Cut off canopy deck underside flange?

I've read how others have ended up notching the underside flange of the aft canopy deck in order to get the spacer, bolt, etc in place for the roll bar. I'm going a step further now and wondering how the heck do you get the nuts in place when screwing down the canopy slider track to the deck? Far as I can feel, I'm running into the same situation. And by the time I notch the underside flange for all seven or so screws, the flange is going to be swiss cheese.

Am I going too far in thinking about just cutting off the underside flange altogether? Admittedly it makes a nice hand-hold when getting into or out of the plane. But how else am I going to get the slider track screws' nuts in place without further chewing up the flange?

That flange increases the structural capability of that part to act as a longitudinal stiffener.

I would recommend against cutting off the flange.

All well and good. Still back to square one of getting the screw nuts in. Guess I'm SOL there, just reading other build logs. I've got thin fingers, but I don't think I can get a thin enough set of grips or pliers up underneath to twist the nuts.

Nutplate Strip

For the canopy track screws I borrowed somebody else's idea and put nutplates on a thin strip of aluminum matched to the holes in the track. Did not attach the nutplates to the canopy rail, just the loose strip of aluminum. Saved a lot of dropped nuts and washers.

Yeah John, I think I just read your (or someone else's) log who mentioned that idea. So is the nutplate strip itself riveted to the deck or anything, or is it loose to where if all of the screws were removed, the strip would fall out?

If I remember correctly I wedged a flat blade screwdriver in there to keep the nut from turning, and torqued the bolt, same as you have to do with the lower bolts on the wing spars.

The strip is loose so that when all the screws are removed the strip drops out. If I remember correctly I had to custom taper the ends of the strip to fit the curve of the longeron.

Hey Scott,

Agreed, the hard part is getting those nuts started. I superglued the washers to the nuts. Then, take a strip of aluminum and bend it into an "L" shape, with the short end of the L being about an inch long. Next, put some sticky double-sided foam tape on that short end (hobby shop "servo tape" is great).

Then, stick the nut/washer to the sticky tape, and use the tool to move it into position. Once the nut is threaded, it's easy enough to get a small open-end wrench on it for tightening.

I must've wrestled with this for a full sweat-infused, expletive-laden 45 minutes before I made the tool!! Good luck.

airguy said:

If I remember correctly I wedged a flat blade screwdriver in there to keep the nut from turning, and torqued the bolt, same as you have to do with the lower bolts on the wing spars.

Click to expand...

+1 for this method. Comes in handy on a few occasions if I recall.