January 29, 2016 – OK I’m going to try to get some of this written down. In hindsight, some of this may seem silly, but since I’m not sure about how some of this should be, I’m going to take my time to get this right. I’ll be consulting with my EAA Tech Advisors and maybe some experienced builders before I move on.
On the surface, this frame looks really good. I don’t think any re-bending will be required.
I did cut roughly 3/16″ off of each front leg where the rollers mount. I later realized that evidently the front legs may not have been the same length. I cut the same amount from each side, and the frame was not square. So I cleaned up one of the “rings” I cut off, taking it down to about 1/8″. You can see the ring in the second and third photos below. If it is in place, the frame is level and I have 3/8″ height difference between the rollbar and the front bow of the frame. The instructions say the frame will be slightly higher, the plans show a 3/8″ difference, and later in the instructions it says to not worry about the dimension right now.
I have 2 19/32″ between the square tubing of the frame and the canopy deck. This is on both sides, within 1/32″, so I call the frame level.
The instructions state that this measurement should be within 1/8″ from front to back.
I had to raise the aft end of the frame to make the square tubes parallel. To do this, I moved the rear slider track forward. This raises the aft end of the frame. There’s a couple of issues with this.
On the plans, there is a full scale detail drawing that shows the profile of the entire canopy side structure. The dimension between the bottom of the square tube and the canopy rail is 2 7/16″. so I have a 5/16″ difference between the drawing and what’s on my airplane. A small difference, but it worries me that something won’t fit correctly later.- The aft bow of the frame is supposed to be inset from the outside of the aft skin by about 1/16″. Because I raised the frame enough to get the square tubes level, the aft bow is above the level of the skin at the top. I could try to lower the aft end by 1/8″ to get the aft bow to clear the level of the skin.
Finally, I have the side rails clamped in place. The square tubes are supposed to be inset from the outer skin by 1/16″. I believe I can achieve that up front with no problem, but there is a bit of overhang on the aft end. The side rails, however, are in a position that I like. They are parallel, and the instructions say they will be about 40 13/16″ apart. Mine are 40 15/16″ apart. That I can live with. I just need to make sure that the rollers inside the tracks will be centered when the canopy plastic is installed.
What I think I’d like to do is lower the entire canopy by maybe the 1/8″ that is the thickness of that little ring that I put back in after cutting the front legs. What scares me about doing this is losing the height difference between the forward bow and the rollbar.
Time: 1:30
