38 - Canopy and Window (canopy frame and aft window)

Section 38 is quite a bear - the aft window alone took at least 14 hrs of slooooow drilling, reaming, tapping, deburring, countersinking, and trimming - with a decent amount of help from my wife, who sat patiently in the baggage compartment with a backing piece of wood while I drilled.  But the window is done for now - the next time I do anything will be to permanently install it toward the end of the project.  Specifically, the last ~13 days saw the following tasks completed:

- Fluted and clecoed canopy parts; detached and deburred canopy rail bases and frame splices

riveted canopy frame assemblies together; clecoed skin to assembly

- verified fluting of frames; temporarily installed and leveled canopy frame closeout; final-drilled frame closeout and fwd canopy frames; fabricated aft canopy rail angles; marked canopy rail angles

- fluted aft canopy rail angles; machine countersunk canopy rail flange; started assembling canopy rail assemblies

- fit, cut notches, and defined plastic trim line in aft window; match and final drilled #40 holes in aft canopy rails into aft canopy rail angles (both sides), and unclecoed

- countersunk canopy rails; riveted canopy rails to canopy rail angles; fabricated canopy handles; final-drilled canopy side skins

- removed ~1” of vinyl/plastic adhesive around edges of the aft window; #40 drilled and clecoed ~60% of the holes in the aft window (slow process, using plexibits for the lexan and metal bits for the aluminum roll bar) 

- finished drilling and clecoing the aft window; started reaming (#36) and tapping (#6-32) front part of window, shim and roll bar

- finished reaming and tapping window/shim/roll bar; reamed #27 and countersunk holes in window; - trimmed forward edge of window; beveled and sanded edges of window; deburred shim/roll bar; broke edges of top and side skins

- #27 final drilled and deburred holes common to top and side skins and aft window; primed and painted a lot of parts for the canopy latch mechanism and stiffener angles

- saran-wrapped edges of aft window, and stored in house; riveted stiffener angles and side skins; attached canopy latch assembly; installed latch bellcrank angles; detached and deburred canopy rail shim; vacuumed mess from window drilling

Riveting canopy frame assemblies:

Wings transported to airport; Finish kit arrived!; 38 - Canopy & Window (latch assembly; canopy hinges, skin)

Our county and state were fortunate enough to not have had a COVID-19 stay-at-home order, until a few days ago. Because I had anticipated this draconian move, I expedited the construction of wing transport cradles and moving the wings to our new hangar.  If I had to do it over, I wouldn't make the roller wing cradle (constructed about a year ago) - I'd just construct these two transport cradles, since they are a lot more useful.  A fellow RV-14A builder pointed out that, with the wings separated, one can also work on both the top and bottom of each wing (thanks Mark A.!).  The day before I moved the wings, my Finish Kit arrived - as usual, it was an approximately 8 hr inventory process (yes, I take my time). Only one bolt was missing in the entire kit - and I counted everything!  Kudos to Van's.  Specifically, these tasks were accomplished during the past ~2 weeks:

- Designed and constructed transport cradles (2) for wings - each has handles on both ends, so the wing can be placed in cradle and then loaded into a U-haul
- Put finalizing touches on everything to take with wings to hangar; finalized method to secure wing cradles in U-haul
- Rented U-haul (20’), transported cradles to hangar - Thanks to Gary W. (neighbor) and Steve R. (lineman) for lifting on either end of the trip!
- Inventoried finish kit
- Prepped canopy latch assembly
- Separated stiffener angles, latch links, bellcrank angles; riveted canopy hinge assemblies; separated forward canopy rails and support flanges
- Assembled canopy latch pushrod assembly; deburred and dimpled canopy skin

One transport cradle (without the carpeted sling) is shown below. These are very easy to construct, and take exactly five 8' 2x4s, with no leftover wood remaining. Here are the cuts for each 8' 2x4:

1&2) each longitudinal piece is a full 8' board (no cuts)
3) the four vertical pieces that hold the carpet are each 18" tall (shown on the right of this pic). The ~23.5" leftover piece will be cut in half to make the two small handles shown on the left side of this pic, which will help carry the inboard end of the wing.
4) the two vertical pieces on the left and the 3 horizontal pieces on the bottom are all 16" cuts (5 total).  The remaining ~15.5" piece will be used as the top horizontal piece/cap, shown on the left. The horizontal cap will support the inboard spar.
5) the two long handles shown on the right, which will support the outboard end of the wing, are 48" long (i.e. cut an 8' 2x4 in half).

Everything gets screwed together with 3" hardware/construction screws (#9; Torx head) - I highly recommend drilling an 1/8" pilot hole at least 2" deep, and then use an impact wrench to drive the screws. I did not glue the pieces together. The longitudinal spacing of the vertical pieces that hold the carpet was approximately 17.5" ... but that was based on the piece of "scrap" carpet that I got from Lowes.  It happened to be about 18.5" wide and I wanted a little overlap. I estimate the smallest carpet width should be 16", and the largest carpet width should be 20", so space the vertical members accordingly.  (more pics/instructions are after the break)