Today, I begun installing the forward canopy frame. First the skin gets clecoed to the frame. Here the whole is installed on the fuselage, now on to the adjusting.



I have the same problems as other builders. First the aluminium block on the hinge block is to big a,d needs to be trimmed.



Then, the lower part of the hinge arm rubs against the subpanel. So, I trimmed the subpanel, which was not really necessary as arm was not tight with the upper part of the frame (barely visible on the upper right).



Then the seal support was too wide, I had to trim 1/10 inch.



I made a rough check of were the hinge arms will be drilled, here is the right arm.



Here is the left arm. The final holes will be slightly lower, as I made the marks before readjusting the arms position.



This is a view from above. The upper skin is the forward fuselage skin, the canopy skin is below. The gap is maintained with small aluminium spacers.



Here everything is put back again on the fuse. To get there needed both skins to be installed and unistalled a few times. There is still some work to be done before this part is finished.

I finished the installation of the side latch, by making the two support angles. In four picture, how the latch works. From the outside, the two small visible parts are pinched.



This allows to pull the rear lever to unlock the rears latches.



From inside, just push the small lever.



Then pull the yellow knob. The rod that will get attached to the rod-end will open the rear latches.



I had some small work to do on the canopy jettison mechanism. But before begining, I noticed the parts were not centred correctly. Here the right pin, not fully engaged.



Here the left side. I tried a few tricks to centre everything but only managed to damage the parts, I will redo some of them.

The canopy is latched via three latches, a rear lower latch , a rear upper latch and a lateral latch on the left side.
The picture shows the left rear latch in the closed position.



Here the same latch in the open position. A rod will be connected to the aluminium part and be operated via the left side latch button.



Here the two parts forming the side latch. They need to be heavily deburred.



Two slots have to be cut on the left side of the fuselage, a risky job. The picture shows the template that will be used for drilling.



The I draw the slots on the fuselage. I cut the slot manually with a file, not daring using an electric or pneumati tool.



The two slot are done, on the back one, the latch is in position. The upper lip shows a bit wavy on the picture, but in reality it's not noticeable.

First task today is to build the forward hinges support blocks. The method is well explained in the plans and on different websites. The building order seems somewhat stange but works well. On the picture, the left block with the two bolts and the pin.



Here the right side after the small rib in the foreground has been added but not yet drilled. The skin has to be clecoed on to drill that rib, because there is no other way to have it in the right position.



The drilling is done with the angle drill and by lifting the skin. The picture shows the assembly after the lower right hole has been drilled.



Then I install the jettison system. A lot of small adjustments had to be made to have it work properly. The picture shows the closed position.



To obtain the open position, the mechanism has to be rotated. Normally by the lever shown in the picture and by a handle going through the instrument panel. The canopy will still be attached to the airplane via the gas struts, I'm not sure that the canopy will fly away.
So I decided that I won't have the handle on the panel. So I either use a shorter handle going only through the subpanel.



Or I don't use the small lever and install the handle as on the picture. This will allow to rotate the mechanism by reaching under the panel. That's my preferred method for the time being.

Two hours to almost finish the gas struts support brackets. for the rear support I fabricated two spacers (one per side, the plans tell you to make four with half the thickness, but I had the material). The spacers are then counterdrilled. Before that I had drilled the support bracket and then only cut them from, it's easier this way to support them during drilling.



The two froward block ar also drilled and then cut. The outer holes get tapped. The inner hole still has to be enlarged and tapped, but I don't have the correct drill. I'll have to order one at Avery.
The blocks have to be slightly radiused so then don't interfere with canopy frame.
The plan show that the outer hole have to be countersunk, but I d'ont think it is necessary, or only very lightly so it will be done during assembly.