Brief Description: Panel rib final riveted, jettison machanism fixed.
first thing in the morning I final riveted the panel rib stiffener in place finalizing and making permanent the panel mod, the panel was fitted back in place to check alignment and I was happy to see it was all lined up and square and effectively stiffened.
I got back to that pesky canopy relaease mechanism and the arms that I mentioned were too short, I found that the pins were actually the problem and that even if the arms reached the hinge blocks the pins don't go right through the block assembly - the left just barely reaches the end block making it completely ineffective as a hinge pin. I will have to redo the pins so I ordered replacements with spares and this time I will grind down the thread only and not shorten as the plans suggest.
I also marked on the appropriate leftover material, a replacement, longer arm for the mechanism but will require more of it to do the second. I will continue and hopefully complete this on Monday.
I also finalized and cut the hinge slots/slits in the deck skin as mentioned before, this was problematic in it's prescribed location but I found the exact location by re-fitting the skin over the installed hinge blocks and hinges and then marked them slightly larger than specified to allow a little cushion - a slightly larger slot is just as easily covered with glass or tape.
