it seemed that there were only "stock" holes for a sun visor on one side.

[n2582d]

I have that exact piece that you have in picture 1, and that is where I get lost. That piece is on the side of my airplane where you would in a car call your "a" pillar. It is on the piece that has the airvents coming through it. Even if I had regular visors, I can't see that making sense.

That being said, I got the Rosen's that do not have an articulating arm. I think they would work on your plane, but I can't see them working on mine without drilling. I am going to ask Floats Alaska to do it when they do my oil change this week. If they can't, its looking up the contacts above.

Which ones did you get?

I have not yet bought Rosen sun visors; they are a ways down on the wish list. It appears to me that you have RCS-300-1 visors. If you're lucky you may have the two nutplates in the front of the spar like mine. If so then just install them according to Rosen's instructions on page 2. But more likely these holes in the front of the spar are absent on you plane. In that case your mechanic needs to follow the directions on page 3 of the Rosen link I posted above. If at all possible I would use the existing nutplate for one of the attach points. Use an awl to locate it through your headliner. If there is no nutplate there on the bottom (missing as in my picture above) use the blank hole if possible for one of the rivnut holes. The diameter for the hole to install the rivnuts provided by Rosen is .221". This is for an 8-32 screw. If you have the nutplate as shown in the IPC it is for a 10-32 screw. If it is not possible to pick up that existing nutplate hole or use that existing nutplate (in Rosen's instructions it looks like the rivnut is offset from the center of the bottom of the spar) make sure your mechanic doesn't drill a hole in close proximity to that existing hole. I would be concerned about that in a critical structural member such as this spar. Here are some dimensions if they can be of any help. Measure twice--drill once.

[n2582d]

Gary,

I had the same visor and visor attachment hardware that you show in picture one in my first 170. Of course we have no idea where they came from, they could have been from an early 172. As I recall mine were attached to the bottom of the spar with one screw through the center. I never wanted to question why the holes used for it were there but noted it seemed that there were only "stock" holes for a sun visor on one side.

Bruce,
In looking at the IPC picture which I posted above it looks like Cessna did away with the bottom steel attach fitting and slotted screw. It appears they just used the brass portion to attach the visor with a AN3-5A bolt to the bottom of the spar.

[170C]

If I remember my factory visors in my '56 172 were attached to the leading edge of the spar. No attachment on the bottom of the spar. That is where I attached my Rosen visors ' brackets. Originally I did not purchase the articulating version, but a couple of years ago I purchased the articulating items as it adds to the usefullness quite a bit. The original sun visors could be pulled down from the middle to help with low sun, but the non-articulating Rosen's could not. With that articulating feature you can really get good movement of the visors.

[MoonlightVFR]

I very much appreciate the thorough discussion about ROSEN'S VISORS.

Purchased two years ago and will install in next 6 weeks

In 1972 my airplane SN 26433 was tied down next to a 170 at WEISS airport St Louis. I was a newbie and he was one of the pioneering members of the Cessna 170 Association.

He was exceptionally kind to me when he explained that it was not a good idea to accessorize my 170 with WESTERN AUTO parts.

GREEN PLASTIC sun visors 2.00 -

It's been a long time and those visors just disappeared about 10 years ago.

John Collins is no longer with us and I miss him. I would tell him, John, I'm going with the ROSENS !

[GAHorn]

John hears you, no doubt, and is smiling.

[n2582d]

In looking at the IPC picture which I posted above it looks like Cessna did away with the bottom steel attach fitting and slotted screw. It appears they just used the brass portion to attach the visor with a AN3-5A bolt to the bottom of the spar.

Here to further confuse how the original sun visors were mounted is a picture from the '53 Owners Manual and a couple of clips from a 1952 Service News Letter. The illustration seems to show that the visor is mounted on the front face of the forward spar carry through. I'm guessing that this illustration was inadvertently rotated 90 degrees as every other illustration or picture seems to indicate that the visor was attached to the bottom of the spar carry through. Still makes me wonder why my plane has nutplates on the forward vertical face but none on the bottom of the spar carry through.

Sun Visors - '53 Owners Manual Picture

Illustration from '52 Service News Letter

Script from '52 Service News Letter

[lowNslow]

Gary, mine has the set up shown just above with the AN bolt and large washer. It is attached to the bottom of the carry through.

[Dooley]

You do have to mount them contrary to the instructions. Like everyone says if you mount them per instructions they will be unnaturally close to your face. I talked to the people at Rosen about this and they said "well no one has ever complained". While I was waiting for a call back from some engineer to tell me to do it per instructions, I did it my way and they are great.

[blueldr]

OMG! What about the "basis of" you know what? That spar carry through is a structural member.(I think.) That's pretty close to those Pep Boy's vent hoses that I put on the bottom of the goose neck fuel vent and you know how that upsets purists.
Please be advised that this is the sort of stuff that relagates you to the wasteland of the non-conformist when you had hoped to be accepted among those to whom you had looked up to. It's lonely there.

[GAHorn]

OMG! What about the "basis of" you know what? That spar carry through is a structural member.(I think.) That's pretty close to those Pep Boy's vent hoses that I put on the bottom of the goose neck fuel vent and you know how that upsets purists.
Please be advised that this is the sort of stuff that relagates you to the wasteland of the non-conformist when you had hoped to be accepted among those to whom you had looked up to. It's lonely there.

I'm so happy to know that alzheimers isn't mandatory.



(I love you, Dick... and real men can say that.)

[hilltop170]

You do have to mount them contrary to the instructions. Like everyone says if you mount them per instructions they will be unnaturally close to your face. I talked to the people at Rosen about this and they said "well no one has ever complained". While I was waiting for a call back from some engineer to tell me to do it per instructions, I did it my way and they are great.

I have the non-articulated model and mounted them backwards from the instructions to get the visor away from my face and was not happy with them like that. It leaves a large gap between the roof and visor that the sun shines thru at certain angles and there is nothing you can do about it. So I reversed them to the specified configuration and am thoroughly pleased with their performance. Being closer to my face makes no difference at all except the sun is shielded all the time.

[blueldr]

Yeah, Richard, but how about the "Basis"?