I worked on fitting the reinforcement parts to the canopy. The side parts need some bending and tweaking, but they eventually conform to the canopy. I drilled the middle part to the frame and skin.
The weather was incredible today, sunny and 70 degrees. The pile of parts ready for paint was big enough, so I took advantage of the good weather. I painted everything the satin black that I’m using for the cabin.
I also drilled the aft joints out to #30 and trimmed the ends of the aft ribs a tiny bit so that they lay more flat against the angles. I used the edge distance from the bottom row of holes to determine where to trim them.
The girls went out shopping, which gave me a solid chunk of time to work on the canopy. I trimmed the side skirts to the same height as the frame. A shear would have come in very handy for this. I cut as straight as I could with the band saw and then cleaned up the cut with some sand paper wrapped around a block.
I drilled the canopy handle to the aft end of the left side. I also did a bunch of little things to finish up the aft ribs of the frame, deburring, countersinking, and drilling the block to the frame that holds the twisty handle thingy.
One final thing I did was to add a little bend to the lightening holes in the reinforcement parts. I made a nifty little bending tool out of a block out of wood. The trick is to radius the edge of the block that forms the bend.
One thing that didn’t turn out very well while drilling the canopy skin to the frame is that one hole popped out right next to one of the rivets for the splice plate. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do about it yet. I could use a #8 screw, but the frame isn’t thick enough to countersink it.
I started removing and deburring the canopy frame parts, but then realized I needed to drill the canopy strut mount points before taking the frame off completely. I also tapped the blocks after I drilled them to the frame.
I blew through the 1200 hour mark on building today. I’m hoping that’s about the 2/3 point of this project. The structure of the plane is just about done, so that seems reasonable. I still have the engine, wiring, plumbing, avionics, cowl, fairings, and lots of little things remaining.
I deburred the canopy skirts and smoothed some of the parts for the canopy struts. I also drilled the little canopy handle to the left skirt.
With the bottom two rows of holes on the canopy skirts drilled and clecoed, I climbed into the cabin and drilled the top row from the frame out to the skirts. The instructions say to remove the canopy for this. That might have been easier, but it was more fun to climb inside. Julie helped by unclecoing the skirts, moving the screws, and re-attaching the skirts. I then drilled the remaining few holes. I also trimmed the aft edge of the skirt to length.
I believe it is now time to remove everything and start the debur/countersink/dimple/paint/rivet-fest. Except for one last thing that I just remembered seeing on Matthew’s site. I need to figure out the mount points for the struts.
I drilled all of the rivet holes in the canopy skirts, positioned them on the canopy and drilled them to the sides of the canopy frame. I also drilled out the remaining holes holding the front canopy skin to the frame. One of the holes popped out right next to a rivet in the side splice plate. Not sure what I’m going to do about that. I should have been paying more attention to rule #1 about drilling: always be aware of what you are drilling into.
Julie helped me attach the bubble to the frame temporarily with 4 screws on each side. I climbed inside and she helped from the outside. I was then able to hold the material for the skirts up to the canopy to figure out where the aft edge would be. I thought about following Dan’s method of moving the skirts forward to avoid the gap where the longerons do their bend. There’s two problems with that. The material Van’s provides for the skirts is about 1/2″ too short to do that, so I’d have to order material. And second, the seam would then fall right where the joint is in the frame, making it more difficult to place the attachment screws. I think I’ll just follow the plans. Everybody can laugh at my unsightly gap if they want.
I also laid out all of the holes on one of the skirts. The rivet fan really came in handy for that. Both skirts are exactly the same length, so I’ll be able to drill them at the same time. I just need to watch out for the holes at the aft end for the handle that only go on the left side. I sure miss pre-punched parts. Hardly anything on the canopy is pre-punched.
It wasn’t a very productive weekend on the project. I ended up spending too much time on RunwayFinder.com. I did spend a few hours in the shop on Sunday doing the rest of the countersinking on the rear window. I also tapped the rest of the holes in the roll bar. And lastly, I drilled the holes in the parts for the canopy strut.
I guess this is a Mattituck thing, but they send you two cases of oil well in advance of the engine delivery. Kinda cool.
