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Thu 25 August 2005

This is the result of the bad rivet squeeze from yesterday - you can see the rib is deflected inboard. As this is where the pivot point for the tip-canopy goes it is going to be a problem. I therefore drilled out the rivets and tried to 'flatten' the rib. Then re-assembled, better but not perfect - we will see if it causes other problems.
Next up I decided to go ahead with riveting the top-hat section and the weather strip support on the mid section of the panel frame. No big problems just access and sequence details that needed to be thought through. I used the C-frame for most of the rivet setting which worked well.
Also riveted the mini-ribs to the end of the center panel. The mistake I made was not to shape the mid-panel where the bull-nosed pins go for the canopy hinge / release. I'll see how it goes.
This is the completed canopy release assembly (from the firewall looking back and up). I also made two mini spacers (the AL bit between the plastic bearing surfaces on each side) that doesn't restrict the position of the goose neck hinge whilst maintaining the spacing correctly. The LHS is VERY tight (see above entry for the reason).
I then went round cleco'ing the skins to review the alignment between the canopy frame part and the forward skin.
And this is the result, a 3/16" gap over the whole width - I'm not sure yet what it is meant to be - will need to re-review the plans - but seems a little generous to me and it is going to be difficult to change with the pre-punched components and the goose neck needing a central drilling. A job for tomorrow!
Carl Morgan