Sunday, May 29, 2022

Initial positioning of the Canopy slide Rail - 2 hours

 I want to mark out the positioning of the fuselage rivets on the C-762 Canopy slide rail. This will help ensure that I can properly locate the bolt mounting holes between the rivet holes. 


I began to mark and drill the bolt mounting holes to #40…..once I had them all drilled. I realized I made a mistake. The spacer and guide will need to move a bit back and forth to allow the canopy slider frame to sit in the right position. I should have waited to locate and drill the bolt holes once I have the spacer positioned correctly. 



Saturday, May 28, 2022

Started the installation of the engine mount and slider canopy frame - 2 hours

Two big pieces taking up a large amount of space in my basement bedroom is the engine mount and the slider canopy. I am motivated to get these set into place so they are “out of the way”. Also installing the engine mount is fairly important as I need it in place so I can install the Grove Brake Reservoir. The reservoir is slightly larger than the Vans stock unit so I will need to make some adjustments. Only way to sort that is to get the engine mount on.

The engine mount went on (initially) a tad easier than I thought it would. I though long and heard about how I was going to hold the engine frame onto the fuselage. I thought of clamps, or using an elaborate setup with threaded rods through the firewall recess. At the end of the day, none of this is needed. 

With some help..I found that the top two mounting holes lined up extremely well with the factory pre-drilled holes in the bulkhead/engine mounts. Only one hole (along the top) needs to be drilled as a pilot hole. This is easily done without the engine mount on the plane.

Now I can temporarily install the engine mount sliding it into the correct location. With some help from another person securely holding the frame. I was able to accurately locate the next top hole.

So I slowly started to open those two holes to #19 to allow the installation of a couple small #8 bolts that I have. Next I upsized them to AN3. I will hold off doing any more until I can finish drilling the rest of the bolts along the bottom. 


Next I want to start in on the slider guide and spacer. The plans have you bend the tab at the top of the fuselage to allow the slider guide to sit properly. Gezzz its painful to bend a perfectly nice piece of the shiny fuse. 

I began to mark out the guide and spacer positioning. This allows me to then note rivet positions on the canopy slider spacer. I want to ensure that the mounting holes are going to be centered 


 





Monday, May 23, 2022

Completed rough-in of roll bar - 2.5 hours

 Well…Today I took no prisoners. I used the ratchet strap method again to squeeze the roll bar. I went past the 2 1/2” mark….Now there is considerable stress on the roll bar. I worked all the way up to squeezing the roll bar a total of 4 1/4”. That did it…I was now starting to see permanent movement of the roll bar. 


I am using towels and an old hoodie to lay across the straps in case they snap. It gives some protection to things flying. 

I finally managed to get the roll bar set to the proper width. Now with things set correctly. I could back drill all 3 remaining holes #40 and cleco the roll bar into place on the canopy deck. I resisted the urge to cut and drill the center windscreen support bar as I’ve heard reports that adjustments might be needed to the angle of the roll bar to suit the slider canopy frame once it gets installed. 


Another item I wanted to look at was setting the engine mount in place. It takes up soo much room in the bedroom, I really want to get it mounted to the plane. I decided to test fit it to see what it looks like. 



 

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Setting the roll bar into position - 4 hours

 The plans have the rear of the roll bar set at a specific position. I used tape to mark out the 7/32” offset to the inside. Using a piece of aluminum angle I then set the forward/aft position of the roll bar. After checking correct positioning a number of times…I was ready to drill.

 

Using the 90deg pneumatic drill…I back drilled the #40 pilot hole on the pilots side to mark the roll bar. Done and Done.

Now…The roll bar is slightly wider than the required dimension. I need to squeeze it in about 1/4” to get the fit right. Well I leaned on it. Nothing. More and more leaning. Get my belly/weight right into it. Nothing. Now this is concerning….I’m a solid 220 right now. Not even a budge. I decided that I will have to use a ratchet strap on it. 


It’s very easy to start squeezing it together. I started at 1” and then basically went up at 1/4” increments checking at various milestones. Think I squeezed up to 2 1/2” and absolutely no change. I finally threw in the towel. I think I am going to have to get more aggressive with it. 




Sunday, May 15, 2022

Drilling the roll bar spacers - 3 hours

 Well, it has been quite a long time since I have worked on the build. Work has been quite busy in January/February. Then in march I had to start designing and drafting our new office. I’ve never produced a set of architectural drawings for a Commercial Office before. Well for the month of March and April….I do now. With that out of the way. Back on the build. 

I continued on with the fitting of the roll bar spacers. A decent amount of work is needed to file the fillet/radius better so they nest properly into the longeron. This is close, but it needs more work. Both the inside radius and outside radius need work so that the spacer sits properly.


  I have the first one in really good shape. I marked the #40 pilot hole and used the drill press to open up the hole for an AN3 bolt. Got the next one done…But the third one I messed up a bit. I will need to redo that one. I will need to order a new spacer piece. Good grief.