I obviously still have a lot to do with the FWF, but now that I have the majority of the panel area wiring done, I figured I may as well put the canopy back on so I can start chunking away at the other canopy related tasks.
Overall, the canopy frame fits a lot better than I remembered. The fit at the front is still horrible, but there's not much that can be done about that given the issue is with the size of the skins Van's supplies. The front canopy transition will get completely embedded in fiberglass, so that's when I'll also deal with the fit of the skins by making the fiberglass extend the edges down a little further.
With the canopy shut it definitely makes it feel like a real plane inside!
I made a handle for the left side of the canopy and riveted it in place. It's small, but it doesn't really take much to get the canopy lifted up. Next up is the canopy latch setup - the latch itself is already bolted in the fuselage, but the canopy frame needs the catch that the hook of the latch grabs. I definitely need to create some delrin guides. The canopy flexes enough when it is lowered that I worry about catching the skins on one side or the other (and really beating up the roll bar). A common solution is to put some delrin wedges on the front side of the roll bar to guide the latch fingers on the canopy frame.
