Even in northern climes, you need something to keep UV out of the cockpit. Cunningham and Sun-Foil are our favorites.

Sun shields by Cunningham Aircraft Covers, above, offered the best combination of price, fit and looks.

Having tumbled into some rat hole of a research project recently, we followed a couple of hundred links to this interesting but potentially useless fact: The USDA recommends that rare beef reach a temperature of 145 degrees F. Our crack research and testing department reminded us that we had seen that number somewhere before and a little digging turned up the source: Believe it or not, it’s how hot your glareshield can get on a high summer day after the airplane has been baking for several hours. (And yes, we’ve actually measured the temperature.) …