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Sat 15 October 2005

Dad started by riveting the rear canopy frame hoops to the side rails.
and then went onto finishing the forward locations on the side rails. The canopy frame is now fairly solid apart from the centre rear plate which is done after the canopy cut / fit.
Misc riveting nutplates etc.
I continued on the plenum. The side rails angles were fixed so I completed some of the forward locations.
This provides a real strong box section. More shaping of the sides and front to allow it to drop in on the front baffle frame.
Then I put a bend in both the rear edge and the two sides. All a bit of an art form as the bends aren't uniform across the width / length of the skin. Just eye-balled it and did it by hand.
After various fit / trim / shape / refit this was the result. Suddenly it looks like it might work.....
I was having problems getting the structure to hold its shape - particularly if I needed to remove it from the engine so I sorted a temporary brace half way down. You can see the amount of deflection needed. The end of the day was match drilling the front section, this will provide nutplate locations for the centre section to front baffles.
Dad finished the day measuring / making notes on the push/pull control cable lengths needed for the quadrants. Looks like we might be able to use VANs standard cables in 3 of the 4 locations. The P2 prop control is a monster and will need a custom cable.
Carl Morgan