OP63 - Remote Canopy Release - Mechanism Assembly

I have never liked the idea of stealing space in the centre stack to have a (very ugly) steel canopy release handle. I was very happy when Van's released OP63 - Remote Canopy Release. This reverses the direction of the rotating assembly which pulls the pins on the canopy hinges. Instead of being actuated by a rigid T-Handle in the centre panel, it is actuated by a flexible T-Handle - which you can literally mount anywhere you like. I will work out a good location for that at a later date. 

OP63 keeps the actuator arms in the same location and orientation when the pins are engaged, however rotates the arm in the opposite direction to remove the pins - in the original setup the actuator arms moves aft to rotate the assembly clockwise (when viewed from above) to pull the pins. In OP63, the actuator arm moves forward, to rotate the assembly counter-clockwise to pull the pins. 

This means that the actuator arms remain the same length, however you drill the actuator arm onto the assembly at a different angle. 

I found i had to skip between the original plans, and the OP63 plans quite a bit to work out how to get it all assembled. I could see that it might be a tad confusing. 

The task starts with drilling the actuator arm to the rotating assembly. Instead of using the aileron alignment jig as set out on Page 35-15 to align the actuator arm to the rotating assembly, you use TOOL-00092, which is provided with the OP63 kit. 

The original plans use the very multi-purpose aileron alignment jig to drill the canopy release assembly.

OP63 uses a special "tool" which comes with the kit.

3 pieces of normal computer paper gave the required 0.012" of space perfectly.

It was drilled #30, then #19 then finally 3/16" reamer and #12. 

The kit comes with a new bracket which is match drilled to the upper centre skin support rib, and provides a place for mounting the control cable. 

There is a UHMW/Nylon block used to mount the assembly to the upper fuselage - this has a chamfer placed on the inside to clear the weld in the rotating steel assembly, and also needs to have the corners of the smaller end of the block radiused - this is not to clear a bolt head as i suspected (and shown in the photo below), but to clear the pushrod ends. 

The radiusing of the corners of the upper part of the block is not to clear a bolt head as i show here - but to clear the square ends of the pushrods. I ended up radiusing the pushrods. This block was very difficult to work with.

Next job was to cut some aluminium tube to the specified length using a plumbers tubing cutter. I cleaned up the ends, then drilled the #12 holes 1/4" from each end. I was then able to use a hacksaw to do the initial cutting of the cross slots, and widened it with a dremel. The ends of the pushrods were radiused as i had not chamfered the edges of the plastic block enough. 

This shows why the plans ask you to chamfer the corners of the plastic block - if you leave the pushrod ends square, they interfere with the corners as the assembly rotates.

Once i had made up the pushrods, i was able to install them into the location in the fuselage and work out the rough relief cuts needed on the mounting bracket, and also the centre rib to clear the pushrods as the assembly rotated. The fuselage bracket was drilled into the corner of the new cut, then cut with a dremel. The centre rib was relieved by gang drilling, dremel and filing. 

The canopy release pins were made by cutting down an AN43B bolt, and grinding off the threads

I then temporarily installed the steel canopy hinge brackets, as well as the brass brackets and bronze bushing etc so i could test out the system:

The canopy steel brackets and brass components installed.

Note: In the above video i mention that 'fully engaged' would be with the arm pushing aft through the hole in the sub-panel - this is not correct. When i set it up i need to make sure that with the T-Handle all the way pushed in, the arm does not move aft of the sub panel. If you do this, the wire nut can interfere with the sub-panel and you may not be able to release the canopy. There is a note about his on Page 6 of OP63 (OP63-06)