Sat May 21 2022
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Sat May 21 2022

The big cut!

Kerin was at an all-day scrap today, so my dad came over to help moving the canopy around. After a trim at the back, we managed to get the canopy tucked under the turtledeck skin for the first time. Looks cool!

The tabs on both the left and right that connect the canopy frame to the side rails needed bent inward a bit more.

After some additional trimming along the side edges, I marked the cut line for "The Big Cut" and parted the rear window from the main portion. There were a couple moments of anxiety as I was cutting, but it went pretty well with only one small deviation. Sanded the cut edge and...

...put it on the plane. Sweet!

Here, on the rear window, is the one spot where my cut line drifted by about 1/16". It took a half hour of hand sanding to sand this forward edge of the rear window down to the point where that error disappeared. Tomorrow I'll clean up and start getting some of the prerequisites for bonding completed like:

  1. Fit, bond, and feather (with epoxy and micro) the rounded tube at the edge of the glare shield.
  2. Paint the fixed roll bar, its support, the canopy bow, the F-706 bulkhead, and the glare shield.
  3. Trim the aft edge of the rear window. Ensure rear window makes a uniform gap with the aft edge of the main canopy. Sand to adjust as necessary.
  4. Joggle all of the tabs of the rear window retainer strips. Note, since I've been trimming the canopy, it has become apparent that the thickness of the rear window is not constant all along the rear edge. This means that all the tabs need to be joggled to an offset that is a match for the particular area where it will trap the rear window.
  5. Dimple, prime, and install rear window retianer strips.
  6. Trim and / or bend the "ears" of the canopy skin.
  7. Clean out the airplane and install all floor panels.
  8. ...probably a bunch of other stuff I'm not yet thinking of.

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