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Fuselage June 2008 Updates June 30, 2008 Canopy Frame.... - 2.0 hrs Today I worked some more on the canopy frame. Looking at the plans I think I will mark up one canopy side skin and drill them back to back creating a left and right. Tonight I started on the inside trim piece. The plans show to drill lightening holes of 1.25 inches. I marked up the piece and use a #30 for pilot holes. Using the large unibit was creating a very rough hole so I chucked up a bit that went to 7/8 inch and drilled each hole first and then finished each one with the large bit. Used a sanding drum to finish it off. Came out great. I still need to cut some slits at the bottom of each of the large holes. I will use a dremil with a cutoff wheel for this. Next I removed the rear bearing that slides on the rail on the rear of the fuselage. It was getting stuck when he came down the bend in the closed position. Now it slides smoothly. Next I attached the trim piece to the inside of the frame. The plans say to trim the rear to fit so I cut off about a 1/4 inch to fit inside the welded area. With this clamped in place it is below the slider track in the rear area. Looking at the rear hoop area of the canopy frame from the side it seems a bit low. I slide the canopy frame open about an inch and took a side picture. In this position the trim piece is even with the track. Looking at the rear of the canopy frame from the side it appears this is almost level with the top of the fuselage skin. According to Jim this might be a better fit. To change this geometry I would need to unbolt the slider track on top of the fuselage and move it forward to allow the frame to close to the roll bar and at the same time keep this geometry at the rear. I think I can accomplish this by just redrilling the 5 holes and rebolting. The track would cover the old holes except maybe the rear one. I could jbweld it or just install a countersink screw to fill the hole. Jim is going to come check my work and let me know his thoughts. This website was built to document my work in compliance with the FAA requirements needed to certify my aircraft. My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build any aircraft.