Cockpit Frame and Canopy
The moulded fibreglass canopy frame has already been trimmed and installed at the factory, with
the retaining system completed, and you only need to trim and glue in the clear canopy.
Fitting clear canopies is always a little bit tricky, but this is the method we use:
Sand the inside edges of the fibreglass canopy frame carefully with rough sandpaper, to ensure
a perfect fit of the canopy inside. Lay the clear canopy on top of the frame, and mark the rough
shape with a felt pen or wax crayon. Cut the outer border of the clear canopy with sharp scis-
sors, about 12mm (1/2”) too big all around. When the canopy fits inside the frame roughly, mark
the final cut line on the clear plastic. Then cut it to exact shape with a 6 - 8 mm overlap all around.
Make several hand-holds with paper masking tape (see photo P5 ) to make holding and posi-
tioning the canopy easy. Push the canopy up tightly inside the back of the frame and fix the bot-
tom 2 back corners with one small drop of slow CA each (ZAP-O or Plasti-ZAP recommended).
Note:
Do NOT use any CA accelerator/kicker - you will immediately ‘fog’ the clear canopy!
Tape the front of the canopy to the frame temporarily. Mount the canopy frame to the fuselage
(use all 4 bolts), and tape the back of the canopy frame tightly to the fuselage. Using the mask-
ing tape handles to pull the canopy outwards firmly against the frame, working from the back
towards the front, glue the edges of the canopy in place in 2 more places each side, with just a
single small drop of CA at each position, all the time checking that the edge of the canopy is tight
up against the frame at the front.
Visually check from the front and back to make sure sure that the canopy is straight. Now that
the canopy is fixed in position and cannot twist or warp anymore, you can carefully glue the rest
of the canopy firmly in place. You can either complete the gluing from the outside, allowing the
CA glue to wick into the joint between the frame and the clear plastic or, as we prefer, you can
carefully remove the canopy frame from the fuselage, and use a 30 minute or 24hr epoxy and
micro-balloon mixture for gluing all the edges to the frame on the inside surface. Even if you use
the CA glue method, we recommend that you also glue the inside edges with the the epoxy mix-
ture to be sure that the canopy cannot come off in flight.
Supplied with the canopy frame is a painted-to-match strip of fibreglass which can be glued on
the clear canopy to form the central hoop.
Horizontal Stabs
The stabs are 99% finished at the factory, and the phenolic control surface horns are already
glued in place for you. Hinging is with 4mm O.D brass tube, through the phenolic hinge posts
installed at the factory. To prevent the hinge tubes coming out during flight you can solder a small
washer to one end of each tube, and retain them with a small piece of clear tape.
Install the 2 carbon stab tubes (16mm Ø), with the shorter one at the front, and slide the stabs
on. The tubes already have M3 blind-nuts glued into the at the factory for the four M3 x 12mm
bolts that retain the stabs from the underside. Don’t forget to put a bit of clear tape over the bolt
heads for flight.
Servo choice:
The elevators can travel more than 45 degrees and must be controlled by a pair of hi-torque ser-
vos for each elevator, and we definitely recommend a pair of hi-torque digital servos like JR 8411,
Composite-ARF Pitts S12
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