Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

I hereby declare the canopy COMPLETE! I’ll admit it, I’m sick of working on the canopy. I did a few more minor fill, sand, prime, sand iterations. There comes a point when you just have to stop messing with the forward fairing. I’m pretty happy with it. The critical edge came out pretty good.

Next up was to flip it over and work on the glareshield light strip. Thanks to Watson for donating one of his (many) dog beds to set the canopy on upside down on the bench. I’m using an electroluminescent strip glued to the underside of the glareshield for primary panel light. I scuffed the painted glareshield and the back of the light strip with some 100 grit sandpaper. I long ago made peace with proseal so it is my glue of choice. I ran the wires along the left side of the canopy frame, under the brace, in some expanding sleeve (cool stuff). I have the wires exiting near the left pivot. We’ll see how this exit point works out later.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

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….

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Each day for the past few days has started with sanding filler on the forward canopy fairing and putting on more filler. I’m very happy with how it is coming along so far. There is plenty of time to do other stuff while the epoxy filler dries. I decided it was high time to chop the instrument panel support ribs and get them repositioned. Piece of cake. Both ribs got moved inboard. After adjusting the panel mounts, I figured it would be a good idea to check the clearance between the top of the panel and the canopy frame since it is so close. The canopy goes on (thanks Tanya) and I crawl inside with a flashlight. The clearance is still good, and the canopy comes back off. In order to complete panel mounting, I needed to get the side air vents figured out. Since my panel is a bit taller (lower), I had to add another rivet hole in the side skin.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

After doing a couple more minor sanding and filler sessions with microbeads, I decided it was time to start the fiberglass layup. I didn’t put too much effort into a perfect filler contour before glassing. I figure there will be plenty of shaping ahead. Anyway, Tanya helped me a little with the first few strips to go on, then I was on my own for the last few wide strips and peal ply. My biggest fear with this stuff is delamination much later down the road. I guess I’ll get more comfortable with the quality of this layup as I start sanding on it. It should be good to go. Tomorrow I’ll pull off the peal ply to see what we have…

 

  

  

  

 

Yee Haw! Now we’re having fun. I started the process of creating the forward canopy where the Plexiglas and forward top skin merge. The first step is to lay down some electrical tape to mark the edge of the transition. It takes a bit of an artistic hand to get what will hopefully turn out to be a pleasing curve on the finished edge. Then the plexi and aluminum skin get scuffed very well with 60 grit sandpaper. This is a funky operation after spending so much time being careful not to scratch the plexi. Then I mixed up a very thick mixture of epoxy and microbaloons which I loaded into a sandwich bag and cut the corner off of the bag. Obviously, I used this setup like a pastry bag to squirt the epoxy filler into the edge. This worked very well. I wasn’t quite sure how it would come out on the other side (inside) but I just went for it. After I had the filler on, I couldn’t resist climbing in the cockpit to see how the inside came out. It looks great.

This is just the first of a bunch of filling and sanding in this area. After the first bit of filler is dry I’ll sand it a bit and probably do one more round before starting fiberglass layups.