Finding Canopy Centerline - RV-7 Tip Up

[704CH]

I measured across from edge to edge, also from tooling mark to tooling mark and found what I think is centerline. However the black markings on the nose and tail of the canopy, don?t map to what I found as centerline..

Looking for help from someone with current experience on the canopy. Are those markings that look like hand drawn sharpie marks supposed to help determine centerline?

How did others do it?

Thanks

 

[NDrv8r]

canopy center

It is reasonably easy to find a rivit or halfway between 2 rivits on the fuselage that is the center of the fuselage. Now make a magic marker line on the fuselage to indicate fuselage center.

lay the canopy on the fuselage and adjust for best fit. looking through the top of the canopy locate the marks you made on the fuselage and duplicate them on the canopy. this becomes your lateral reference.

 

[Mel]

Larry's method is the one to use. You can't measure the canopy itself because it is not perfectly symmetrical.

I discovered this when I painted my canopy. I first tried measuring to the centerline and drawing an arc across the canopy. Didn't look at all right. Finally just kept working until it looked right.

 

[704CH]

Thanks Guys, I wasn't thinking about it this way. I thought I was just missing the way to measure the canopy center itself. I think I am going to take the combination approach as my "measured" center line looks to be about right and the canopy sits nicely on the fuse when lined up center.

Wasn't sure how accurate I had to be with this and wanted to check with the team since the canopy is about as expensive as it gets.. I wanted to get it right.

Any other perspectives, please contribute..

Thx

 

[Don Jones]

One other comment

I used the method described by the other guys, but I actually changed the centerline markings on the plexi a couple of times during the trimming. As you trim the canopy it becomes more flexible especially after the big cut, and I found that I could adjust the fit and make it better by moving it around on the fuselage and then remarking my reference marks on the canopy.