I’ve been considering removing the headliner in the name of headroom. I know people do the super skylight for this reason, but that’s a long ways down the road. My headset brushes the headliner when flying.

Has anyone just ran without a headliner and if so, do you have any pictures? Just thinking about how I might keep it looking decent and still somewhat sealed up without one, in adddition to functionality. I don’t mind the look of exposed tubes and fabric and such in general. When I unzip the opening by my head in flight I get a nice cool breeze which means something isn’t so sealed up.

Also, if I were to remove my (good condition) headliner and give it a try, can I reverse my decision and just put it back in or is it not that easy? On my last plane (Scout), headliner installation needed to happen prior to covering the fuselage.


Thanks for any help/tips/info

-Asa

I also have lots of 0.028 Kydex on hand. At work many of our planes have kydex “headliners”. Since it can be formed, it’s usually lower profile than cloth. Has anyone done this?

Thinking about replacing some of my worn red strip club looking interior panels with kydex as well. About half the weight of aluminum and already has a nice textured finish and black color.

I flew mine for about 10-20hrs without the headliner. It was fine, but it was certainly better with the headliner for several reasons. But that’s likely because I didn’t attempt to close out anything. I know several others who fly without the head liner in much nicer Maules than mine and one in particular is short so..

I would say reinstalling the headliner after removal is possible but may be a pain. New liners from Spruce are moderately inexpensive so if you wanted to reinstall I might consider going that route. My current one is a spruce liner and it looks great. Though I have thoughts of removing it because I also hit the ceiling.

Thanks, Mog. I asked for pictures on Facebook this morning and got these two responses that show two good looking examples. I actually like the look, but both of these guys have good looking fabric and tubes which contributes to that. I would plan to keep a rear bulkhead divider and side interior panels.

I like that the second guy travels with a spare rudder.

The one and only Mighty Maule M7

I peeked around a bit more today behind the headliner and it seems like my insulation may be glued to the fabric. Which means removing the headliner/insulation would leave crap all over the inside of the fabric. Not what I wanted to see. It’ll probably stay in.

I removed all my insulation and it cleaned off the fabric pretty good. I dont think it was glued.

Mog, a little insulation in those wing roots will make things quite a bit warmer in the winter. Turn the plastic side to the cabin and it looks better.

GBarrier, that’s a freinds plane. He lives in CO and does not seem to mind the open wing roots. Honestly I was shocked to find he kept his plane like this as I had higher expectations. It’s such a nice airplane on the outside.

That first pic I posted is exactly my ideal setup but ain’t nobody got time to make it look that good until it’s time to re-cover the plane I think.

I assume he painted the inside of the fabric to make it look so good.

I like this idea. I think I'm in the same boat. I would like more head room and want to do the super skylight. But thats not going to happen right now. So pulling out the headliner for now seems like a good temp solution. But don't want it to look like crap and don't want to freeze my ass off. I'll poke around mine some more. My headliner is in great shape but I don't really care for the off white color anyways.

HeavyLoad wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:56 am

I like this idea. I think I'm in the same boat. I would like more head room and want to do the super skylight. But thats not going to happen right now. So pulling out the headliner for now seems like a good temp solution. But don't want it to look like crap and don't want to freeze my ass off. I'll poke around mine some more. My headliner is in great shape but I don't really care for the off white color anyways.

Update us on how it goes and what you find. Seems like it can be done well... or not