Canopy frame side rail help

Well excitement evaporated quickly after installing the canopy frame to the fuselage. There?s a 3/16? gap on each side to the fuselage with a slight bow up. Right side in addition is 3/32? inside edge of fuselage. Anyone encountered and solved this misalignment without going backwards? Thanks

How far along on the structure are you? Photos would help.

Here?s a link to a pic. Canopy frame is complete and ready to start canopy fitment.

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/EB33FFF4-4434-4EE6-9571-AB8B1ACDBC38-XL.jpg

Another pic

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/41B6DB13-490B-4B22-9BCF-67F628213DB5-XL.jpg

It's a bit hard to tell for sure in photos, but in the second photo in particular the gap looks about right to me. There's a seal that will help close the gap in flight, and the canopy side skins will also help cover it (they stick down a bit past the rail). I recall seeing something in the instructions about the gap being normal to accommodate seals.

I know of at least one builder (see here: http://www.rv14a.com/canopy-and-window---sec-38.html) who was unhappy with the gap (not this gap but the one between canopy and fuselage side skins) and ended up doing their own side skins. The gap is minimal in my case visually, after putting the side skins on and I'm happy with it.

Also hard to tell in your photos - are you happy with flatness of the rail angles? Took quite a bit of fluting (and some "unfluting" in my case) for me to get satisfied with this - I even used a vise on fluting tool arms to help deepen flutes in a couple of places (https://turnerb14a.blogspot.com/2018/08/progress-on-canopy.html).

You may try trial fitting the side skins to see how the gap between side and fuselage skins looks. Also - any twist in the canopy? This could cause gap to be bigger on one side. I spent some time adjusting (a little brute force may or may not have been applied) the fit even after finding "zero" twist, to correct the side-to-side fit.

The gaps look pretty standard to me based on other 14s I have seen. The rubber seal that gets attached to the canopy bottom seals this gap well. My gaps look similar and I have no air leaks with the seal in the kit.

I agree with mturnerb and Nova RV, looks normal and the seal will take care of the gap and the outer skins extend down a bit .. build on!

Can we get a pic from 90 degrees both sides?

Some side pics with and without skirt. Will take some twist both sides to get the vertical alignment. Feeling better tho with your help!

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/A5892A0F-BF98-4527-AD3B-9076D5F5631B-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/E8B90DD5-501C-43A6-A185-BA55CE92C29C-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/01D6A133-B01C-4C9F-9708-0CFD618A0426-XL.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First...L/40E70C00-1A1A-45FC-B924-AF577B2DCA31-XL.jpg

If you do try and finesse the frame a little bit, just be sure that you don't compromise the fit at the back where the canopy lock pins go through the frame assembly. This area would be important that it all lines up and works smoothly vs the side gaps which are cosmetic.

One decision I made which will affect your final fit (IMHO): I did the canopy fiberglass fairing and all the drilling of the canopy structure (plexiglass) with the canopy on the fuselage, not on a table. This way I had the canopy aligned well and knew the fit would not be affected by the fairing work.

Be sure fit of aft canopy to rollover structure isn't affecting this - I had to remove some material for the structure to fully clear roll bar (still rubs slightly even now, will fix when I do some other maintenance).

mturnerb said:

One decision I made which will affect your final fit (IMHO): I did the canopy fiberglass fairing and all the drilling of the canopy structure (plexiglass) with the canopy on the fuselage, not on a table. This way I had the canopy aligned well and knew the fit would be affected by the fairing work.

Click to expand...

Absolutely do it this way. I took one look at the manual's depiction of doing it on a table and rejected it out of hand. There's simply no substitute for doing this sort of fitting in place.

Thanks for the great feedback. I am going proceed and do it all on the fuselage. I am so amazed by the precision and fitment of everything thus far I guess I was surprised by the gaps.

Megs4sale said:

Thanks for the great feedback. I am going proceed and do it all on the fuselage. I am so amazed by the precision and fitment of everything thus far I guess I was surprised by the gaps.

Click to expand...

In this case, the gaps don't indicate poor fitment, but proper fitment. That clear space between the canopy rails and fuselage side rails is necessary for the rubber seal that will be installed on page 38-35. The gap will be invisible from outside once the canopy side skins are installed.