The rest of today I spent cutting, shaping and match drilling the left side canopy skirt parts.
My lightening holes in the side skirt brace are slightly smaller than called for in the plans. I used a stepped reamer for this and once I got the holes to 1" in diameter I no longer had confidence that I could progress further (to the desired 1-1/4") without the stepped bit grabbing and deforming the flimsy aluminium part. I figure I can live with a couple grams of extra weight here, so I stopped at 1".
I'm pretty happy with how this side has come together. There is a nice snug fit of the skirt against the fuselage side when in the closed position, and I just hope I can replicate the same on the other side.
Match drilling the left side skirt parts to the canopy frame
I'm quite happy with the snug fit against the fuselage
Some of the parts I drilled and cleco'd at the workbench
