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Tip-up Canopy Question

C

Capt_Riney

Member
I'm building an RV-7 with tip-up canopy and have an issue with the WD-716 1/2" tube and the C-702 canopy skin. On each side of the canopy, the outboard 3 or 4 rivet hole locations on the WD-716 tube have a significant gap between the tube and the C-702 skin. Van's says this is "normal" and suggest filling the gap with washers before riveting. However, a couple of the locations have a gap as large as 3/8", and that is a LOT of washers. Just wonder what some of you other builders have done. Thanks.

Mark Rinehart
RV-7 Indianapolis
 
I used washers then ended up filling in the gap with epoxy so they are hidden. The canopy on these models suck! For such a nicely engineered aircrtaft it's a shame to have this canopy that seems like an intern designed.
20180912-173514.jpg
 
I placed a piece of clear packing tape as a backstop behind the gap. Mixed up flox/epoxy with pigment and made a nice filet. No spacers or washers.
 
IMG_2440-M.jpg


I cut some small tubing segments, filled them with aluminum epoxy putty and so far they have been pretty solid (750+ hours). You could probably use something like JB Weld to hold these in place and fill them.
 
I think I just had the last one or two that I just couldn't make work out with any amount of massaging. I didn't even mess with trying to "fill" the gap. I just put a rivet in the empty holes in the top glair shield and moved on. It has looked fine to me for all these years.
 
This part produced for the RV6,A was a perfect fit, at least for the two that I have done. But when Van's upgraded to the RV7,A something changed and they have yet to correct it.... very sad.:confused:

It is a very well known problem, Please fix it.
 
I asked Vans, during a Q&A session at Oshkosh, if there were any plans to change the 7 tip up design similar to RV-14. The answer was ?No?.
Fair enough, they need to look forward ......
 
As a 7 Slider builder I've cussed plenty, gave my slider decision second thoughts many times having heard how much easier the tipper is... Guess not.

Sorry to hear about the troubles. I am sure once she's flying you'll never look back.
 
I also used aluminum tubing fabricating a radius on one end to match the tubing frame. I then found longer rivets to keep it together and it's a great fit.

As much as we like exception fit and finish in our builds this is an area not worth spending lots of time on. If you use the tubing method rather than washers it looks like a clean assembly and less attention will be brought to this area.

You can also convince yourself that the spaces are there for the reason of heat escape of the avionics.
 
The problem with the tip up

The problem with the tip up canopy is all because Vans are throwing us a few curveballs. It should be an easy structure to build if you look at the plans ,but right of the bat there is a problem. Let me try to explain... ( sorry for the long essay)...

1: The nylon blocks that are used for the canopy hinge points are not the correct size. There are two nylon blocks per side , one thick and one thin. Go and measure the thickness of each and you will find that the thin block is right on the money at 1/8 of an inch, but the thicker block is not 3/4 inch as in the plans, but 1/32 inch thicker. This causes the 1/4 inch gooseneck hinges not fitting in the gap where they are supposed to go. The gap is therefore to narrow. In the instructions they say to bevel the front of the goosenecks to fit in the gap ,and sort of force them in. This is where things start to go pear shaped, every time you take the frame of and put it back on will fit slightly differently due to the flex of the canopy frame, but if you just use your time and mill the blocks down to exactly 3/4 of an inch ( as they should have been) the fit will be perfect and the goosenecks will just slide in the 1/4 inch gap with no flexing at all.

2. The C-702 skin does not fit the prepunched holes in the canopy frame. This in turn causes the backside of the skin over the curved tubing part to bulge away from the tube, as seen on a few pictures on this thread. The problem is with the row of prepunched holes along the side of the C-702 skin that are supposed to line up with the holes along the sides of the canopy frame. They are punched in the wrong spot, and this causes the problem. I asked Van?s if they could make me a blank C-702 skin without the prepunched holes, so that I could then drill the holes in the skin where they are supposed to go, but the answer was a most definite NO. Maybe if there was enough interest or pressure on them they might just do it, or even better, make a C-702 skin that actually fits the frame without any bulging.
Regards
Arie
 
This is an area that Van's decided to change the procedure between the RV6 and the upgraded RV7. When I did my canopy frame, I followed the instructions for the RV6 and all went well. All of the parts fit like they should.

They changed the completeness of the parts, and the procedure to build..... Why, I don't know. It was a procedure that worked well with very good results. If you can read the instructions for the RV6, see the parts provided then, and compare it to the RV7, you will see what I am talking about.
 
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