"I like the idea of having the decks removeable but am concerned with water ingress when the plane stands outside in the rain."
Hello Dene, Like others have done, the entire top of my airplane is easily removable. I made my front and aft turtle decks the same way you make a lot of foam/fiberglass parts. Your start with a template at both ends, put foam between the templates, sand to shape and glass. The first thing I did was get my canopy mounted the way I wanted it on the fuselage. I then made the frame for the canopy and glassed the canopy to the frame. I made the aft part of my canopy frame "structural" with the addition of a very deep rib. I put several layers of glass in this area and it forms my roll bar. Now add the fire wall up front and a small half circle template at the leading edge of your vertical stabilizer and you have both templates for the front and rear turtle decks. To avoid a very "angular" look I put about a one inch spacer over the aft edge of my canopy, and then sanded to that spacer. I then removed this spacer and sanded down to the edge of the canopy transitioning a nice radius into the original profile of the rear turtle deck. This worked out real well and I am very happy with the result and you end up with a perfectly fitting turtle deck no matter how you built your fuselage. To get a good seal at my top longerons I first ran a strip of duct tape the full length of my aft fuselage and rolled it over and down both sides of the fuselage. Using two inch duct tape will give your at least one inch of tape on the vertical sides. With the foam in place I first took a two inch wide tape of fiberglass and extended it 1/4" down the side of the fuselage onto the duct tape and let the rest overlap onto the foam. I then glassed the rest of the turtle deck with KR cloth per plans but also allowed this to extend down the 1/4". Be sure you clean up any "runs" of epoxy that make it all the way down the duct tape and onto the fuselage sides. If not, it will be harder to remove. Once cured use a putty knife under one edge and work your way down the fuselage and the glass will pop off the tape. Now turn it over and dig out the inside to suit your desire and glass the inside. I started with 6" slabs of foam and sanded out the inside to a depth of about two inches. I also left a vertical rib of about four inches that runs the entire length right down the center. If you dig out much more foam than this I would suggest that you reinstall the turtle deck on the fuselage to cure so that it maintains the shape you want. Once the inside and outside have been glassed you can them come back and glass the surface that will be in contact with the top of the top longerons and the two ends. I put a "joggle" in the front of my turtle deck where my canopy will overlap when closed. The final result is a custom made part that fits your fuselage perfectly, minus the thickness of a piece of duct tape, and will seal out any chance of rain entering your fuselage in this area. Stephen Teate Paradise, Texas ************************************************************** The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not an intended recipient, you should delete this message. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized, and any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful. **************************************************************
