7/16/2008
Man, July is half over, and Oshkosh is less than two weeks away. I've said it before, but I sorta judge how fast the year has gone by, by how quickly Oshkosh comes around, and this year is no different. Seems like we were just getting ready to go to last year's show, and it's a year later already. Crazy.
Tonight I started by modifying the roll bar side spacers a little to make them thinner. You can see the left one in the first pic below just to the right of the guide block. That little silver sliver between the skin and the roll bar mount is what I'm talking about.
Then I set out making the guide blocks for the canopy lugs. These are typically made from Delrin plastic block (not on the plans), but the closest and cheapest thing to it, is a cutting board. It's easy material to work with, so making the pieces went quickly. Installing them wasn't too difficult, but reaching in thru the little access hole on the bottom of the roll bar was tricky.
The board I had on hand and used was only 0.4" thick, and a half inch would've been better, probably about perfect. I used two washers between the block and the roll bar to space it out just a bit. The blocks are 3/4" wide, and 2" tall.
Here's a shot of the nuts inside the roll bar.
After I got those installed, I found the canopy didn't want to shut as nicely as it did last night. I had two problems. First, the right side guide was slightly inboard, so I filed that down. The other problem I had was the roll bar spacers. They both stuck out just a bit more than the roll bar mount, so I had to file those down a little. When all that was done, the canopy latched tightly.
A bit of cosmetic work was also on tap for tonight. I noticed last night that the side fuselage rails were visible from under the skirts, so I used my hand seamers to put a small bend in the bottom of the skirts.
This actually turned out great on both sides, and I'm very happy with the appearance of it all now.
I gotta say though, the canopy is wearing me thin on the project right now. But, it's ALMOST over, and I'll have an engine to work on soon. I wanted to get the canopy sealed tonight, but that didn't happen. I have that to do, and make the modification on the top handle to get the canopy to sit in the "taxi" position, and down the road the front windscreen. I'll get the first two done over the weekend, then I hope I can remove the canopy, and forget about it for a while.
2.5 hours