Stjohn's RV-7

4 hours.
Today I fiddled, tweaked, clamped, nudged, pushed, and wiggled the canopy frame for what seemed like forever, until I was finally ready to drill the forward splice plates. Basically, what needs to be done is the canopy frame has to be put in place using spacers and clamps for alignment, then it gets match-drilled at a few connecting points. The side rails have to be made to be flush with the fuselage side skin, less the thickness of the canopy sides. Now, you can tweak and wiggle all you want, the alignment still going to change when everything rivets up. If you cast the right bones and sacrifice the proper breed of chicken, everything just works when it comes time for final riveting. I’m beginning to see the method to the madness now, but the instructions still suck. For instance, here’s a shot of the whole biz, fit up and clamped down:

All the alignments are good, all the clearances are tested, all the bits line up like they’re supposed to. Now, here’s the part that burns my ass: After you’ve painstakingly fit all this up, they have you take it all apart so you can drill the aft hole pattern on the attachment points of the side rails. WTF?

Here are the instructions. Those scraggly black arrows I’ve drawn denote where these two steps, drilling the splice plates and the WD-725 side rails, SHOULD go. Maybe this is a test. Read, understand, prioritize. I guess I failed this one. I’d have preferred to drill these parts with their arbitrary hole pattern before I did all the fitting and tweaking. The canopy frame process is full of crap like this.

Splice plates, drilled and ready to go.

And after a bunch more checking, fitting, tweaking, and locking down, here’s the left splice plate, drilled to the canopy frame sections. It’s worth noting that you have to peel the skin back so you don’t drill through it Fortunately, I had a drill stop and good access.

Slightly wider shot. This is all going to come off in a bit.

Right side done the same way.
I’m not drilling the aft of the rails to the C-631 channels yet. Those are the c-channels that follow the line of the roll bar. Here, I’m guessing the drilling isn’t done until there’s a lot more fitment, probably involving the canopy itself. Next step is to deburr, countersink, and rivet the side rails to the forward frame. After that, look out, because it’s time to measure and cut the canopy itself. Yeah, that’s freakin’ scary right there. One wrong move and I turn on the tap to the tune of $1200.