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February 17-19, 2007 (4 hrs): Did a
little work on the canopy frame. These rollers get assembled and
then temporarily clamped into position on the both sides of front of the
canopy frame. These rollers will sit in tracks on either side of
the fuselage canopy decks.
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The rear of the canopy deck gets this
delrin block installed that will ride along a rail on the top rear of
the fuselage. I kind of mis-drilled the hole and the block does
not sit quite square. I think I will try to weld the holes closed
and re-drill this thing. |
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The rear rail gets assembled by match
drilling and double flush riveting two pieces of aluminum together.
Here I am match drilling the items. |
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After machine counter-sinking both sides
of the assembly, I was able to double flush rivet the parts with my hand
squeezer. |
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The rear slider assembly is temporarily
held into place with duct tape to the top of the fuselage... Ya, I know,
my fuselage is really dusty. I guess I need to do some cleaning. |
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Placed the canopy frame into place and
began measuring the numerous places for the proper dimensions according
to the plans. The first thing I noticed is that the frame sits
about 1/4" too tall in the front. I will need to cut the frame
down a bit where the rollers are located. It also look like the
frame might be slightly to narrow, so I will have to spread the bows a
bit. |
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Here is picture from the front. The
canopy frame should be sitting a little higher than the front roll bar
(about 3/8"), but not as high as mine currently sits. |
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.February 24-25, 2007:
(4.0 hrs.)
I spent a whole bunch of time just walking around
the canopy measuring and re-measuring trying to understand the canopy
frame fit and how I could adjust it.
The plans call for the side bows to follow the
contour of the fuselage side skin, but be inset 1/16". When I
looked at other builders web sites, they typically determined the proper
position/formation of the side bows by running a straight edge up the
fuselage side skins and then measuring for a resulting gap of 1/16".
However, I noticed that the side bows (these are square tubes) where not
in the same parallel plane as the fuselage sides. This is an issue
if you measure the way I described, because the canopy side braces will
be riveted to the canopy bows and follow its plane. Instead, I
measured by holding the straight edge (a 1/16" thick steel rule) against
the side bows, keeping the same plane. |
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Here is a picture of what I am referring
to... I am measuring using the plane of the side bows to determine the
1/16" inset to the side skins.
Measuring with this method actually makes a huge distance. My
frame needed no reshaping on the forward 75% of the side bows.
However, when measured using the other method, the canopy requires the
bows to be displaced outward an additional 3/32" on each side. I
wonder if the builders that are noticing that their canopy is slightly
wider than optimal after the plexi is attached to the frame are seeing
part of the problem coming from how they are initially measuring the
inset of these side bows? I guess time will tell if I am right. |
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The next thing was for me to get the
height of the side bows above the canopy deck parallel to within 1/8"
from front to back.
Here I am measuring the height of one of the side bows in the front. |
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I ended having to cut about 1/4"-5/16" off
the front bow above each castor to get the frames forward bow height
correct.
Here are the trimmed off pieces. |
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Now the frames front bow sat close to the
correct height above the roll bar. I think I need to cut about
another 1/16" off each side. |
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The forward canopy frame bow and roll bar
were close to parallel. |
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I found that a shim under the front of the
roll bar (even thought is was perpendicular to the longerons) attach
point, made the parallel fit between the frame's front bow and the roll
bar perfect. . |
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The one place my frame needs a little work
is on the rear bow. It is supposed to sit about 1/16" below the
rear top skin. I have the right spacing on the top of the bow, but
as you move down the sides to the rear corners, the gap gets
progressively larger to about 1/4". It seems if I try to correct
this, then I will mess up the alignment of my side bows. I am
going to have to think about this some more... maybe I can just leave it
and then compensate for the gap by creating my own fiberglass rear
canopy fairings. |
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Next I drilled and temporarily installed
the rear slide tack |
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I also match drill the side rails rear and
forward pilot holes to the canopy decks so I can hold things in place
with cleco's |
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March 23-25,
2007:
(4.0 hr)
The canopy frame was real close to fitting.
I just needed to bring the side bows in about a 1/6th" at the rear on
each side. I tried using two opposing clamps (as pictured) while
the frame was on the fuselage... I tried bending and prying while with a
vise, clamps, and my feet while the frame was off the fuselage.
Every time I made an adjustment, something else on the frame would go
out of whack. This was frustrating to say the least. I
finally gave up after 5 hours. The frame fits worse now than
before. I think I will work on something else for a while and then
come back to this. |
