Alan Wray wrote: > Canopy. I have the plastic "bubble" and a curved fibre glass > surround. Is the surround to be stuck to the airframe or to > the canopy? ie does it lift up as the canopy opens or does > it stay down on the airframe. Secondly, how is it all fixed > in place? In the UK, where I am, the canopy, I understand, > MUST be hinged at the front rather than the side. Any photos?
You need to attach a frame to the canopy, otherwise the canopy will quickly crack and fail at the attachment points. See http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/kcf.html for one way to do it, and there are many other websites at www.krnet.org which demonstrate other methods. They probably require front hinged as opposed to sides because of the kind of thing that happened to Aussie Allen Buzza. His canopy came open on takeoff, opened all the way to the top of the wing, and killed the lift on the wing. The airplane stalled and pancaked into the end of the runway from about 50' up, making a pretty big mess of the airplane. That's certainly one strike against the side opening canopy, in my mind. I'll let others talk about the gear, and I know there are several web sites out there that detail how to swap out the original gear, as most everyone who has it has replaced it. In the meantime, you can go to the search engine at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp and look for "retract gear replace spar" and you'll get quite a lot of info on the subject". Trigear will cost you a few pounds, about 10 mph, and about $500 US money, but insurance may be slightly cheaper, and it'll be easier to land (although I can't imagine it being any easier than landing a taildragger)... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S homebuilt airplane N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
