October 28, 2006

Well, I did get to the hangar one more time in the week, but not really long enough to count for anything, so I’ll call it a loss. I was there for two hours, but basically made zero headway.

Today, the windshield had to be put on the plane so it could be ready for fibreglass. That basically meant putting all the screws in. The other day, I’d snapped a screw in one of the holes I’d drilled and tapped out, so I had to get that sorted first. While I was doing that, I even snapped a drill bit. What the hell is wrong with me?! I wasn’t sure if the stainless screws going into the chromoly steel was the problem. Sometimes threads can gall up when two different materials are used. I decided to run the tap through all the holes once more to make sure they were good.

When assembling this time, I used a bit of Boeshield to help lube the threads, and also protect them from corrosion. This worked out OK, as I never had any more trouble with it.

I worked my way from the middle to the sides and had to rearrange and make different shims as I went. Also, this meant opening and closing the canopy a whole bunch of times. Eventually though, I got the screws and shims all done. Here’s how it’s looking… It’s a bit dusty, but you can see how well it matches the canopy.

Next was the little clips that hold the bottom edge down to the fuselage. These were pretty easy to do. I put about 8 down.

Now that’s all done, here’s what it’s looking like!