Canopy Start

Finishing kit parts in the house!?!
I took most of the fiberglass parts inside to protect them from the heat. Here they are with the wingtips and some firewall forward parts. Also the rudder and elevator bottoms are just visible. The greenish colored parts came with the finishing kit- wheel pants, spinner, and empennage fairing.

I got started on the canopy frame yesterday. Installed the roll bar last week as a precursor to fitting the canopy frame. The canopy process has been cited as the most difficult building step by many RVers. I've taken this to heart, and am moving very slowly, double and triple-checking measurements and plans before doing anything permanent. I haven't riveted the front fuselage parts in place yet since I wanted to get started on the canopy while it's still warm. The plexiglass canopy is more forgiving when it's warm.

Another view of the canopy frame. It's just setting in place, nothing has been drilled to the fuselage yet. The first steps are to bend the frame to fit the fuselage. It would appear at first blush that I've lucked out- the fit looks good. A little tweaking of the side rails, some adjustment at the rear and hopefully it's good to go... Wish me luck....

More Fuselage Stuff

Some progress in the last month- nothing big but lots of smaller tasks. I've bolted the landing gear weldments in place- the bolts that appear loose in the photo will eventually be special close-tolerance bolts that hold the wing spar in place. Also, I've run the aluminum fuel line tubing from the wing root to the valve, and the brake lines, and the vent lines. I haven't run the fuel line from the pump to the firewall, so the pump is not ready to be put in it's final place yet.


I went ahead and painted the interior- it turned out ok, but I think I will have to redo some areas. I wanted to do this before I started work on the canopy. I went ahead and final riveted the baggage area side panel you see here. All the unpainted areas still showing will be covered eventually with panels (that are finished.) I also ran the black wiring conduit down the center tunnel shown here. It is actually 1.2" polyethylene tubing for sprinkler systems, but it works great here as conduit from the spar carry-through to aft of the baggage area. The smooth walls will make it easy to run wiring for the transponder, aft lighting, and possibly other things such as ELT, strobe supply, and magnetometer.

Not shown, I made up some antenna doublers and drilled and dimpled them, one COMM antenna under the left seat and the transponder antenna just aft of the baggage bulkhead on the right side. I plan to use a wingtip NAV antenna. Also torqued the seat belt anchors. Forward upper fuselage parts are all drilled and ready to rivet- I'm going to wait a bit before finishing that up since it will get in the way for some firewall and rudder pedal installations. I also riveted the aft-most top fuselage skin- waiting on the forward aft skin until the canopy is further along.


FINISH KIT ARRIVES:
Huge box full of steel and fiberglass and plexiglass. Here is the box, showing the pink!? 2-piece cowling and the canopy. Other things in the box: engine mount, roll-over bar, fiberglass wheel pants and fairings, wheels and tires, and more. Coffee cup for scale, was not included ...