Van's Air Force
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RV-9A Slider Canopy Frame
- Thread starter Mark C.
- Start date
I don't think he wants to REPLACE Van's plans, just see pictures to help visualize and orient. We have a builder at my airfield, working on my same model, about a year or so ahead of me. Anytime I get confused (often) I walk over and have a look. He also tells me all the goofs he made, so I get to make my own.
Dkb
Last edited:
I have some pix of my canopy installation including my attempts to straighten the frame, bonding the canopy to the frame with Sikaflex, and making a one-piece glass skirt.
Not sure if they will help you in your situation, but have a look.
The aft bow on my frame was asymmetric. One side had a considerably tighter radius than the other, verified by placing the bow on a large piece of vellum drafting paper, tracing the bow, then flipping the paper over and setting the bow down on the paper again. The traced line was visible through the paper; there was a good 1" of difference at worst. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo. Too irritated by what I had discovered.
Since then I've seen at least one other frame with the same asymmetry, and an early frame (round side bows instead of square) with an aft bow that was utterly symmetric. I spent a lot of time- 20+ hours- trying to get it right. Never quite got there, resorted to shimming to get the canopy to follow the fuselage skin, hidden by the Sika.
Not sure if they will help you in your situation, but have a look.
The aft bow on my frame was asymmetric. One side had a considerably tighter radius than the other, verified by placing the bow on a large piece of vellum drafting paper, tracing the bow, then flipping the paper over and setting the bow down on the paper again. The traced line was visible through the paper; there was a good 1" of difference at worst. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo. Too irritated by what I had discovered.
Since then I've seen at least one other frame with the same asymmetry, and an early frame (round side bows instead of square) with an aft bow that was utterly symmetric. I spent a lot of time- 20+ hours- trying to get it right. Never quite got there, resorted to shimming to get the canopy to follow the fuselage skin, hidden by the Sika.
Sliding Canopy Misc.
Here are some sites that I have bookmarked in the past; so I can review them in the future when I finally get around to gluing my plexi-glass to the frame, etc., on my Rv-9A.
For me the sliding frame has been by far the worst aspect of the entire build, bar none. My first sliding frame mfg. with some twists that made it impossibly to bend to conform to the fuselage. It finally cracked after wasting over 50 hrs. trying to make it work. I then bought a new frame and that one was far closer than the first to where it needed to be, and therefore only required minor tweaking to make it conform (fairly closely) to plans specs.
http://www.flightinnovations.com/canopy.html
http://www.my9a.com/finish14.asp
http://www.myrv7.com/viewlog.php?chapterid=14
http://www.vx-aviation.com/rv-9a/photos/Fuselage/Canopy_photos.html
http://wiki.matronics.com/wiki/index.php/Gluing_Your_Canopy
Doug Lomheim
90116
Here are some sites that I have bookmarked in the past; so I can review them in the future when I finally get around to gluing my plexi-glass to the frame, etc., on my Rv-9A.
For me the sliding frame has been by far the worst aspect of the entire build, bar none. My first sliding frame mfg. with some twists that made it impossibly to bend to conform to the fuselage. It finally cracked after wasting over 50 hrs. trying to make it work. I then bought a new frame and that one was far closer than the first to where it needed to be, and therefore only required minor tweaking to make it conform (fairly closely) to plans specs.
http://www.flightinnovations.com/canopy.html
http://www.my9a.com/finish14.asp
http://www.myrv7.com/viewlog.php?chapterid=14
http://www.vx-aviation.com/rv-9a/photos/Fuselage/Canopy_photos.html
http://wiki.matronics.com/wiki/index.php/Gluing_Your_Canopy
Doug Lomheim
90116
