5/7/03 - 5/10/03 22 hours
Riveted the top skins on the rear fuselage. I tried to complete everything
going forward before riveting the top skins. So, some wiring was ran, the
shoulder harness cable installed, etc. This is the last big skin except
for the top skin on the forward fuse.
Built the battery box.
Hung some stuff on the firewall.
5/13/03 - 5/15/03 11 hours
Finish kit arrived Tuesday, Linda and I inventoried everything Tuesday
night.
Here are some shots of the slider frame.
I put in about 11 hours on the canopy on Saturday and another 3 on Sunday but I'm real close to having the bubble look like I want it too.
Getting ready for the first cut. This is an extremely conservative cut but
the idea is to get the hang of what works when cutting the canopy. I've
used electrical tape to mark where I want to cut and the used some masking tape
on top of that to help protect the canopy.
After
the first cut, I placed the frame inside the bubble. I marked and drilled
the hole where the handle passes through with a unibit. The next cut will
be even with the frame bars.
Another cut has been made and I'm getting ready to split this thing in
half. You can see the black electrical tape that I used for marking where
to cut and I've also use duct tape to hold the sides together during and
immediately after splitting this thing into two pieces.
It's two pieces now! The canopy bubble and the windscreen.
After
sanding the edges, I mounted the plexiglass back to the frame and onto the
fuselage. I have not done very much trimming on the back. I've taped
the bubble down tight to the frame and now I'm ready to drill the holes.
I've read a bunch about not using a regular drill bit on plexi but the plans
state to use a #40 drill bit and drill through the plexi and the steel
frame. Well, I tried it on a scrap piece of plexi and it didn't seem to
crack the glass. (I'm writing this after having drilled all the holes with
a #40 bit, then reaming the plexi with a 1/8 plexi bit, countersinking using a
#30 pilot countersink bit, drilling the steel out to #30 and then reaming the
plexi with a 5/32 plexi bit.)
Holes
drilled and bubble clecoed into position.
All
holes drilled & countersunk. I'm going to have to trim the plexiglass
one more time. I placed the inside skirt on to check fit and the plexi is
too long. It is to close to the frame bar and needs trimming one more
time. That's ok, it's easier to take a little more off than try to
add a little back.
Chris and I spent the weekend working on the sliding canopy and cutting the windscreen.
This
is the roll bar and the sliding canopy frame with the latch closed. Here's
what I did with this. I made sure that the sliding frame remained parallel
to the longerons and put spacers under the roll bar to lean it aft. In
other words, the roll bar is not at a 90 degree angle to the longerons.
It's the only thing that makes sense unless you want to spend all year trying to
bend the sliding frame. There is a post on the RV list that quotes Van's
as saying this is the appropriate thing to do. I wish I had seen that post
before I fretted over matching up these two pieces.
The rear support of the canopy frame.
The
side skirts.
The inside of the side skirts with the skirt braces. I talked Linda into
climbing inside and holding the braces while I drilled them from the
outside. This was one that I couldn't do by myself.
Here's the finished rear skirts. They turned out pretty good.
I stole this idea from -6A builder Mike Stewart. I taped a couple of one
by's to the back plate and used the orange hammer in the picture to put a
slight bow about an inch from the edge of the skirts. Then just keep
pulling forward as you drill. Not that big of a deal.