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Canopy release mechanism

kbalch

Well Known Member
I just spent an inordinate amount of time installing the canopy release mechanism (page 35-21) in my project. I can say, without hyperbole, that this was the single most physically miserable task I've had to accomplish thus far in two RV builds, a set of Pitts wings, a kit car, a motorcycle restoration, and a lifetime's worth of other projects.

I did finally get it installed, but despite building the wretched thing in accordance with the plans, actuating the lever doesn't withdraw the pins. It moves them, but not enough to clear the cradles. Clearly, something is wrong and I'm completely flummoxed as to what that might be. If anything, I was concerned that my pins were slightly too short and that's obviously not the problem.

At the moment, I'm going to take a hot shower. Contorting my 6' self up under the sub-panel has created aches and pains throughout my back.

Anybody want to buy a -14 kit up through a nearly completed fuselage? Kidding...probably... :eek:
 
I guess that part wasn't included when they said the canopy was easier to install / assemble than the old 6's & 7's. Sorry that I can't offer any assistance for you. Though, having spent several months on the RV-10 doors, you have my sympathy.

Larry
 
I don't remember it being an issue .. what was the trouble? (curious)

For whatever weird reason, I was unable to get the pushrods through their bushings and the entire assembly bolted in place while working from either side. I had to get inside the fuselage and lie down with my upper body in the pilot-side footwell. Despite a variety of cushions in place, I managed to tweak my lower back on the spar carrythrough. Not fun.

The topper, of course, was the end result of it not working properly after all that effort. I'll probably have to get back in there tomorrow to remove it and then again to reinstall it. What a PITA!!

Today was one of those project days that caused me to wonder why I mostly find this to be such a rewarding hobby...
 
You may want to check the length of the tubes made on page 35-16, the drilling orientation of the release lever, and also the orientation of all the parts including the delrin block when you assemble. I recall having to study the plans closely to get all that right.
 
You may want to check the length of the tubes made on page 35-16, the drilling orientation of the release lever, and also the orientation of all the parts including the delrin block when you assemble. I recall having to study the plans closely to get all that right.

Yeah, I checked all of that multiple times over. I suspect that I need to widen the notches on one pushrod where it attaches to the -619 release lever to ensure that it's getting full rotation and not binding. We shall see...
 
Ken, in the post-mortem, is there anything that you could have done differently to make the task easier? Should the release mechanism step happen BEFORE doing something else?

I'm still just a few weeks behind you so I'll be hitting that step soon.
 
I don't recall having any issues here, if your top fwd skin is not riveted on yet it's so much simpler to install and you don't need to do it from underneath. That said, when it came time to rivet the fwd top skin on, I found that much of the mechanism is now in the way when you try to buck some of the rivets and then Proseal around the circumference of the top skin per plans to keep out any fumes. In my case, I had to go underneath and remove most of the canopy hinge mechanism to gain access which was zero fun but it would be way harder to do the initial install from beneath vs just removing then reinstalling it all after the skin is riveted and Proseal gets applied.
 
Ken, in the post-mortem, is there anything that you could have done differently to make the task easier? Should the release mechanism step happen BEFORE doing something else?

I'll report back this afternoon once I've (hopefully) resolved the issue.

I don't recall having any issues here, if your top fwd skin is not riveted on yet it's so much simpler to install and you don't need to do it from underneath. That said, when it came time to rivet the fwd top skin on, I found that much of the mechanism is now in the way when you try to buck some of the rivets and then Proseal around the circumference of the top skin per plans to keep out any fumes. In my case, I had to go underneath and remove most of the canopy hinge mechanism to gain access which was zero fun but it would be way harder to do the initial install from beneath vs just removing then reinstalling it all after the skin is riveted and Proseal gets applied.

I went ahead and followed the plans in order, so the forward top skin was riveted in the "central rivet zone" before the canopy release mechanism was installed. Either way, it's not a fun area to access.
 
Edit: I just realized this thread was about the forward release mechanism, not the roll bar release/lock. My comments do not apply.
*** [I believe I flattened out (ground off) the point of one pin - maybe 1/16”. The pins don’t need to be sharppointed, only tapered. Retracted, the end of the pins should be flush with the surface of the alignment plates riveted to the roll bar.] ***
 
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Well, I figured it out. After how well the rest of this kit has gone together, I strongly suspected that I'd somehow screwed up a fabrication element and that turned out to be the case.

Naturally, after getting the assembly out of the airplane (which, itself, took some doing, as one of the release pins was bound up firmly in its cradle), I checked everything thoroughly. Pushrod lengths were right on, release pin lengths and tapers were to spec, and the -618 & -619 components had been drilled to the correct relative angle utilizing the template. Hmm...

In short, because I've been working without a drill press on this project (an omission to be rectified immediately), I eyeballed the hole locations in the canopy release pushrods. The result was that the plane of rotation around the clevis pins wasn't square on either pushrod (nevermind to each other!) and the stacked differences were causing the release pins to bind in the cradles, one side worse than the other. Ugh. Entirely my fault and I should know better.

:( :eek: :mad:

New tubing has been ordered and I'll work on other things until I can finally get my forward top skin buttoned up in a week or so.
 
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