Bonding Canopy Skirt

We waited quite a bit to get the Sikaflex. It amusing how long it took (almost 2 weeks). We just went ahead took the prepped canopy skirt, applied the cleaner and the primer and bonded the frame (6 hrs). Here are some photos:

 

Canopy was one of the big jobs! I am glad its behind us now!

Canopy skirts and windscreen

The third and the final stage in building the canopy is really the fiberglass skirts. As expected out of the box fit for the skirt is poor. Had to spend quite a bit of time (10 hrs) trimming and fitting (With some layups at the aft end). Here is the canopy skirt trimmed, fitted and primed:

 

 

 

We also tackled laying up fiberglass fairing around the windscreen and above the roll bar. Here are the fiberglass pieces measured and cut:

 



 

The final product, dry and sanded. We still need to prime, but all in all this bit is done (10 hrs) !

 

Here is how it looks like. The canopy skirt is cleco-ed. We are waiting on an additional order of Sikaflex 295UV and will bond it once it arrives!  

 

Sikaflex the Canopy

Doing an update after a long time! We took some break from the build. I had lots of travel to take care off. Plus we moved to a new house and that took a lot of my time. Glenn and Dennis were gone quite a bit as well.

 

Last few months I have been mostly taking care of small things such as finalizing the manual trim cable, fitting and installing the interior, finalizing the battery compartment, installing the control sticks, tie wrapping the wires in the fuselage etc. These little things take a lot of time and still there is a tonne to do.

 

Once Glenn was back, we decided to get the canopy out of the way. Its really hard for one person to do this, and I am glad I had some help here. The canopy was already fitted and cut. We decided to use sikaflex instead of the traditional vans method. The sikaflex method is somewhat crack-proof (only time will tell).

 

I did some research online and asked questions on VAF. We used Activator, 209 primer and Sikaflex 295UV black. Here are the shots of canopy during the process of scuffing, cleaning, activating and priming: 

 

 

 

 

Same process on the frame as well:

 

 

 

Finally, applying the sikaflex. Applying the sikaflex probably took 30 mins or so, but the prep time was brutal (10 hrs).



Canopy initial fit

Since the top skin is now riveted, we can start thinking about the canopy as well. It seems that many of the builders find the canopy the most challenging aspect of the build. I have doing a bunch of reading about it and it looks like we can divide the canopy build process into three steps: 1) Fitting the plexi bubble and making the big cut. 2) Attaching the plexi-bubble to the frame 3) Fiberglass (canopy skirts and windscreen fairings).

 

Currently, we just are tacking #1. That is fit the canopy and then make the big cut that separated aft section from the windscreen. It took a bunch of fitting / trimming / sanding and took probably good 10-15 hrs just to get the right fit.

 

 

 

The big cut itself was not a big deal (nervous of course, but once you get started you get it done pretty fast):

 

 

Here is the picture of drill and temporarily bolted wind screen.

 

I also started fiddling with the tail fairings etc. I am hoping that we can wrap up the tail section pretty soon. Here is the trial fit for the fairing. It took a bunch of trimming and sanding to get to this stage (2 hrs).