Canopy Construction

The canopy that is supplied with the kit is, like many other items and instructions, are crude by design regarding form and function. The plans call for the opening and closing of the canopy by employing a three track system and rollers that allows for the canopy to open and close by moving forward and backwards. No type of canopy seal was supplied or even suggested in the manuals. If no action is taken, the canopy wall certainly leak when it rains. Nobody wants to fly in a damp and leaking cockpit.

I am not really digging this design and plan to incorporate the tilt up canopy hinges which I will either have to fabricate myself or, if I get lucky, buy a set There are pro's and con's regarding the tilt up method. However, I feel it will better suit my mission and make it easier to ingress and egress from the cockpit. The cockpit of the Pulsar I & II (XP) is quite small. The designer, Mr. Mark Brown, is a very small in stature and it seems that comfort of an average sized pilot ad passenger were an after thought.

All of the issues that were discovered with the Pulsar I & II (XP) designs were corrected with the Pulsar 100. The Pulsar 100, is the design that should have been made available to customers from the beginning. It incorporates a larger cockpit that is 44 inches wide at the shoulders, increase in gross weight, more aerodynamic, and strengthened fiberglass reinforcement used in the molds to facilitate more traditional aircraft engines such as those manufactured by Lycoming and Continental.

Back to the canopy construction and dry fitment, the head room is almost nil especially when one considers that the pilot will have on a communication headset. I have been contemplating methods of raising the canopy enough to provide ample clearance. Each time a change is made in the original design, it takes that much longer to finish the construction.

Time will tell with the final outcome.

More to information to come.