Day 189

First thing this morning we unclamped and unmasked our right side hatch window. It turned out great!

We then set about prepping the canopy and rear windows for installation. The process is the same as the hatch windows. After everything was prepared and masked off we set about getting the rear canopy windows sealed in. We are definitely improving in our technique. These windows turned out perfectly. We were even able to unmask them before we went home tonight.

The rest of the day we spent fitting and trimming out the front windscreen. Very grateful we saved this one for last, after having learned from the first four. This one by far was the greatest challenge. Not only is it the largest piece, but because of it’s size it is flimsy and difficult to hold onto while trying to trim it. Also due to is excessive curvature around the front of the plane, it takes some work getting it to sit flush all the way around the window tract. It was a lot of on and off again with small trims being made at a time until it fit perfectly. You had to be very careful not to over trim this part. It had the smallest overlap area out of all the windows at about an inch.

We were successful in the end though and are very happy with its fitment. We won’t seal it in at this time, however. We will wait until we have primed and sanded the front top skin, because it would be much easier to do that first to avoid any accidental scratching of the glass.