More canopy trimming, panel riveting

I riveted the support angle to the back of the panel and worked on mounting the supporting ribs. I also made one more instrument hole on the passenger side. This will hold a Dynon or BMI for Sandi.

I also set the canopy inside the 'ears' of the canopy skin to see where I needed to make some adjustments. I marked some small trim adjustments and made them. I also marked the skin to enlarge the notch some. I'll have to take the skin all the way off to make those cuts.

Canopy setting inside the 'ears' before enlarging the slot.

(Time: 2.5 hrs)

Canopy trimming

After I stowed the wings away, I relocated the fuselage back over to my work area and pulled the legs off. The legs just take up way too much room, makes the fuselage sit to high to work on comfortably and I'm sure I'd kill myself before I finished the plane from tripping over them. So the fuse is back on it's stand.

I put the forward canopy back on the fuse and marked the aft edge for the final cut. I actually ended up trimming about an 1" off the back end. I think this is because when I marked the initial split line, the front edge wasn't back from enough from the front edge of the C-702 skin. Fortunatly there is enough play in the canopy to allow this kind of trimming. I sanded up the edge where I cut.

Canopy just sitting in place.

Next I marked the sides for trimming where they fit down on the side rails. Pulled the canopy back off and made the cut. This was tougher as there isn't a good way of supporting the canopy. I put the canopy on a padded chair and weighed it down. It was still a little unstable but worked out OK.

I put the canopy back on the fuse AGAIN to see how it fit. Oddly enough when I tried to put the canopy down in between the ears, the fron end was like an 1" off the 702 skin. When it's outside the ears, it fits fine. I'm a little freaked about this but I know the slot needs to be enlarged for the canopy to sit nicely down in there. I'll tackle that job tomorrow....

Gap when canopy is sitting in the 'ears'.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Wings

Working on the wings again..... Blog here.

Gear legs, rearranging, WINGS, panel punching

Sandi helped me put the gear legs on the plane and it stood on its own feet for the first time! (Only temporary, I'll take them off later).

N523RV stands on her own 3 feet for the first time! (Kinda gangly looking...)

I did some cleaning and rearranging of the other side of the shop so I could move the fuse over there, which I did and then brought out the wings to my work area.

I was going to starting tackling the bottom skins but decided to wait... I want to roll the aft edges of the fuel tank skins to see if it will reduce/eliminate some puckering I have between the screw holes. I need to borrow the Avery edge roller from Bill tomorrow. I did run the pitot and AOA lines (SafeAir) in the conduit out to where the Dynon pitot will be someday.

Fuse was out of the way and I couldn't do anything on the wings, so I pulled out the instrument panel. I countersunk the rivet holes for the support angle and then I pulled out the panel punch I borrowed from Nathan. I managed to get 7 holes punched. The punch and I weren't cooperating very well but I managed through it.

Holes in the panel.

Spent most of the day in the shop with what feels like not a whole lot of progress. I hope on Tuesday and Wednesday I can get the bottom skins riveted on with Emiel's help. Thursday and Friday are supposed to be warmed and I'll bring back the fuse and work on the canopy. If I'm lucky and motivated, maybe the canopy cutting will be done by the end of the weekend.

(Time: 5 hrs)

Wheels & brakes, engine mount, brake reservoir

Hope every had a wonderfull holiday time however you celebrated it. Christmas was good to me... got some $$$ to spend on the airplane, my mom bought me an airspeed indicator along with some Van's stuff. Some new CD's, clothes, airplane christmas ornaments.

I have the week off from work (hopefully) so I hope to get lots done this week. I've been toying with the idea of pulling out the wings to rivet on the bottom skins but I would need to move the fuselage, so....

I spent this afternoon working on the wheels and brakes. I finished mounting the wheels and brakes to the gear legs, including the axle nuts. Nothing real difficult here. The grease and bearing packer I ordered arrived last week, so I packed the front wheel bearings and assembled the front wheel and attached it to the nose gear.

Main wheels mounted.

Nosewheel mounted

Next I finished drilling the holes in the firewall for the engine mount. Made two .063" spacers for the two bottom inboard holes. I also drilled the holes in the firewall for the throttle, mixture and carb heat. (You'll definatly want to do these before bolting on the engine mount for the last time as access is limited.) I also drilled the hole that allows you to insert the bolt for the nose gear leg. The hole allows you to insert it from behind.

And I finished off the afternoon by relocating the brake reservoir. The old hole for the brake line through the firewall will get used to run wires into the cabin.

(Time: 5 hrs)

2-Piece canopy!

My canopy is now in two pieces... fortunatly I made it that way. :-) The weather dudes were close in predicting the temperature out.. low 50's. I'm not sure how long that will last so I really wanted to cut this thing.

I made a small trim along the front edge and while it was off the fuse, I removed the fuselage top skin and also drew a centerline down the support frame. I wanted to see how well the canopy fit without the top fuse skin on. I taped my ruler to the frame so it stuck up 1/2", my goal. Emiel came out again and helped me put it back on the fuse. Darn good.... was right at 1/2" above the frame and the front edge was contoured nicely along the C-702 skin. There is a small 3/32" gap in the middle but is easily pushed down.. I figure I'll be doing some more trimming and can eliminate that. Too make sure the canopy was centered before I marked the cut line, I cleco'd the top fuse skin back on, positioned an taped the canopy down as tightly as possible to the fuse.

Laying down the tape on the canopy to mark the cut line took too long. The first problem is the tape I put on the roll bar was dark blue and the centerline I drew on it was difficult to see. (TIP #1: Use white/tan tape in this area.) The next problem was the masking tape I was using was 3" wide and VERY thin, which made it hard to get a good straight edge. (TIP #2: I would use 2" masking tape.. and make sure it is the good stuff.. something that has some thickness.) I found the blue painters tape I'd been using (took me 15 min too find it.) It's 1.5" wide and thick. Since I couldn't see my centerline very well, I was having to play with the lighting. I finally managed to get a decent cut line marked with tape. (Go visit Dan's site.. he has good pictures of this.)

Now I had to get the thing warmed up and ready to cut. The thermometer was reading 59-60 but it is also near my radiant heater. I'd been making my cuts on a table up to this point and using an oil-based radiant room heater to heat the canopy. I set the canopy back on the table with the heater while I created a structure to set the canopy on for the split. I did exactly what Dan did with sawhorses and wood. You need to support the canopy and keep it from flexing out. Once I had that setup I moved the canopy over and then set the heater right underneath the cut line. (It was 9:30pm and the temperature was dropping.. I could feel it. I'm guessing the ambient temperature was probably 50 degree's or less.)

Well.... the time has come.. I started cutting. No particular order but I did leave the sides till last and taped the seam as I went to keep it from spreading. I had been doing a pretty decent job on the trim cuts but this was a harder cut to make and while I was doing it, I didn't feel like I was doing a very good job. I had a straight die-grinder... I think I now know why Dan wanted to use a 90-degree for this task, it might make it easier.. not sure. I finished the cut, sanded the aft edge of the forward half and dropped it on the fuse. Things fit pretty good. I'll need to trim the front edge again as it sits a bit too far forward and will probably have to trim the rear edge to get it straight on the center line. The sides move forward a bit since it dropped down to sit on the roll bar. All-in-all I'm happy with it.

Final thoughts on canopy cutting:

-- Cutting the canopy isn't as bad as you think. I think it's more mental than anything.

-- Be Prepared! Give yourself as much work area as you can. Make sure you cutting table is stable. My work area was completing cramped.

-- Go Slow! I was really rushing myself to get the canopy cut. I was a tiny bit frazzled and was pressuring myself. Everything came out OK but don't rush yourself, make sure your in the right 'mood'. It was after 10:00pm when I finished... make sure your rested. :-)

Here is the patient getting toasty under a blanket.

Picture right after the incision was made.

Front half on fuselage.


(Time: 3 hrs)

Ken's response to engine mount question.

I called Van's this morning and asked about the alignment of the engine mount bolt holes in the firewall with the ones in the engine mount. He kinda made it sound like I shouldn't be paying much attention to those holes in the firewall for whatever reason that they are just a guidance. I guess the only thing I could have done different on the top holes would be to drill one corner, the use a level to ensure the engine mount was level with the fuselage. (I'll check tonight.)

As for the two bottom holes, he said drill them where the engine mount would naturally place them without flexing the mount but to make sure that wherever the holes landed that there was some meat to hold onto on the firewall. The intent was for the holes in the firewall itself to be taken up by the 3/8" hole but not necessarily be centered in the engine mount hole.

So there ya hav it.... let's hope my mount is level with the fuselage.... maybe I should have read the instructions closer... maybe I missed something.

Canopy brace and canopy cutting

It was going to be in the 50's today and the high tomorrow is in the 20's so I really wanted to get the canopy cut. I spent most of the morning working on the canopy brace kit. I drilled the braces to the channel first, then mounted the tip-up frame in the fuse so it was in position and back drilled the brace-to-skin holes from inside. TIP: The center brace does have an orientation! When I was putting it in, it didn't seem to matter which way it went since it is symetrical. However, one edge has #30 holes and the other has #40. So make sure you put it on correctly. I will end up using some of my NAS Ooops rivets on the skin holes.

Time to start on the cannopy. I had actually gotten the shop up to 70 degress with every heater running. I had the canopy sitting in the sun on the porch, so it was at least a little warm. I knew from reading other builder sites that I would have to take a lot off the front and rear but did what the instructions said and just cut off at the mold lines. I peel back the plastic and put down some masking tape to act as a cutting guide and to hold the plastic down. Really wasn't that bad. Make sure you have a respirator or mask of some sort, it does get a little stinky. After the intial cut, I used some 2" sanding wheels I got from Avery to smooth the edges off and set it up on the fuse. At this point, it really isn't even close but it does help you to get an idea of how it fits. I marked the front edge to take trim so more off, including most of the corner. I also marked the aft end to trim a lot of the excess off back there too. Made my cuts, set it back on the fuse. Fit was getting better. The instructions note that the foward end will be about 1.75" aft from the edge of the C-702 skin, I marked this point and used it as a reference for positiong. The fit on the C-702 was actually pretty good for just doing rough cutting. I took some measurements to see how symetrical the cut was and made some marks for my third cut to get the cut more symetrical and get it to sit better. Back off it came and I did the trimming. Up to this point, it was hard to tell how far the canopy was from the rollbar itself. I think Dan C. got his within 3/8" before splitting the canopy but makes reference to an email from Van's that says you can just get it within 2" and you'll be fine. I think I'll shoot for 1/2" or so. This time before I set the canopy back on, I taped the rule to the rollbar so it was sticking up 5/8" inch. I set the canopy back on. The fit is much better on the front edge now. The canopy just sits a tad above the end of the rule so I'm close there. (The top fuse skin is still cleco'd on at this point, it may be holding the canopy up somewhat.)

Taped up for the first cut!

On the fuse for the first time!

Rear window area. I trimmed most of this corner off during the second round of trimming.

Front end after first cut.

That's where I left off for the evening. It was 10:30 and starting to get cold.

Oh yea.. at one point while I was waiting for the canopy to get warm again, I drilled the other top hole in the firewall for the engine mount. The position of the hole in the fuse was close to the engine mount, so I just used that as a guide. The bottom outside holes on the mount don' really line up to good though. I'm not sure if I should drill the holes as marked on the firewall (and induce some stress in the mount.) or if I should just drill the holes using the mount as a guide where it happens to fall. I'll call Van's on Monday and ask.

Boo-boo: I just noticed tonight after I put on the engine mount that the brake reservoir isn't mounted in the right place! It is shifted to the inboard about 2" too much.... which is a problem because that puts it over the top of the battery box. Bummer since I've already drilled holes for it. I'm pretty sure I'll have to move it over to the outboard so the battery will come in and out. I'll have to patch the hole I guess. I could use it as a wire run hole but I think it will still be in the way of the battery.

Mis-positioned brake reservoir.

(Time: 8 hrs)

Nose wheel and the canopy brace kit

Was 25 degrees in the shop when I got home, so I sure as hec wasn't gonna play with the canopy. So I assembled the nosewheel. I have read the nosewheel is a challenge and they were correct. The tire doesn't want to go onto the wheel. The other potential issue is the tube is very close to the inside edges of the wheel and can easily get pinched.

My first attempt at getting the tire on the wheel was unsuccessfull. I basically tried using the tube to expand the tire onto the wheel but it just wouldn't go on and I was afraid I'd blow something up I was putting so much pressure in the tire.

I grew up in the country and so spent my share of time in a tire repair shop getting tires fixed because of nails, so I should have known how to do this but I've been in the city too long. :-) Tire shops use soapy water on the inside of the tires when the put them on the rims. I pulled the rims apart and wiped the inside edges of the tire with some Mr. Bubble that I had left over from fuel tank leak testing. Put it all back together, aired up the tire and it slid right in place.

What I don't know is how you would know if you pinced the tube in the rims... I used a mirror to look inside while I was tightening the bolts and it didn't look like I was. Guess if it doesn't hold air, I pinched the tube. Van's gives you two.

Ok... what next.... I'd been thinking about riveting the 702 canopy skin to the frame since I couldn't see what you shouldn't. Then I remembered I needed to install the canopy brace kit. So I pulled that out and started on it. The braces have lightning holes in them but they aren't flanged, so you have to put little flanges on the holes for stiffness. I've seen builders make these jigs to 'press' the flange on to the hole but the instructions give you an easier way of doing it. You just cut a .032 slot in a piece of wood about 1/4" deep and use that. It works rather well. I did that and then bent all the little tabs. Next work session I will drill it in place on the frame/skin.

Brace pieces just sitting in place.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Prepping for the canopy cut

I'm thinking that this whole 'mark a centerline' business is pointless. You need a centerline mark on the forward and aft ends of the canopy so you can get it centered with the fuselage side-to-side, but what good does the center line do you on top of the canopy? You'll want a line of some sort up there so that you can line things back up after you split the canopy.. but it sure doesn't matter where that line is! I'll be testing this theory soon I suppose...

Getting myself ready to start cutting the canopy up. Here are some emails I've exchanged recently:

From Ken Scot at Van's:
=======================
"The marks on the canopy are there for the people who put the plexi in the mold. They have nothing to do with fitting it to the airplane.
Don't make assumptions. Easy enough to find the c.l. with a piece of string..."

My Reply and His Reply:

"So what do I use for measuring points on the side of the canopy? The mold lines?"

"That's probably best-- the upper mold lines along the side. The canopy should be symmetrical between them. Run a string over the canopy from one to the other, then fold the string in half."


From Ron (RV-9A Builder)
========================
"I did not put the aft top skin back on until I was ready to mark the rear window for trimming. Van's plans say to trim the rear window after you cut the canopy in half, but I marked it at the same time that I marked the canopy split line at the roll bar, and then made both cuts. After I cut the canopy in half, I left the aft top skin on. The skin where it meets the roll bar helps to hold the aft portion of the canopy in place."

Tires and wheels, engine mount, canopy center line

Avoiding the canopy still, I pulled out the tires and wheels to start on them. The C-2 drawing that is supposed to show you how to assemble them... well, is worthless.

Main tires: Put the tube in the tire with the valve stem lined up with the red dot on the tire. Use some talcom powder inside the tire before you put in the tube. Take the wheel apart, set the tire on the half with the hole for the valve stem and push the stem through the rubber grommet. (TIP: Throw away the washer and nuts that are on the tube, you don't use them.) Put the other half of the wheel on a bolt in place. Shouldn't take you more than 15 min per tire.. took me longer cause I couldn't figure out what to do with the stupid nuts/washer that come with the tube.

Next come the brakes. There are no drawings anywhere that I found that tell you how these things go together. Fortunatly, Paul had took some pictures which helped me tremendously. In short, I put it all together but discovered towards the end of the process that the U-405(?) spacers were back-ordered on my finish kit and I haven't received them yet. A call into Van's tomorrow.

1) Pull out the gear legs, clamp them in the vise. Enlarge the hole on the wheel end to 5/16". Clean up the exposed surface with scotch brite or whatever is handy. You might dab some grease on it to.

2) Pull out the U-403 brake flange. Run the 5/16" drill through the bolt hole to take off the excess powder coating. Remove any overspray inside the the tube along with any other crud you see. Use some scotch brite pads to make it all nice and shiny inside.

3) Pull out your brakes and slide off the part with the big round hole in the center. Enlarge that big round hole until the U-403 fits through it. I just used my dremel with a sanding wheel on it. I also lightly tapped on the U-403 to get it on the gear leg. If it is too tight, take it off and do some more sanding until you can get it slid on. (Link to picture on Paul's site: http://hmb.dyndns.org/~eastham/rv/images/20040908_IMG_1361.JPG)

4) Now slide the U-403 on the gear leg, the part of the tube w/o a hole goes on first.

5) Now slide the part that came with the brakes on. The two lugs on this part need to point INBOARD.

6) With that part on, now you can slide in the 5/16-20 screw... which is really a hex head bolt looking thing.

You may have to put the gear legs on the plane so you know how things are supposed to be orientated. It's hard to visualize things since the gear legs sweep back. The U-403 bolts to the part with the big round hole in it, one of my holes didn't line up well, so I had to run a drill through it. The U-810 part gets bolted on with the same bolts and goes on the inboard side of the brake flange. The other thing to note is how the the part with the big round hole in it is orientated. The two lugs on this part should be on the AFT side of the gear leg. I hope that helps.. it sure was confusing to me.

Brakes on axle #1

View looking straight down. - Brake caliper goes on the aft side of the axle.

Another view

YAV

Thinking I should at least START thinking about the canopy, I tried to figure out how to draw a centerline down the middle. The canopy has marks on each end that I assume are at the center... but the problem is how the hec to draw a line between the two. I brought in the expert... my wife. Most times she can figure out how to do something that I spent an hour trying to figure out. So I'm explaining my problem and telling her what I need. My digital level has a laser light on it but it just creates a point of light..... I need something that generates a line of light. So in her cute little childish walk, she walks away and comes back with a Christmas present in hand. So Christmas came a little early and I got a laser level thingy that draws a laser line.... PERFECT. So I used that to make some marks on the canopy and used my 4 ft rule to draw a line down the center.

Not ready to do any cutting on the canopy, I thought I'd work on the engine mount. I drilled the top two holes to 3/16" using the holes in the firewall. Enlarged one to 3/8" and went looking for the engine mount bolts.. guess what... the 917-1 bag they are in is also back-ordered!! Well shyt. So much for that... called it a night.

(Time: 6 hrs)

Center post...99.9% complete

Didn't get much time in the shop today.... got some flying time in... getting very rusty. Flew in a 152 which I don't have a lot of time in since all my training was done in a 172... and to confuse things, I was flying right seat... and doing emergency landing training... all added up to a poor performance.

I mostly finished the center post but putting in some nutplates and just getting it fitted in the fuse.

View of console.

Slightly different angle.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Center post

Worked in an hour on the plane. Still working on the center post setup. I drilled holes for the fuel gauges and the manual trim knob. Mounted things and set it in the fuselage to see how it was going to work. My right leg does end up rubbing on it but I don't think it will be much of an issue.

Center post w/ gauges

I need to make the hole for the ELT control and tweak the key holes for the warning lamps as they sit just a tad crooked.

(Time: 1 hrs)

COM Antenna and center post

I finished mounting the COM antenna on the belly. No big deal... and the 90-degree fitting clears the elevator push tube with room to spare. So far I'm happy with the locations I chose for the atenna's.

I wanted to get the fuel selector area taken care of... to do this I need to make up the center post customization. As a refresher, I'm going to install a what I'll call a center post that runs from the forward edge of the fuel selector plate up to the sub-panel. I saw this on an RV-6 and really liked it. I'll put the fuel gauges at the bottom, right above the fuel selector. I have the AE Fuel Guardian low fuel warning system, so I'll put the warning lights for each tank right above each fuel gauge. I'll mount the manual elevator trim knob above that and then the ELT control box above that.

(Time: 2 hrs; Total: 60 hrs)

Pictures later

ELT Mounted, antenna mounting

I finished mounting the ELT. The last screw gave me the most trouble. I used #6 screws to mount the bracket and was reaching up inside under the seat pan to put the washer/nut on. Not easy to do when you are hanging over the side of the fuselage. I go the first three on in seconds.. last one took me 10 min. I ended up using some RTV to stick the washer to the nut, then got it in place. I drilled a hole just in front of the ELT and put in a snap bushing. Stuck the wire in for the remote control unit, will also use this hole for the antenna cable. I'm still undecided where to mount the ELT antenna. I think most are opting to put it back underneath the empennage fairing. The other place I've seen is on the F-757 gusset right behind the roll-bar. Of course the best place to put it would be on top of the fuse but nobody wants antenna's hanging out in the breeze.

ELT behind the seat.

ELT in full view with wire run.

Time to mount some antenna's. I have this thing about things being symmetrical and/or balanced. I have one bent whip COM antenna and the little ELT antenna. From a mounting point of view, it would probably make sense to mount them just aft of the center section on each side of the fuse but that would rub me the wrong way.. just wouldn't be 'balanced' visually. So I wanted to mount them down the center line of the fuse, with the transponder towards the front and the COM somewhere mid-fuse. I also wanted to minimize the length of antenna cable and how many holes it went through. I had ideas where I wanted them but they were somewhat untraditional locations so I paced the shop for 10 min. trying to poke holes in my plan. Drilling holes in the fuselage is unnerving.

So I mounted the transponder antenna just forward of the 904 center section right below the fuel selector valve and just a bit off-center. Using a 90-degree BNC connector should give me plenty of room.

Transponder antenna from the inside with the 90 degree BNC connector on.

Transponder on the outside.

I decided to mount the COM antenna in an equally untraditional location. Again, keeping with the desire to have things balanced, I wanted the COM antenna on the centerline as well. Of course, everything else falls on or near the centerline. The only obvious location would be in the tailcone. I didn't like that location because is was kinda far back and I was slightly worried about the altitude hold servo causing interference. So I did some measurements and figured out that I could mount it on the centerline just forward of the 905 bulkhead, in the tunnel the runs down the center. The elevator push tube runs through this area but it sits high enough off the floor that I can sneak in the connections for the COM antenna without any interference. I got as far as drilling the hole for it but called it a night after that. I'll finishing mounting next time I'm out.

I also ran the manual trim cable back to the tail.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Heater, new C-702 skin, more tip-up frame work, ELT

The heater I bought of eBay arrived Friday. Not quite what I was expecting but I think it may work. I spent Friday night and Saturday morning getting it in shape and hooked up. Saturday night was date night with Sandi.... attended a house-warming party, had seafood at The Bristol and caught the new Bridget Jones movie. (Thumbs down...)

So real airplane work... Ray had some .032 sheet left-over from when he made his new C-702 skin, so I used that and made up my new skin. I traced the stock skin, cut with snips to 1" of the line, used router to get within 1/16" inch and then filed down the rest. I left the sides longer than stock. I fit the new skin on the frame and did lots of filing to get it fitting right and so it would tip-up without binding.

With the new skin done, I drilled out the C-613 splice plates and made new ones. Fitted the canopy frame back on the fuse, drilled and riveted on the W-725 side rails to the tip-up frame.

Off course, all of the above took most of the day to do. So now I'm ready to start fitting the actual canopy.

Finished the evening off by starting to mount the ELT. Kinda struggled on where to put it. Mike S. mounted his underneath the baggage floor. Some builders make a shelf in the tail cone area. (Paul mounted his on the horizontal bellcrank rib) I opted to mount it on the passenger seat pan between the flap tube and the seat back. Fits nicely here and somewhat accessible.

(Time: 8 hrs)

Van's Response to Tip-Up Frame Issue

Finally recieved an email from Bruce over at Van's... wanted me to call him. Hmm.. that can't be good. :-)

He said to mate the aft end of the WD-716 with the fwd end of the WD-725 side rails as the plans instruct, so that the bottom flanges line up and the edges butt up against each other. He said it was no big deal if the side rail sat down on top of the canopy deck. (But he doesn't have a weather strip on his plane.. I want one, so I may have to taper it.) So the side rail will have no gap at the foward end and it will grow to 1/8" at the aft end.

He also said the 1/4" gap between the canopy support frames wasn't critical. However, the result of setting the forward end of the side rail to butt up against the frame, that will increase the gap between the support frames and also cause the canopy latch that sticks down in the square hole to be off. He said that I may have to put a 1/8" shim under it to get it back to the correct position.

So there ya have it. I'll have to make a new C-613 splice plate so I can shift things around. An here is the kicker... I think I'm going to make a new C-702 canopy skin anyway. Ray had some .032 sheet leftover from when he did his new skin and I have that. If I do that, it solves most of the problem anyway and eliminates the big gaps between the skin and frame.

We'll see what the weekend brings!

Still TDC, pictures of canopy frame fit

Still too cold to work. Went out to take pictures and it was 30 degress in the shop.

Sent an email off to Van's last night about the alignment of the canopy structure. Here are some pictures to show you what I've run into.

View from side showing gap between C-702 skin and fuselage side skin.

This is the frame looking at the bottom edge.

Here is the view from the inside which really shows off the alignment issues.