canopy latches, guides, and fairing
Tanya helped me put the canopy back on (and off, and on, and off…) again so I could work on the latches. I used this opportunity to tinker a little more with the forward canopy skin fit. Even with my Big Fat Gap (BFG) up there, I still found it necessary to bend the center section of the canopy skin up just a bit and file a slight bevel on the forward skin in order for everything to clear. Then on to the objective, drilling the rear side canopy latches to the canopy frame. This is a bit of a funky operation that I had not been looking forward to. So, my M.O. dictates that I dive in and just do it :). I marked a center line on the latch bracket and inserted the latch into the hold-down finger thingy, crawled into the cockpit, closed the canopy, held the latch up as high as it would go, sighted the center line through the previously drilled holes in the canopy frame, had Tanya hold pressure on the latch with a tongue depressor, and spun a drill bit in the first hole a few turns to mark the hole. Yep, it was about as interesting to do as that sentence was to write :). With one hole marked, I drilled it in the drill press, rinse and repeat four times. I think they came out fine. Maybe just a hair tight.
Then I moved on to making some small guide blocks out of Delrin. This is a carbon copy of what Jeff Bordelon did. He was even nice enough to give me a small hunk of material to fab these out of. They make a big difference in the smoothness of operation of the canopy in the last couple of inches of closing. They’re also very easy to construct and install. Great design Jeff! If I were to do them again (I could), I would make them a little taller. Maybe +.5″. They are currently 2″ high.
I also got the top center canopy latch handle squared away. Piece of cake. After all of that, the canopy came back off, possibly for the last time? Back to work on the forward fairing. I got some sanding primer so I can proceed with this little task. Sanding, priming, filling, sanding, priming, filling, sanding….
