It took me a little while to wrap my head around how this was supposed to go, but in the end it wasn't too crazy. You just have to do everything in the right order.
I started by clamping the sides of the canopy frame to the longerons in the correct place. I used some scraps of 1/8" aluminum as a spacer in place of the actual canopy. Eventually I realized I wouldn't really be able to constrain everything until I riveted the hinge to the longerons, since I couldn't close the hinge with clecos in the way. I carefully clamped the hinge in place and removed everything else so I could drill it to the longeron.
I then noticed that the hinge pin was way too tight to ever come out with the canopy installed. I ended up cutting one lug off of the hinge, and that allows the pin to just barely fit out the aft corner with the canopy open. I wanted to preserve the ability to remove the canopy in the future.
Anyway, the plans say not to rivet the hinge until the canopy is fitted, but I couldn't figure out any other way to hold the hinge in place. I just installed a few rivets to hold it for now. At least if I realize I need to take it off I won't have to drill out all of them.
Next, I noticed the side skin actually blocked the hinge from opening all the way, so I removed the canopy frame again and filed the top of the skin down a bit closer to the longeron. That seemed to fix it.
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| Before |
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| After |
Next I worked on the left side. I had pilot drilled the frame to the longeron where the alignment pins go, so I updrilled those holes, tapped them, and installed the alignment pins.
The latch is somewhat confusing on the plans, but once I figured it out it's real simple. I got all the hardware installed and then filed the nothes several times until it fit pretty well. It's still a little tight but if it's too hard to open and close from inside the cockpit I'll adjust it more later.
Finally, I laid the canopy over the frame. It's going to need a lot of trimming!
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