Thursday, May 10, 2007
Canopy frame and latch mechanism.
(As always, you can get larger pictures by double clicking on them.)
With a lot of encouragement to keep tweaking the front bow, and not split it, (from VANSAIRFORCE members), I have finally made the frame fit reasonably well. The latch mechanism is mostly complete, though I still have to install the UHM blocks. It becomes a lot easier once you realise there is no reason why the push rods should not be slightly bent.
The canopy frame needed a little grinding to allow it to fit over the roll bar in several places. You can see an example here.
I recently had the role bar powder coated. Needless to say I also had to cut a part of that away as you see in this picture in order to allow the canopy bulkhead to come fully down.
I have used the spring from the RV9A release mechanism, rather than the one VANS provided for the -4. It is a similar stiffness, but the slightly greater length seemed preferable. There is so much friction in the system at the moment that it is quite incapable of closing the mechanism, though I guess its purpose is to stop it from wandering open.
Now I need to think about VANS safety latch, and how to fit a gas strut.
With a lot of encouragement to keep tweaking the front bow, and not split it, (from VANSAIRFORCE members), I have finally made the frame fit reasonably well. The latch mechanism is mostly complete, though I still have to install the UHM blocks. It becomes a lot easier once you realise there is no reason why the push rods should not be slightly bent.
The canopy frame needed a little grinding to allow it to fit over the roll bar in several places. You can see an example here.
I recently had the role bar powder coated. Needless to say I also had to cut a part of that away as you see in this picture in order to allow the canopy bulkhead to come fully down.
I have used the spring from the RV9A release mechanism, rather than the one VANS provided for the -4. It is a similar stiffness, but the slightly greater length seemed preferable. There is so much friction in the system at the moment that it is quite incapable of closing the mechanism, though I guess its purpose is to stop it from wandering open.
Now I need to think about VANS safety latch, and how to fit a gas strut.
