Today I'm still assembling the canopy frame, first by clamping and drilling the two forward halves.



Then the two angles fabricated two days ago have to be installed, the plans are rather vague about the positionning. First the outside part of the frame is trimmed to allow the big angle to sit flush, then the two angles are drilled together to allow two small keeper rivets to be bucked. Those rivets are not structural.



Here the picture after the drilling with the clecos.



And now the angles have to be installed on the fuselage, on the seats bulkhead. It will be done next time as the measurment on the plan is quasi impossible to make on the fuselage.

More work on the cabin frame. First some angles have to be cut and drilled. Some are looking akward because the frame is not sitting at a right angle on the upper fuselage longerons.



The two halves of the rear of the frame are the clamped on a board so that the assembly stays flat. One can make out the dimensions drawn on the board. The width is within 1/32 of Vans' dimensions on the plan.



The two halves are then joined with one of the plates fabricated previously.



Then two strips have to be drilled, they will allow later to then install the forward part of the frame. Here the inner strip is drilled.



Here the two strips are drilled, they are not drilled two full size, it will be done on the bench.



Here the two forward parts are positionned on the assembly. All the operations done today on the rear parts will have to be done on the forward parts.

I installed the fuel selector; its an Andair selector looking more robust and safer than the one supplied by Vans.



Then I begun working on the rollbar. The part is quite complex and there are four rollbar quarts to be assembled. The two rear parts have to be drilled to 1 1/2 inches.



Then two liaising parts have to be fabricated and drilled. I still have some angles to cut and drill before beginning the assembly.

Today I begun installing the electric aileron trim system. The instructions are quite precise so there is no special problem. Here is the servo and actuator assembly on the bench.



The same assembly in the plane between the seats ribs, just behind the sticks. I still have to connect the actuator to the stick, I'll do it after the parts have been primed.



I also noticed I had some interference between the lower tube on the sticks and the seat ribs (those that have been cut at the beginning of the building). The interference blocks the stick from going to the full forward position. I don't really think this to be a problem as the elevator should reach it's stop before the stick does, but to be on the safe side, I sanded down the ribs a bit.

I fstarted by installing the static pressure lines. I use the Van's kit, the instrcutions are rather vague and an article in the first 2006 RVATOR gives some more details.
The pressure port is a simple pop rivet, rather the riveting the rivet, I just took aout the mandrel and prosealed it to skin.



Here is the left inside view. The tubing going upwards goes to the right side pressure port, the one downwards to the left side and the bigger tubing goes forward to instruments.



Here the view of the tubing going through the seat bulkhead.



I then installed the rudder cables. The picture shows how they exit the fuselage, the plastic tubing is secured by a C-clamp.



So that it looks neater and more aerodynamic, I install small fairings (I think I bought them at Avery)



I then install the cable and supports for the shoulder harness.