14 Jul 2024

My conclusion, unfortunately, is that the new style canopy with the oxygen conduit really doesn't work properly with parachute cables but non-parachute rear fuselage skins. Technical pointed out it was never designed to be used this way, clearly the sales team need to catch up with the design changes. After discussion with Technical, the solution was to either go the whole hog and get the parachute box, skins and so on excluding the parachute itself (which I don't want) or to just fill the two holes in the canopy and skin (apparently not a structural concern at the top).

I decided to have a go at grinding out a bit of the oxygen conduit, which is built into the new style canopy, at the top rear where the cables exit the canopy into the cable tray to see if I could coax enough movement out of the cables. Whilst it made some difference, I couldn't get far enough back to allow the cables sufficient movement to clear the holes to permit rivet insertion. Consequently, I've gone with the solution agreed with Technical - filled the holes in the canopy again and will use a bit of body filler on the aluminium skins later. Along with the Sikaflex, it will be properly bonded and attached so I'm not concerned about it at all - just very annoyed that the sales guys pushed an expensive option which doesn't really work 100%. I would caution anyone ordering a new style oxygen conduit equipped and parachute cabled canopy with the non-parachute airframe to reconsider that approach.