{"id":3918,"date":"2017-03-19T10:35:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T09:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rv-7.dk\/?p=3918"},"modified":"2023-01-30T18:12:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T17:12:41","slug":"cutting-canopy-step-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rv-7.dk\/?p=3918","title":{"rendered":"Cutting canopy, step 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ouch! Another 7 months have passed since my last post…
\nSo, what happened this time? Well, I started up as a freelance aircraft technician, which has taken up quite a bit of my time.
\nI have however spent an hour or two once in a while during the last couple of months…<\/p>\n

After my last post back in august, I was pretty much ready to make the big cut, separating the canopy into the fixed rear window and the tip up canopy part. To have a good line to follow while cutting, I traced the split line from the roll bar to the canopy, then made a ‘channel’ with two rows of masking tape. I put on 5 layers of tape, in order to have some depth so as to work as a cutting guide, and also protect the new canopy edges should the cutting disc slip.\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

I then removed the canopy, and taped the lower edges together to fix the canopy better while cutting.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

I also put the canopy on some pieces of wood to raise it a bit from the floor, in order to cut the lower edges.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

After cutting the first 20cm or so on each side, I carefully moved the piece of wood backwards under the cut, so it would support both halves of the canopy once cut.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

I made sure to tape the canopy sections together, during the cutting process.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

And the canopy is split on two…
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

After carefully finishing and rounding the edges, I could put the forward canopy back on the canopy frame; this time behind the ‘ears’ of the forward canopy skin.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

The fit isn’t all that bad, but I do have to enlarge the gap a bit to get it perfect.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

I removed the canopy skin, marked a triangular slot, drilled and deburred it…
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

That helped a great deal!
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

To copy this shape to the left side, I traced it onto a piece of paper…
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

..then clecoed the paper to the other side and marked the cut.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m pretty happy with the result so far. The canopy still need some fine tuning, but I I’m going to finish the canopy frame before doing the final adjustment.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday I also did the first rough trim of the aft cabin window. I marked the canopy about 1\u00bd” from the skin edge. In the end it will be 1\u00bc”, but I would like to have a bit of extra play, as the window will probably need a bit of adjustment to match the aft edge of the forward canopy glas.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

Cut the canopy, this was the last of the big cuts. From now on it will be minor adjustments.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

Aft window back on the fuselage. It will of course go under the skin finally, but for now this is a good place to store it while finishing the canopy frame.
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

So, to finish the canopy frame, I need to prepare and install these canopy reinforcements. It will be nice working with aluminium again.. \ud83d\ude42
\n\"Canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n