Flaps Mounted

With the canopy now more or less permanently mounted I needed to finish up the canopy side rail pins. Apparently, these pins were added to the canopy after RV-14s had been flying for a while to engage the cockpit side rails. This to prevent the canopy sides from bulging outward when the plane was at cruise speed. The hardware had been sitting in a Ziplock bag for a couple years, already painted, waiting for the day to come when I could use them. The pins are attached to canopy rails using the double flush riveting technique. The shop heads are countersunk and squeezed very flat, so they don't protrude and prevent the canopy from closing all the way. With the pins attached, modeling clay is used on the canopy rails to make an impression where the pins sit. Holes are drilled using a paper template and unibit. The doublers are attached with pulled rivets. It all came out fine. I attached the antenna for my Emergency Locator Transmitter on the sidewall in the baggage compartment. Moving on to the flaps I attached my previously fabricated pushrods to the flap arms on either side of the fuselage. The flaps are easily hung, requiring only 2 bolts and castellated nuts. Some filing was needed on the right-side root area to achieve the needed clearance off the fuselage side. The flap neutral position is 7 degrees using the canopy rails as a zero reference. The best I could do was 7.30 degrees as both flaps contacted the rear wing spar at that point. I had an issue with my Garmin GAD 27 and making the flaps do what I wanted. A quick call to Garmin tech support sorted the problem. I needed to reverse the flap motor power wires and the wires on my flap switch. Fortunately, both were pretty easy to do. For now, when I bump my flap switch once the flaps go to 50%. A second switch bump runs them to full flaps. Reversing the process raises them. It's satisfying to watch them move in unison. Lastly, I finally had the plane outside for the first time making sure my GPS fully booted, which it did. I could never get a good signal from inside my hanger and needed to test the system. Nice to see it shining in the sun. I promised my wife she can remove all the blue protective film and canopy film very soon.