Canopy

Last night and tonight I installed the remaining canopy seals. I decided to remove the canopy from the plane so I could get better access, and that made the job much easier.

Tonight I installed one of the canopy seals and cut others to shape. The seal went in surprisingly easily, and I was able to torque up the final 20-odd nuts securing the canopy along the aft edge.

Tonight I feathered the forward edge of the canopy fairing down to the aluminum skin. I decided to leave this where it is for now, and have Dad check it out when he visits in July.

I moved on and installed the canopy unsafe micro switch, and the avionics fans on the glare-shield. None of these are wired up yet, I’ll get to that later.

Tonight I sanded the fairing, and was able to complete shaping it, and sanding to a feathered edge on both the bottom and top edges. I then applied a coat of resin to fill in all the pin holes and to gave a smooth surface to finish sanding. It took a while using 150 grit sandpaper, but it wasn’t that difficult. It will be good to see it tomorrow with some fresh eyes.

Tonight I sanded the micro balloons I had applied a couple of days ago. It’s helping build up the low spots and evening out the surface of the fairing.

After I was done sanding, I applied some more micro balloons to fill in some more low spots. After I sand this latest round, it should be getting close to final shape.

Tonight I added some micro balloons to fill in the low spots on the canopy fairing and areas that needed some filler.

With the resin cured, I sanded the fiberglass fairing to a smooth and even surface. There are definitely low spots that need to be filled, and I don’t want to sand any further through the fiberglass layers so, it’s time to fill it with micro balloons.

Today I got up very early and did the fiberglassing work. I had prepared last night by getting everything ready and watching the vans videos one more time.

Everything went fairly smoothly and I was happy with how it turned out. I used all but one of the thinnest pieces of glass to make the shape. I added a few pieces to build up a couple of low spots across the center. The radius looked very close in the end, and I’m hopeful it will turn out well.

The whole set of steps took just under 4 hours. One error I know I made was placing the masking tape on the forward side, too close to the edge. The first layer of glass was wider than necessary, and overlapped the masking tape. The masking tape is sitting on top of electrical tape which defines the forward edge. I think it will be ok, as the whole forward edge gets sanded away to a feathered edge anyway, so I will just have more sanding to do than I otherwise would have.

Today I cut out all of the fiberglass pieces per the plans. Then I cleaned the surface where the layup will go, with the isopropyl alcohol.

I used a pizza cutter, but probably should have gotten a fabric cutting knife instead. The pizza cutter worked ok, if you put significant down force on it while rolling.

I didn’t have much time today (or this past week), but I was able to fabricate a Redius Gauge template, and cut out the paper templates for the fiberglass sheets.

I also received some Dacron tape “ply peel” to use on the next steps.