Pilot Bust Mounting w/ Cockpit Kit
This question was asked in a previous post. I have not mounted a pilot with the EF Yak and my new cockpit kit. I built the kit with a friends canopy and he has the pilot. I still need to buy one of these nice Yak's. Remember all pilot busts are different (size/shape/color), so one solution will not work for everyone. Here is how I have mounted pilots in some of my aircraft with my cockpit photo kits.
1. Install a lite ply or balsa plate/brace across & flush with the open wooden frame work of the canopy. Of course this needs to be in the rear section where the pilot will be sitting. Flush is important from the inside for clearance of the mounted photo kit and on the canopy bottom so it will not interfere with the canopy mounting to the fuse. I would make it one or two inches wide so you have plenty of edge to make the ply ends meet.
2. Install a blind 4-40 nut in the bottom of your pilot bust. Sometime I needed to cut a small piece of lite ply and glue it inside and flush with the bottom of the pilot bust. Sometimes a pilot bust even needs to be trimmed down, so they are not to tall in the aircraft.
3. Drill a 4-40 hole in the lite ply canopy brace installed in step 1.
4. Insert a 4-40 bolt with a washer up from the bottom of the canopy, through the first ply brace and into your favorite pilot bust that has a blind nut already installed. The EF Yak has ply mount parts that stick up in the rear/pilot section of the canopy. It is possible that you will need to cut holes/grooves in the bottom/back of your pilot bust. These new holes/grooves will allow the pilot bust to be located in the rear most portion of the cockpit, sit flush and line up with my torso & arms in my graphics (yes that is my body
.
Then you are done and it is even all removable as needed.
Kregg