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Steven's RV-9A
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Date: 12-18-2016
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Number of Hours: 12.00
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Manual Reference: canopy
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Brief Description: set up the canopy slide
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This is a combined entry for saturday, sunday and Monday.
I went to install the sliding canopy. The canopy tracks were no problem. The slide track on the top of the rear fuselage went pretty well too.
I put together the canopy slide wheels - easy.
Next, I installed and tried to fit the canopy slider. Not so great.
In the rear, the slider was about 1/4" too wide. This was pretty easily remedied with a long steel bar clamp. The slider frame is made of tube steel and is very springy. I squeezed it a little with the bar clamp. It deflected, but sprang back into perfect shape - still 1/4 inch out. Tried again, applied more deflection, picked up about 1/8". Tried again and got the dimension I wanted.
Took 1/2 inch off the left leg at the roller, 3/8 on the right leg.
My next big problem was on the left side of the arch. Where the slider met the roll bar, on the left, I had about 1/8" of clearance at the bottom and top center. However the gap flared to about 1/2" in the middle. I sent photos to Van's and Sterling said it would work, but I wasn't too happy about that answer.
Made (6) 4" long stabilizing spacer blocks and clamped them in position. I left open, without blocks/clamps, the 20" section of deflected slider curved rail. I then took a popsicle stick and cut it exactly the width of the center of the deflected area. I then took a large clamp with notched pads, and drew the offending section together, I relaxed the clamp, and inserted my popsicle stick spacer to see if I had any movement. Maybe 1/16 inch. I repeated until I had a more or less parallel set of tracks. I could not get down to 1/8 inch, more like 7/32. However the gap is pretty parallel and I think it will work.
I will review with Van's again in the morning.
No much progress and a lot of angst.
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canopy - left side
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Reshaping canopy slide
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corrected 1/2 defect
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