Final Stage

Final Stage (2)

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Dale and I hit the Waffle King at 8:30 this morning, had our coffee and unloaded the tools at Airpark at 9:00. The XP originally had a three-piece canopy. The small front piece, the middle part (this is the part that opened), and a short final piece that wrapped the rear seat and ended up on the fuselage. I ordered a two-piece canopy from Mike Fithian at Falcon East in New York and the installation was our project for today.

This picture shows the three-piece canopy. Note the blue trim separations. This setup allows one door opening for both seats.

Jerry Murphy's XP has the two-piece mod installed. This setup allows an entrance for each seat.

Mike had a good set of printed instruction, but no pictures. He had drawn diagrams and other instructions on the lexan sheet cover and had cut out the pattern before shipping them to me. Someone with a little experience should have no trouble at all putting it together. However....... We began (as instructed) fitting the front canopy to the fuselage and the metal bow in the middle. Used blue painter's tape to hold the lexan in place while we were marking it to trim. After a few attempts, cutting and trimming and sanding and trimming some more, we had a pretty good fit. Temporarily taped the Velcro to the underside of the lexan to make sure the fit on the left side would be OK. The Velcro adds about a 1/4 inch to the fit of the canopy. Moved the bow to the correct fit and riveted it to the fuselage. Taped the front canopy and set the rear piece on the bird. This one was a bit more trouble as the XP has a tendency to narrow down toward the rear. A cut-out at the top of the canopy gave us pause. It didn't actually say "Cut Here!", but it did have what we figured was a shaded area that should be removed. (You have to realize how many parts and pieces I've messed up to this point to understand my reluctance to "cut" anything I wasn't sure of.) For the next one who installs this set-up, the cut-out is necessary to allow the narrow fit to the rear of the cockpit. We clipped and sanded and rasped and clipped some more and finally had a decent fit. Taped the rear piece to the fuselage and went to the nearest convenience store for a victory coke.
Returned and pulled the left side tape off and peeled the covering from the edge of the lexan. Used the original holes to mount the new piece with clecos. Began doing the same to the rear piece but found out the fit wasn't quite as good as we thought. Had to redrill and shave about an eight of an inch more from the left side. Finished the rear piece with clecos and quit for the day. Going to try to finish up the canopy tomorrow.







	Just before we left for the day, Dale removed the front tire. It has a small piece broken off from the rim, so we ordered a new rim. The wires are some extra length we left on the instrument wiring. Planning to move the panel aft about 6 inches soon.

Monday, April 19
9 hrs

Went back to Airpark Monday to finish the canopy. Pulled all the clecos out and cleaned a strip from the canopy and cleaned the canopy channel along the fuselage. Began riveting the canopy in place and found out that when you pull the sucker tight in one place, it expands in another.direction. Had to drill out a few of the rivets and sand the edges of the canopy is a few places (for about an hour or so of sanding). After the 'refit' the canopy settled in snugly and I finished the riveting on the left side of the front and rear canopy sections. Installed the velcro on the left side. The velcro installation was one of the few things I didn't have too much trouble with. It was time to install the hardware that came with the mod and after studying and placing and checking and thinking, I managed to put the angle bar in the wrong place. The angle bar DOES NOT, repeat DOES NOT get riveted to the fuselage as shown in the right lower picture. It won't be too much trouble to fill in 6 1/8 holes. No problem. The angle bar goes on the lexan! Fixed it. Angle bar is now properly mounted on the canopy door.


		Don't do this! It is NOT the right place.


	Mounted a strobe on a home-made bracket that attaches to the oil reservoir mount.	Canopy properly mounted and operational.
The strobe mount attached to the reservoir bracket	The bracket puts the strobe about 3" over the top of the wing in level flight.	Inside the cockpit - measuring for an extended panel
	A couple of strangers who flew in to visit for awhile. They were a bit shy.

Saturday, April 24
.5 hr

Put a handle on the lexan door. I noticed after sealing the velcro on the door, I had to put my fingers under the lexan to pull it open. Looks like the paint would be rubbed off over a period of time where the door would be pulled open. Found a cabinet pull that wasn't too obnoxious and installed it on the metal bar through the lexan. Makes a good pull for the door. Weight is about a half-ounce.

Sunday, April 25
4 hrs

Began serious work on relocating the panel. Cut a template out of construction paper, transferred the template to foam board, and used the foam board to determine where the instruments would be located. Bent conduit to frame the top of the template and will use aluminum angle on the bottom of the panel. After locating the instruments, I cut a sheet of acrylic to form the panel face. Mounted the conduit using #8x32 bolts and locknuts. I'll rivet the angle on the bottom. The last pic is the acrylic cut and mounted on the conduit. Had to shave/sand a bit to make it fit just right.


	Already have the tachometer, airspeed and altitude indicators, dual CHT and dual EGT, the master and ignition switch. I'll have to order the slip indicator, the VSI and the compass. I picked up the 12V power supplies at the Walmart. The new panel will give me room to mount the Lowrance GPS.

Tuesday, April 27
2 hrs

Advice: Do not use acrylic for anything requiring drilling or cutting with a holesaw. My opinion only, of course. The acrylic piece had a small piece chipped from the right lower corner, but I thought I could tolerate that because of where it was. So I drilled the smaller holes and used a jigsaw to cut the larger holes. I had two pretty good cracks in the acrylic by the time I was ready to cut the last hole (at the top in the picture), and I had planned to get another piece and re-cut the whole thing. The last hole convinced me not to use acrylic again. I had the old canopy material (lexan) in the workshop, so I used it for the panel. It's a little thin, but after mounting it to the bracing, it's rigid enough to use. Also bought a couple of holesaws to use on the lexan. Worked a lot better than a jigsaw. Mike Fithian used ABS plastic on his N240XP panel and said it worked very well. Of course I got his email after I had already used the lexan. If I ever re-do the panel (again), I'll probably use the ABS.


The ruined acrylic panel - Don't recommend acrylic!	The lexan, cut and mounted with clecos	The template showing where the instruments will be located on the panel

Thursday, April 29
2 hrs.

Dale met me at Airpark to fine tune the fit of the panel. We riveted the lexan to the conduit and angle, but we'll let the center brace hang on with the clecos until I paint the panel. We'll use a strap brace to mount the new panel to the old one, rather than the elaborate plastic bracket and tube I had originally planned. The strap will be lighter and much simpler to install. The fuse buss will be mounted on the old panel. I'll cover it with another piece of lexan (painted black), so the old holes won't show if we leave the gap between the old and new panels uncovered. The new panel will be attached to the fuselage by a three-inch piece of aluminum angle at each bottom corner. The added space to the panel will give us room for a turn and bank, a VSI and a place to mount the GPS. We're also putting a couple of lighter plug-ins on the panel for the GPS and radio. The intercom/headset hookup will be mounted on the right side of the fuselage, so it will be accessible to both front and rear seat.

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