Month: December 2016

October 3 to 27,   2016

There was almost as much masking, sanding and fitting of the rear window as for the tip-up canopy.  The rear window fits over the top of the roll bar and under the fuselage skin.  The sides and aft edge of the window are trimmed to about an inch beyond the edge of the skin.

The front edge of the window is cut and sanded to match the aft end of the closed canopy.  With the tip-up closed and the window removed, a fine line is drawn across the roll bar just behind the tip-up to guide glue application.

Gluing was done after moving the project to the Dalton Airport.  SIKA glue application was similar to that used for the tip-up canopy. The rear window was braced against the clecoed skin using thin battens and a board resting on the baggage compartment top longerons.

The rear skin was riveted, and the Inner and outer protective plastic film replaced with food wrap on the outside of the window.

This post is not meant to be a step by step guide as to gluing the window. Adjusting the window placement during gluing is difficult. There were many opening and closings of the tip-up during the process.

August 7, 2016

The standard Vans RV Canopy Latch Handle protrudes from the fuselage out into the air stream.  I purchased a JDAir system that is flush to the fuselage, sitting in rectangular slots cut in the skin.  The mechanism consists of a latch that is pushed in to release a handle that pops out of the skin. The handle can then be pulled to open the canopy.

The handles are fitted and bolted to doublers that will later be riveted to the skin.  Then, a metal template is cut and fitted to the handles.  The template shown above best positions the slot pattern that is transferred to the skin.

The slots are cut, and the latch mechanism is bolted to the doublers and riveted to the skin.  The above photo shows the completed flush latch handles at a later stage of the build.

This last photo, taken from the JDAir website, shows the cockpit side of the handles.