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Canopy and Windshield
The most difficult part of this
F1 was the canopy frame. It comes from the factory pre-welded, but welded to
fit some airplane other than an F1. It takes MUCH bending, welding, banging
and cussing to get it to fit an F1. I figure it took 3 days all day long
bending and re-bending the canopy frame to get it somewhat right. At the end
of this period, I had numerous bruises on my hips from leaning on the frame
trying to bend it against the wooden blocks that were attached to a 1000
pound steel table. I managed to push that heavy table all around the hanger
before finally finishing it.
The right foot is now somewhat parallel to the fuselage side. There needs to be a small gap between the skin and the foot to allow riveting in there later when the windshield side skirts are attached.
The canopy frame is mounted to the airframe with sliding rails. I mounted my side rails to a long strip of .090" AL. This makes the rails a removable assembly. This would pay off big time in the future as removing the rails greatly simplified other procedures. It also make a stiffer mount for the rails.
It seemed a nice notion to have a brilliantly polished set of rails at the end of this project. Unfortunately, reality set in early on. Due to the lousy fit of the canopy frame, and the resulting hundreds of install/remove cycles, the rails got pretty beat up. It tried in vain to protect them with masking tape etc to no avail. When all was done, I carefully sanded and painted them. Maybe you'll have better luck, In any rate, keep those rails protected until the ship is painted. You'll be glad you did. To the right, a rail assembly. When fitting the canopy frame to the rail assembly, it was necessary to get the width of the canopy frame exactly the same width as the rails, as well as assuring the rails were perfectly parallel. The little plastic rollers that the frame rolls on are quite intolerant of any misalignment. All it takes is to be a little bit off and the rollers grind rather than roll. Real ugly.
Above is the result of three miserable days work. Of note is the canopy frame is about 1/4" larger than the windshield frame. This is important and necessary for proper alignment of the windshield/canopy pleziglass interface. Don't get this right and there will be an ugly bulge here when the fiberglass tapes are placed.
Next the plastic is cut and clecoed on. Pretty easy actually.
And here come the side skirts. Looks easy...HA! It took two sets of skirts to get this far. It's a real pain in the ass to get the skirt to fit with the supporting braces underneath. I found putting a strip of Teflon tape along the bottom inboard edges of the skirts early on quite helpful as the fit pretty tight. More on Canopy page 2
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"Sadly,
artificial intelligence will probably never be a match for natural
stupidity." |
