Category: Fuselage

Canopy side skins

Jan 22n 2023, 8h

We finish a few items from last time and started the canopy side skins:

  • Latch: Loosen the latch screw, so that the latch can rotate
  • Super track:
    • Drill the stifferning strips and instal them
    • Test: the canopy slides back and forth pretty well
  • Side skin:
    • fabricated c-660
    • match drilled the canopy frame using c-660
    • fabricated c-659
    • Matched drilled c-659
    • Fitted the side skin to the fuselage. There was interference with the left side of the canopy. There is also an issue with the aft hole of the right falling on the weld of the canopy frame
    • Sanded left side of canopy and testing again. There still a little bit of interference

Next week:

  • Sand the left side of the canopy again and recheck the fit of the side skins
  • Fix issue with aft hole interference with the weld according to Vans instructions
  • Continue with side skins

Continue Canopy Small projects

Jan 15th and 16th 2023, 17h

This week

  • Slider Block
    • Finish drilling hole to a .27″ and ensure the canopy can open and close easily
  • Latch: finish drilling, taping and add cotter pin
  • Super tracks
    • Finish sanding the super tracks canopy edge to make flush
    • Match drill bolt hole from inside fuselage #27 drill bit
    • Drill additional 2x screw holes from outside of fuselage #27
    • Countersink 3x screw holes, deburr, and bolt down
    • Align the the track extensions, with the canopy. This took sometime
    • Drill the tracks, and recheck alignment. This took sometime.
    • Install hardware and test. There is still one screw to instal with access issue.

The additional room with the Super tracks looks great

Next week:

  • Latch: Loosen the latch screw
  • Super track:
    • Instal last screw
    • Drill the stifferning strips and instal them
    • Test
  • Canopy side skins: install, test and decide whether we need to go with fiber glass

Canopy Projects

Jan 8th, 2023 9h

  • Bolted down the slider rail
  • Bolted down the slider rail angle to all thread with loctite and torque stripe
  • Remade right slider block from UHMW
  • Fitted and adjusted length of all parts. Now the latch works nicely, it closes and opens the canopy without too much tension.
  • Organized all the finishing kit hardware

To Do Next time:

  • Slider Block
    • Finish drilling hole to a .27″ and ensure the canopy can open and close easily
    • Prime and bolt into place
  • Latch: finish drilling and taping; add cotter pin
  • Super tracks
    • Finish sanding the super tracks canopy edge to make flush
    • Match drill bolt hole from inside fuselage #27 drill bit
    • Drill additional 2x screw holes from outside of fuselage #27
    • Countersink 3x screw holes, deburr, and bolt down

Sliding System Small Jobs

Dec 11th, 2022 8h

We adjusted the holes for the sliding tracks, now all the screws align well.

Tapped the hole in the roll bar.

Fabricated and installed the anchor blocks. One anchor block did not workout, so we need to buy the part and redo it.

Enlarged the wholes and counter sunk the canopy sliding rail, and installed screws. A couple screws broke and need to be replaced

Next time:

Redo the right anchor block.

Fill the remaining of the screws for the slider rails.

Work on the latch.

Organizer the engine and avionics future work.

Stretch goal: Canopy super tracks extender.

Cutting, drilling the windshield, height of canopy to windshield

October 30th, November 13, December 4th 2022, 24h

The fitting of the windshield was done by look, not much guidance from Vans, even after I called with them.

To adjust the height and transition from the windshield to the canopy, we needed to adjust the height of the canopy frame slightly, which got the top portion to match. Then to get the whole contour to match, we had to add washers between the roll bar and the windshield, as specified in the instructions.

The next items was to finish the attachement of the slider tracks. The slider tracks are attached via screws and nuts; however, there is no access from the bottom to fit any tools for the nuts, so we switched it to nut-plates. The alinement of the nut-plates is tricky.

Drilling the Canopy

October 16th, 23rd 2022, 16h

Drilling, deburing and counter sinking.

Unfortunately, the latch hole ended up cracking, though I followed all instructions from Vans precisely. I drilled it to size and deburred it and sanded it thoroughly. Unfortunately, the hole size as specified by Van is too tight around the latch. After going through some cycles of cooling and heating through the week, it ended up cracking! I wish Vans asked for a slightly bigger size hole to avoid this.

Canopy Fitting, Avionics Survey

August 7th, 17th, 21st, 28th, Sept 5th 2022, 40h

It took many days to fit the canopy. Moving one side, moves the other. It felt like an infinite loop of adjustment. I called Vans a couple of times, and the conclusion was that it will never get to perfect. Good enough is the goal. So, we went with that conclusion and called the bending done.

On the great news side, all the avionics showed up, I surveyed all the parts, the main components were there, however, not all the mounting hardware. I reached out to AFS mentioning that I am missing the mounting hardware, and they mentioned that not all components come with it!