Canopy skirt bottom fit?

Does the bottom of the side canopy skirt ride along the top of the fuselage and just clear when fully closed? I had it in my head it went down over the sides of the fuselage by an inch or so, but I can see it would hit hard when closing part way because the skirt is narrower at the front. I am concerned about what the fit will look like when I attach the windscreen if I do the side skirts before the windscreen is installed. Would I be better off going ahead and getting the windscreen on now and then fit the canopy skirt? I glued the canopy on and will make the side and aft canopy skirts out of fiberglass.

rv9aviator said:

Does the bottom of the side canopy skirt ride along the top of the fuselage and just clear when fully closed? I had it in my head it went down over the sides of the fuselage by an inch or so, but I can see it would hit hard when closing part way because the skirt is narrower at the front. I am concerned about what the fit will look like when I attach the windscreen if I do the side skirts before the windscreen is installed. Would I be better off going ahead and getting the windscreen on now and then fit the canopy skirt? I glued the canopy on and will make the side and aft canopy skirts out of fiberglass.

Click to expand...

If you look closely at the plans, you need to notch the bottom fwd corner of the skirt back to the widest point of the fuselage. Have you done that yet? (Thus, the side skirts only overlap the fuselage along the aft 2/3 or so. Forward of that they basically but up to the canopy deck/longerons.) Hope this helps.

I'll look more closely. I was looking at an older RV-6A and the whole skirt was above the longeron.

SKIRT

I WIDENED THE LOWER W/S AREA ON MY -6. THIS ALLOWS THE FORWARD SKIRT TO TUCK IN BEHIND THE THE W/S FAIRING AND REMAIN BELOW THE RAIL ALL THE WAY FORWARD. N16DD IO-360 angle.

Sliding Canopy Fit

Jim,

Start on my page 45 for how my RV-9A canopy was built and fitted to the fuselage. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a043.htm

The canopy skirt construction you want to know about starts on page 46. The photo at the top of page 47 shows the first fit of the side skirt. Notice the forward portion of that skirt does come up and over the longeron. The rest of it aft is hugging the side skin of the fuselage below the longeron.


There are a few more pages that show how I had to fit the aft canopy skirts TWO times before I was satisfied. You should read through my page 49, then follow the link to another page where I was doing canopy modifications on this page: http://www.n2prise.org/Tugwell2.htm#SkirtMod.


Just so you know, the Tugwell modification is no longer functioning, but in my original work with it, I added the tabs to the aft skirts that help to keep it down firmly against the upper aft fuselage skin.

Thanks Jerry, I understand now how it is supposed to work and found a website that another forum member who made his skirts from fiberglass did the same thing. Seems like ages since you came through Harrison, Ar. Maybe by next year this time I will be flying.

rv9aviator said:

I'll look more closely. I was looking at an older RV-6A and the whole skirt was above the longeron.

Click to expand...

Since I took so long to build my 6A, I copied the 9A overlap method, as well as the inside structure to secure the canopy sides. Much better than the old way.

L.Adamson --- RV6A

Harrison visit in 2006

Jim,

I enjoyed our brief time together during my return from Denver in 2006. I do need to make another trip over to visit with you when better weather and fuel funding permits. As I was preparing this posting for you, I found some work I needed to do to those Tugwell pages, and resizing the photos to match the rest of my web site. You will see the posting I made above no longer has one of the photos larger than the other.

I found my web post about our meeting June 25, 2006 at the bottom of my PAGE 217. http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a217.htm

Yep that's me only now 4 years older and a little less hair if that's possible.