Canopy framing set up?

[bret]

Hello my fello RVers, I have a question for the folks that have finished the canopy. I am at the stage of setting up the rear slide rail, C-762, moving it forward or aft adjusts the rear canopy height, before drilling the rail to the fuse, I would like to know what you used for the canopy frame, to straight edge gap, I would like to get this close so that the canopy skirt will fit. So, I measure the canopy thickness at 11/64, I plan on silk a flex, so do we add the thickness of the canopy, pluss the thickness of...say an O ring for silka gap? Thanks, Bret

 

[hesty]

Bret,
Just a thought, but why not wait till you have glued the canopy to the frame. I am at the same point as you and plan to make final height adjustments once I have the canopy sika'd to the frame. Hopefully that will occur sometime this week...
Chad

 

[bret]

WOW, that is a great idea! I never thought of that. Thank you for your sugestion! VAF to the rescue again.

 

[hesty]

Bret,
I have researched this to the point of nausea. Want to run this by you and any other Sika experienced VAF folks...

I have further bent my frame inwards so that it is exactly where it needs to be AFTER it is clamped to the canopy(canopy spring back puts it in correct position). I am "assuming" the Sika will hold the canopy where I have it clamped. I am NOT planning to use straps to pull it in any further since it is pre-bent for the canopy pull and is spot on while clamped. Any reason to believe SIKA will not hold it just like the clamps? Do you see any holes in this plan before I crack out the cleaner and primer??

Cheers
Chad

 

[bret]

I think it will hold? Another question, when you set up the clearance for the tracks, (frame 1/16 in from outside of fuse) did you come up with the dementions called out in the plans for the measurment inside the track 40 inch and change or something, mine came out 1/2 inch wider.

 

[DaveO]

Food for thought.
Once you have glued the canopy to the frame, you cannot change the shape the frame any longer. Be sure that the frame is bent correctly before glueing. I made sure that the frame work correctly, was correctly positioned, and would slide smooth passed the fuselage evenly.
After I had all that complete and it worked good. I found that the plexiglass pulled the frame out about 1/2 inch.
this was the hardest part of the project for me.
Dave

 

[hesty]

I think it will hold? Another question, when you set up the clearance for the tracks, (frame 1/16 in from outside of fuse) did you come up with the dementions called out in the plans for the measurment inside the track 40 inch and change or something, mine came out 1/2 inch wider.

I have a QB fuselage and mine seems a bit wide. I did not pay much attention to the 40 inch thing. I will have somewhat large fish mouth at rear part of track. oh well.
Chad

 

[Dbro172]

My QB fuse is a good 1/2" wide at the front bow. The front roll bar width matched this perfectly. My tracks are installed about 3/16" less than parallel and my scallops at the rear of the track are exactly as scaled from the plans. Everything turned out fine. When the plane is in the tail low, tail dragger position the canopy rolls back under its own weight.

The benefit of getting the rear and side bows exactly per plan (1/16" recess) is that the aluminum side skirt and rear skirts will be a non issue to install. Mine was not perfect, but I still figured out how to make the aluminum rear skirts work without any ski jumps. Look at my build log and see if you can tell what I modified. No sikaflex or fiberglass skirts needed. Complete slider in about 4 weekends

If your rear bow or side bows end up too proud or too far recessed from their adjacent surfaces you'll probably be learning how to make fiberglass skirts.

 

[bret]

My QB fuse is a good 1/2" wide at the front bow. The front roll bar width matched this perfectly. My tracks are installed about 3/16" less than parallel and my scallops at the rear of the track are exactly as scaled from the plans. Everything turned out fine. When the plane is in the tail low, tail dragger position the canopy rolls back under its own weight.

The benefit of getting the rear and side bows exactly per plan (1/16" recess) is that the aluminum side skirt and rear skirts will be a non issue to install. Mine was not perfect, but I still figured out how to make the aluminum rear skirts work without any ski jumps. Look at my build log and see if you can tell what I modified. No sikaflex or fiberglass skirts needed. Complete slider in about 4 weekends

If your rear bow or side bows end up too proud or too far recessed from their adjacent surfaces you'll probably be learning how to make fiberglass skirts.

Checked out your site, nice job! I have seen people take a year or longer to do the canopy, You have skills! I like how your top latch handle turned out.

 

[Dbro172]

Thanks,

Checked out your site, nice job! I have seen people take a year or longer to do the canopy, You have skills! I like how your top latch handle turned out.

I'll make a seperate post about the handle, it is actually one of the roll bar handles from aircraft extras http://www.aircraftextras.com/Handles1.htm that i planned to put in the roll bar.

The downside to building the canopy quickly is the lack of step by step documentation i made to help others. However, i spent a ton of time researching while waiting for my finish kit. The biggest help was from Matt Burch's site here http://www.rv7blog.com/category/fuselage/canopy/