March 28, 2009 -  Canopy

I spent most of this Saturday working on the canopy.  First I needed to do some more trimming on the canopy trailing edge.  Standard drill using the sanding cylinder on the Dremel. 

Once that was done, I worked on installing the canopy latch lugs.   Drilling them in the correct position so that they held the canopy down snugly when latched involved a lot of trail and error -- which meant getting in and out of the cockpit.  I did a fair amount of filing with the needle file too, but in the end I got the latch lugs bolted on as shown. 

The cowl was still on the airplane.  Many of the Camlocs needed adjusting -- either a little bit out or a little bit in.  I marked for each Camloc whether it needed to go in more or out more.  Then I took the cowl off and adjusted the Camlocs which needed it.  A little jeweler's screwdriver I had was essential for this.  Looking at the lower cowl, I could see no evidence of the alternator having hit it which was good. 

I filled the six NACA vent holes on each side with epoxy filler.

Even though it was a rainy day at the airport, I ended up doing too much hangar flying today instead of working.  Still, getting the canopy done was big.