Brief Description: Deck to shroud fitting, hinge drilling,
Today I spent a little bit of time finalizing the vent brackets I had invented yesterday until I discovered that the CNC'd metal units we were likely to source as replacements for the horrible plastic ones were supplied with cover plates.brackets which were very much like mine but a bit better so I didn't have to finish the one I had made.
I then spent an inordinate amoyunt of time, sweat and tears into getting the canopy shoud to fit with the deck finalized. First thing was to open up the deck skin slots so the goosenecks could stick through allowing the shroud to sit properly in it's hinge blocks, with that done I had to finish match drilling the deck skin to the deck and then began the ardous task of pulling the skin into place with clecos to line the sub pabel and deck structure up properly so the canopy would fit. We had made several modifications to the deck and panel to allow for the installion of our avionics as laid out including a centralised box structure. This meant that the deck was slightly out of alignment and required some elbow grease to correct with the skinning. Once that was done I was able to get a reasonble fit of the shroud but still struggled to get the side to come down whilst maintaining a proper line and gap of the two skins - the deck and shroud skins.
With much twisting and un-twisting, some knocking, some pulling and using braces and a million clecos I was able to get a perfect flush fit of the shroud to the cabin sills and to the deck by starting on one side as advised, I used a bunch of braces made from angle scrap to aling and clamp the assemblies in place and after a visit to a supplier I had some duct tape to aid in securing the fit in crucial places, I am very happt with the one side and a quick dry fit has me confident I will get the other side to fit as well tomorrow morning which will alow me to mark then final drill the all important hinges!
