Hey guys....

The new canopy now shipping with the Banshee is from the original pencil drawings of the banshee I got from Jim Martin..... In my humble opinion, it looks much better than the bubble type canopy that J&J used on the Banshee. I really like the 'flat top' look on the banshee. I was shipping the bubble canopy from the plug i got when I got the rights to the J&J suff for the last year and a half, Vacformed on site at EAC, so the Vacforming is not the issue.

The reason for the change was 2 fold. The plug I received ( plaster of paris ;( ) was slowly becoming unusable. I made 2 attempts to get usable plugs made, from highly recommended sources, and both were unusable, the 2 sides not shaped evenly. Making plugs is not my forte, unfortunately.

If someone can make a usable plug, I would have no problem Vacforming them. Also unfortunately, in the quantities that the older pattern planes sell at, getting a plug made is also cost issue. This is a venture based on my love of the hobby, not practical business logic, as are most RC ventures.

The new canopy is very easy to assemble:

1) glue the two halves together, forming a 'v' shape.
2) It would be a good idea to put a thin 1/16" balsa backing strip on the inside of the joint.
3) Wet the 'v' liberally, and bend it around the top of the Banshee, leaving a 'flat' open top, for later adding of the 1/4" piece,and the pointy ends goint together in the back. This must be done after the banshee is carved/snaded to its rounds shape, or it won't fit. Tape in place til it dries to shape.
4) Never glue a wet piece of balsa in place. As it dries, problems will arise from shrinkage.
5) Depending on the exact curve of your banshee top, slight sanding may be needed for fit.
6) Once glued to the banshee, lighly sand the top to be flat to accomodate the 'roof' . You can either glue it in place, and shape the fit, or hold it in place and trace the outline and cut to rough shape, sving shaping while attached.
7) you can sand the 1/4" piece to match the bevel of the sides, and just round off the top edge, leaving to top flat, (my personal preference) or round the top to get the bubble look. Some guys have subbed a 1/2" top piece for more sanding area for a bubble top look.
8) blend the bottom edge of the canopy to the fuse with your favorite compound.

The other side by product of the wood canopy, is that all of us 'painting challenged' builders can simply use covering that matches properly.

I will put the cad drawings on the EAC site, so people can download and modify a they see fit, along with a scan of the canopy section of the original drawings.

I will make one more shot at making a plug myself, for vac forming.. we'll see what happens. I have a couple of mis-pulls to work with for shaping.


Don @ Eureka Aircraft.