Today was a cleanup day for last night’s external canopy layups.

I started by pulling the peel ply and cleaning up the seam areas of the peel ply.

I then pulled the edge tape off the canopy that last night’s laid up glass butted up against…. and a number of times over.

I then spent the next 3+ hours very carefully cutting away overhanging glass off the canopy edge at the canopy to frame intersections, while also removing any trapped and/or extraneous protective tape.

It took a while, and is a bit nerve-racking work since you have to be close up to the canopy surface with a sharp razor knife to extract the dead glass and tape.  I’m pleased to report that besides a few very, very minor scratches I made with the knife, the job came off without any major casualties (except my fingers of course!).

A little while later –curious to see how the canopy looked!– I pulled the protective plastic off the canopy to take a peek.

I have to say, barring any aft canopy issues that I may have, I am very, very pleased with the size and shape of this canopy.

Again, except for the slightly off center shaped turtledeck and it’s angle with the canopy, I am so far very pleased with the canopy install into the canopy frame.

This shot gives you a good idea of how it will look once the plane is finished.

And the requisite nose shot of course!

A profile view . . .

And one more slightly down angled side shot.

I also grabbed a couple shots of the GIB headrest and the internal turtleback from each side.

Again, with the canopy still in its 48 hour cure tomorrow, and with the canopy cleaned up as much as it can be, tomorrow will be a working-on-the-house day for me!