Canopy
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Rear Tip-Up Canopy Frame (Rollbar)

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This is very touchy to build correctly. Be sure to take your time and keep everything clamped well. As I was drilling, the top split ~1/32" which ended up around 3/16" shorter at the bottom. So I ordered a few new parts and tried again. It was more successful the second time, though once it was riveted it shrunk 3/32", typical for a lot of builders, but still frustrating after trying so hard. I ended up pre-loading it about half the distance, and lived with a slight gap on both sides with the other half. It is good enough.

Front Deck Assembly

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Nothing to really note here except I bent the firewall and the middle panel to 8 degrees for alignment. I couldn't find that bend angle anywhere in the plans, but I measured it off of the holes on the blue ribs. Also, it is pretty cold outside now (about 20 degrees) and my little electric heater doesn't cut it with an un-insulated garage. I guess it is what you have to put up with to get it done...luckily I have plenty of warm clothes for mountaineering that help a lot.

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The forward top skin is a tight fit, and as a result a couple of the holes did not align well. I drilled the lower holes from inside since the fuselage was already dimpled.  The canopy release mechanism is a bit tricky to get installed, but with a trim here and there it worked out okay.

Canopy Latch

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Like other builders, I built a drill guide out of some scrap on a drill press to minimize any wavering of the holes for the canopy latch. Another builder then suggested using that guide with a Dremel to speed up the creation of the slot. I first cut the slot in the guide on the work bench and then in the fuse using the guide for cutting the slot and to serve as protection. Using the guide with the Dremel worked out very well. It only took about an hour to make the slots in the fuselage with this method, including the filing that took place after the cutting.

 
Forward Tip-Up Canopy Frame

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Started fitting the forward canopy frame to the front deck. It is going to be a lot of work to get a good fit. Just to drill the aft holes in the welded tube required a hammer to get an acceptable alignment. I think that is going to be a theme for while...good thing I have an assortment of hammers. The canopy block spacers needed a 3/16" trim, followed by 1/16" trim of the canopy seal strip in order to get the skin to sit within the .020-0.032 spacing required.

 

Next came the drilling and riveting of the canopy frame (pics to follow later).

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Then it was time to drill the hinge points. This is when I noticed my next issue. When the frame was installed in a position that kept the sides from hovering taller the forward skin, the center of the skin was drooping 1/16" of an inch. I decided that I could put a spacer under the skin to fix that and drilled the hinge points as directed in the plans.