First post of 2009. I'm lacking in motivation these days as the troubles I am having with the canopy modifications are weighing me down. Since skydiving today was cancelled due to weather I got back into the shop for a couple of hours to have another look at this canopy.
I took two small cuts off the back of the canopy so that no part of it was touching the F-807 fuselage bulkhead. This allowed me to see that the canopy doesn't actually follow the line of the modified canopy frame but actually bulges outwards a little. If I clamp the canopy to the frame the bottom edge gets pushed down. I'm not sure yet, but I just might be lucky and it might push down enough that we may not have to modify the frame again after all.
Having said that, I then realised that I needed to allow for a 1/8" gap for the sikaflex as I shall be bonding this canopy and not riveting it. Hmm, that could throw a spanner in the works. So I, ahem, 'borrowed' a couple of meters of the garden hose and made come spacers to provide the sikaflex gap. With the canopy back on there it seems that I may just about get away with it. I took another 1/4" cut off the front to see how it drops. I think with a little more work we may be ok, but I need to take it very slowly at this point. I decided to quit while I was ahead and I'll check back on it another day. Besides, Jackie wanted some help cleaning indoors. Oh joy :-(
