4 hrs
Finished first pass of trimming on canopy. This is hard work. Riveting is easy in comparison, although when it's 95 in the garage no task is pleasant. Bought a couple more grades of sandpaper at Home Depot, and used them to finish the cut edges. Finally getting the hang of cutting with the die grinder. It's agonizingly slow until you find the sweet spot, then it's just slow. And learning how to finish the edges as I go.

1 hr
Meant to start cutting the canopy but airpark duties interfered. Did manage to practise by cutting the nose gear slot on the lower cowl. I can now hold the lower engine cowl roughly in place on the front of the airplane.

1 hr for Tuesday
Finally brought the canopy bubble down from it's storage place. It sure took up a lot of room. With Lynne's help, got it downstairs, marked the centerline, and positioned it on the plane for the first time. Used masking tape to mark the first cut lines for removing extra material.



Also marked the lower cowl for cutting the gear leg slot. If I'm going to be cutting with the die grinder, I wanted to get both of these tasks done.



For Monday, July 26
1 hr
Started looking at building the alternator cable and finishing the main power feed. But didn't have the terminals needed. So a long delayed order went off to AC Spruce for a bunch of various hardware bits.
Then installed the forward top skin and reinstalled the canopy frame parts. Now ready to work with the plexiglass canopy!

Sunday, July 25
6 hrs
Can't believe I missed an entry for Sunday. Spent most of the day fretting over the canopy frame. Wanted to adjust the right aft bow a bit to allow the right side lower rail to fit better. Made the bends needed (after about 2 hrs of trying) and they completely screwed up everything. The rest of the canopy was almost perfect before a couple of slight bends, then it was all messed up. That explains the other 4 hours.
Ended up undoing one of the bends as best as I could, then had to undo a twist the first two hours added. Finally got it all back together, and it seems to fit reasonably well. Weighing in at one standard pilot (pre supersized units), I just don't have enough mass to permanently bend these steel frames over short spans by just standing or jumping on them.

Canopy at last!

5 hrs, 9 rivets
Took care of a few preliminary canopy tasks a while back, but today marked the beginning of trying to fit the canopy frame in earnest.

Started by priming the canopy slider rail spacer and then going for a bike ride. After lunch, riveted the slider rail together.

Then put the canopy frame into place. Read the instructions for the 4th time. The canopy is one of the most difficult tasks to do. It's hard to get right, it's expensive when you mess up, and there are numerous horror stories on Van's forums. Fortunately, there are also numerous posts about how builders have done their canopies.

For the record, I intend to depart from the plans just a bit and use a couple of techniques that have proven successful for others. First, I will use SikaFlex (like the glue that holds your car windshield on) to glue the canopy to the frame, instead of drilling lots of holes in the plexiglass and using pop rivets to secure it to the frame. Second, I intend to make a fiberglass skirt, rather than trying to fit the aluminum skirt called out in the plans. The plexiglass canopy is cut down to a bit smaller than the opening it covers, so the skirt is just a fairing that covers the rest, provides a smooth transition, and helps to seal out the moving air.

After spending about an hour checking various measurements, I decided to first attack the forward bow height. This requires trimming the lower end of the forward bow a bit to bring it down. The two sides were a bit different lengths, and trimming the ends brought it to the correct height and centered it up nicely to boot.



The left side bow is nearly perfect. The right required a bit of bending to match the longeron. I think it's the right shape, but the aft end is about 1/8" too far outboard. I think the fix for this will be to adjust the rear bow a bit, bending it in, which will bring the aft end of the side bow in.

But before I do that bending, I will drill the tracks to the decks, because after measuring a whole bunch of times and adjusting, I think they are in the optimum place. After that I will start drilling the rail in place because it also is just about right.

All in all, I think the frame requires very little work. The front bow isn't perfect, The left side is nearly perfect, the right side is a bit oversized. But I don't think I can improve it. A fiberglass transition will help cover up the flaw.

1.3 hrs
Finish drilling and countersinking the canopy rail parts. Ready to prime the spacer and then rivet them together.

1700 hrs!

2.0 hrs
Started making the canopy slide rail. Layed out the rivet spacing, then predrilled the 762 rail. Centered that on the 763 spacer, and then match drilled. Bent the 762 to match the 763 curve as close as possible. Then deburred the 762. Resisted the urge to keep going, since 2.0 hrs is enough for a week night.

Spent 30 minutes the previous night clearing the disaster area from the EAA workbench. Ahhh, a nice clean work table! Also in the previous two days, spent a little unlogged time making a shim for the roll bar to get it at 90 degrees to the canopy decks. This took a .063 spacer under the front left bolt of the roll bar flange. I tapered this a tiny bit so the roll bar flange fit nice and snug. Then clamped the slider tracks in place. Ready to start canopy work!