Canopy - Restraint

This blog cover the installation of a canopy restraint

Overview
One of the issues created by the strut is its limited capacity to hold the canopy in a wind. This issue was raised by Franco from Flying Legend on the last visit.

Construction
A 3/32'' cable was selected for the task of restraining the canopy when opened using the existing canopy roller attachment and another point on the canopy spreader for attachment.

The existing pivot needed a machined swivel point from aluminium to allow the cable eye to swivel in normal operation. This required a slightly longer AN3 bolt to be installed with the swivel. 

Restraint attachment

Upper spreader before 
installation

The lower cable restraint was fitted to allow the attachment point to be determined with the o/a length set to hold the cable under tension by the strut when open. 

Once the mounting point was located it was drilled 3/16'' then the swivel was fitted and operation checked. The next issue was to spread the load on the spreader and to prevent the it from being crushed when the bolt was tightened.. 

A flanged shaft was machined 10 mm od allowing the bolt to be tightened allowing the cable to drop into the rear cockpit while not crushing the spreader. 

The cable would initially coil up but after being under tension for a while dropped neatly behind the roll bar.

Comment
Works as planned and in review it actually looks like it was designed not developed.

Another small job finished -- Woo - Hoo..!