I know I'm jumping around a lot lately but at this point there are many tasks that I can work on at the same time. The tasks are not nearly as sequential as they used to be.Anyway, I fired up the kerosene heater and warmed up the basement before working on the rear window. I decided to spend some time going over the edges again sanding them with 240 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper. I'm glad I did since there were several very small knicks that needed to be smoothed out.Once the edges were smooth I cleaned and coated the plexiglass with Flight Jacket Plexicoat. The rear canopy window was then installed on the fuselage and screwed to the rollbar. I tried to install the backing strips that I made for the rear perimeter of the window but the holes just wouldn't line up. I originally made them by fitting them directly against the aft top skin without the plexiglass in place. I think the 1/4" difference in the radius of this edge with the window installed was enough to throw everything off. Since these strips are listed as optional in the plans I decided to discard them. Any weight I can save in the aft portion of the fuselage will help out with the CG anyway since I will have a light front-end with the O-320 fixed pitch prop setup. The rear canopy window is now permanently installed and screwed to the rollbar and aft top skin!
Rear window permanently installed and fastened to fuselage
Rear window permanently installed and fastened to fuselage
