Time to ‘refit’ the canopy.

Its been a while since I had the canopy on. It was never a perfect fit or rather it was pretty good but didn’t close easily and perfectly.

The other issue was that I had set it at less than 90 degrees which turns out to be a problem. It makes getting in and out harder for me, the pilot. The canopy needs to be 90 degrees or more.

Getting this extra few degrees is a major problem. I had two willing helpers as the canopy had to come on and off numerous times. Each iteration I removed a little more filler and increased the gap in the middle section edge between the two hinges. The canopy curves and in the center it needed a lot of clearance before it wouldn’t touch anywhere.

Some time later that night and into the next day I decided on a .5″ gap to the strake and I still had my slightly greater than 90 degree opening.

Now the opening was greater I needed a new strut position or a new gas strut. I went for both in the end. It turns out that while I had imported my gas strut from the USA via Aircraft Spruce, when I wanted a new one, the factory to my surprise was 10 minutes away by car here in Melbourne!  The brand is ‘Stabilus’  and the guys were incredibly helpful and great to deal with.

I got my new strut and had to move the attachment point slightly ‘higher’ with the longer strut. The canopy now opens and closes better than it ever has and I am extremely happy with it. The challenge still to come is to be just as happy with the canopy hardware.  Yes, I will get on to that very soon.