Started construction of the side rails. The front of the canopy frame is supported by 2 rollers which slide into the bottom of the canopy frame.
When everything is lined up, you drill through the frame and the roller assembly which locks the rollers in place.
However, this can only be done late in the process as the height of the canopy frame is determined much later after the canopy drilling to the frame. So for now you just make the roller assemblies and insert them in the bottom of the canopy frame tubes. You can use some clamps to put pressure and clamp them in place.
Before continuing, I wanted to re-measure the 90° angle on the roll bar. First I checked if the fuselage was sitting level. 0.1 very very close.
Then attached fishing wire across the roll bar verticals and hun some plumb bobs over the top. The distance between the vertical fish lines of the plumb bobs to the reference line across the verticals shows you how close the angle is to 90 degrees. It takes some patience but it's the perfect way to check.
Then started measuring the canopy track rails. Made one and then copied the length on the second.
Clamped them together and drilled the hole pattern in the horizontal part to #40. These are pilot holes which will be matchdrilled to the canopy decks once the final fitting of the canopy frame is completed.
I clamped them temporarily in place to test out the fit of the frame. So do not drill now, the whole practice of bending the canopy frame will lead to the exact position for these rails. You can only drill when the canopy frame has it's final shape.
