I started off today finalizing the shape of the canopy aft corner gap pour foam fills at the intersection of the longeron and the turtledeck, on each side.

I checked each round of sanding by placing a light beam on the added pour foam fill, closing the canopy tight, and then looking through the opposite side strake window… it really worked quite well.

After finalizing each added pour foam fill contour on each side, I then cut a single ply of UNI to go on as the first ply, and then a ply of BID over that.  Here we have the right side with the glass laid up and peel ply added (pic 1).   I figured I would get a shot pre-peel ply, so here’s the left side layup (pic 2).

And here we have both aft corners of the longeron-turtledeck intersection —to minimize any gap with the aft rounded corners of the canopy— the layups completed and peel plied, at which point I left them to cure overnight.

But wait… there’s more!  More layup that is! <yes, singular>

Back on the aft nose/avionics cover, I sanded the top line where the old glare shield lip was to knock it down a tad before adding a good bit of dry micro that I had left over from the layups above (the gap was not that much) as both a filler and bit of a fillet.  I then cut and added a single ply of BID (pic 1) and then wetted it out (pic 2).

I the peel plied the layup and left it to cure overnight.

It’s a bit hard to detail all the minute assessments (well over an hour’s worth) I did on the front nose hatch, and a good many notes that I took.

The action on the front hinges work very well, but the angle is just slightly off so that when the nose hatch door is closed, the front side shift towards the right a little over 1/16″.  This creates a bit more of a gap along the right front edge than I want.  It’s easily remedied by simply pushing the door back over to the left, but I want it to close in the right spot every time without further manipulation. I’ll work on fine-tuning that.

Now, the more serious issue on the nose hatch is the clearance between the latch catch on the door and the latch assembly mounted on the aft inside of the nose hatch.  I assessed that for a good while, before taking the cylinder “striker” off and trimming it down a little on the lathe.  I also used the Dremel to take off a decent bit of material on the aluminum tab (door side) that striker is mounted to, since that tab was not clearing the front face of the latch assembly.

I made some progress, but realized that the latch assembly needs to come off and I need to reduce down the thickness of the glassed tab that the latch assembly mounts to move it aft just a hair… literally only 0.05″ would do it. Again, to get the clearance I need.

But, it was again quite late in the evening so I will attack that tomorrow, among other things.

Moving forward… sporadically!