Canopy Skirt Overlapping The Fuselage

I would be interested to hear what horizontal clearance people have between the portion of the canopy skirt that overlaps the top of the fuselage and the outside surface of the fuselage.

Page 34-04 shows the canopy frame overhanging the fuselage by 1/32".

Page 34-06 section A-A (i.e. the forward half of the canopy skirt) shows a very little clearance (i.e. less than the thickness of the skirt). Whereas, section B-B (i.e. the rearward half of the canopy skirt) shows the canopy skirt touching the outside surface of the fuselage.

On my project the forward half of the canopy skirt has 1/32" clearance to just touching the outside surface of the fuselage. The rear half of the canopy skirt is just touching the outside surface of the fuselage.

Thanks.

Brett H
Columbus, IN

1/32" is a good target. "Touching" is not so good since it may result in scratched paint and negative cosmetics -- if that is important to you. Also keep in mind that paint thickness will take up some of that clearance. Canopy air leakage along the sides is addressed by weatherstripping and inflight the canopy sides tend to bow out and up due to air pressure.

Thanks for your response.

To increase the clearance between the canopy skirt and fuselage, I will where needed add a shim between the canopy skirt and the canopy frame.

Since the canopy has already been fitted and drilled to the canopy frame, the shims seem to be the best method to increase the clearance.

Brett H
Columbus, IN

Skirt clearance

I made sure there is adequate clearance because as the person on previous post said you don't want the skirt to scrape the fuselage paint and as you open and close. Just enough to vertically cover the fuse edge. Also as you open and close the bottom of the canopy it will warp slightly. Personally I have 1/16 to an 1/8 clearance. The seal is mostly done by the rubber stripping. Good Luck Hope this helps Ben

I "broke" the lower edge of the skirt away from side and "broke" the edge by the canopy inward for a better seal. 600 hrs so far no scraping.