Random Items & Canopy Frame Cont'd

I keep chipping away at the canopy. Every step has a problem of course, which is apparently normal.  Let's just say the canopy isn't the shining star of Van's design.  To keep me from throwing things across the garage, I've been knocking off little tasks here and there to keep some momentum going.  I crawled back into the tailcone today and installed the seat belt cables to the anchor point and also ran the static line up to where it'll tee (one tube going to the ADAHRS in the tailcone, the other tube going forward to the instrument panel).  I also stumbled on the fact that the rudder cable is held in place by an adel clamp where it exits out the fuselage to the rudder.  There is a plastic tube running along the last 5" or so of the cable to protect it from the skin at the exit point, and for a long time I've been wondering if I should put some proseal on it to keep it held in place.  Nope, adel clamp.  While I was back there, I saw that I had never put nutplates in place for the elevator control horn access covers.  There is an access hole on each side.  I dimpled all of the holes that I could, but my squeezer wouldn't fit to do the upper screw holes.  I should have dimpled these when everything was a big flat sheet.  I'll have to get creative to figure out how to dimple without the squeezer.

Moving back up to the canopy, I started working on the channel that sets in front of the roll bar and attaches as the back support to the hinged canopy.  It's a thick piece of aluminum that is formed with flanges in a curve, so it requires a lot of fluting to flatten it out.  That's easier said than done because of the thickness.  I got the left side in pretty good shape, but have a ways to go on the right side.  For whatever reason it's been a lot more difficult to get sorted.

I drilled the center splice plate to the left channel.  It won't get drilled to the right channel until things are clamped tight in the right place.

I thought I'd lay out the side rails of the frame to get the general pieces all put together and slowly sneak up on getting everything in the right position before I start drilling and riveting.  I ran into an issue right away though.  The side rails have a piece of aluminum angle welded to the rear.  This angle is supposed to mate up with the channel.  The right side rail is fine, but the left one is welded at a goofy angle.  It doesn't look all that bad, but a 1/8" gap at the base throws the rear face of the angle off so bad that there's no way it can mate up flat to the channel.

On top of that, it's also canted at a major angle.  This is looking top down.  I emailed Van's to ask them about it. Hopefully they'll send a new part.  I don't see how it's usable as-is.

Switching gears again, I looked ahead in the plans to find another task I could knock out.  The front canopy frame skin has three stiffeners that get riveted underneath.  Each of these have 3 big holes that need to have flanges (not sure what they're really called) put into them to stiffen things up.  I'm sure this is one of those tasks that Van's leaves undone to fulfill the 51% rule.  The instructions just say to cut a notch into a piece of wood and work around the hole, bending the skin up 15-25 degrees.  It's not exactly an elegant way to go about it, but works.

Aileron Trim

I wasn't up for fighting with the canopy tonight, so instead pulled out the electric aileron trim to see how that all goes together.  I neglected to take photos of the actual fabrication and how the mechanism all goes together, so here's a beautiful picture of the plans:

I drilled the holes and notches in the block that holds the pivot arm.

Lots of layout, drilling, nutplates, etc later, I had the attach bracket made and the block and pivot arm mechanism attached.  I screwed the bracket to the center seat ribs.  I haven't located and attached the servo motor itself yet.  That'll be up next.

Engine, Canopy and Fuselage Misc

I need to do some catching up from the last week.  I got a call from Continental/Titan a few weeks ago letting me know that they were starting my engine assembly.  One painful check later, and last week I had it sitting in my garage.  It's been bagged/pickled for storage, so I'm just going to leave it as-is until I'm ready to actually hang it.  This is the the Titan IO-340 with low compression (~174 hp) to allow for the use of mogas.  It's set up for a fixed pitch prop, but has the hollow crank, so if I ever decide to go to a constant speed prop it would be a fairly easy swap.

Since the interior is painted (at least the areas that will show), I bought some low tack vinyl and covered up the areas that would be prone to getting damaged while I crawl around the plane.  The vinyl is pretty light weight, but I think it'll do the job.

The center section bulkhead caps can finally get pop riveted in place.

The next big assembly is going to be the canopy, which means the top front fuselage skin needs to go back on to ensure everything is rigid before fitting the canopy frame.  This skin was every bit as difficult to get on as it was the last time!  The trick is a couple of straps and heat, and even with that it was a fight.  The only portion that didn't line up well was the outer left aft side that lays on the sub panel.  I had to drill new holes into the sub panel flange (just the last 3).  When the skin comes off again, I'll put some doublers in place on the flange to make up for the goofy holes.

I can finally start putting in parts for good - the left side canopy latch mechanism is done, although I still need to get the teleflex cable adjusted before I put the cover plate on.  I can't adjust the cable until the horizontal seat back brace is in place though, which I can't put in until the top skin is riveted on.

The latch itself on the right side is in place, but the support for the cable will have to wait for the seat back brace installation.

The next step in fitting the canopy frame is to fill those pesky gaps between the skin and the frame.  I decided to try using aluminum epoxy putty, but no local stores had it, so now I'm playing the waiting game.  Since I had Dad here to help, we decided to tackle the aft top skin on the tailcone.  I don't want to completely enclose the tailcone yet simply because it'll be a little easier to run wiring if it's open.  I didn't want to waste having a second set of hands though, so we glued some wire mounts onto the bottom skin (the tail light and elevator trim wires will be attached to these).  Even with the aft most top skin on, I should be able to reach in from each end and run the wires.

We laid boards onto the bulkheads in the tailcone, put some padding down and I crawled in with a bucking bar.  Dad used the rivet gun on the outside and I bucked from the inside.  In a few hours we had a completed skin.  One more down!  It looks great.  The one area I will probably fix just for aesthetics is the rivet line of the bulkhead in the middle of the skin.  The bulkhead flange is just a hair short, so the skin pulled down at the rivet line.  The rivets are set great, but it creates kind of a slight cinched waist look.  I'll put some very light filler on that line before I paint to flatten it out.

It's really starting to look like a plane!