1. Sanded last night's filler on the canopy skirt rail notch. It still needs some more detail sanding, but it's OK for now.

2. Cut strips of foam tape to act as spacers on the canopy frame, simulating the thickness of the canopy. My thought was to then put the skirt in place without the canopy bubble, and see if I could begin drilling the skirt attach holes. My friend Jim arrived and we tried it, but soon figured out this wasn't going to work well, because the skirt wasn't going to rest in the same place it would if the canopy bubble was on the frame. There was too much uncertainty and potential movement of the frame that would lead to a questionable fit. There was also some question about the trimming of the skirt, since the right side was resting in a slightly different place than the left. It turned out the skirt was trimmed taller on the right (by yours truly). The aft notch also needed some additional filing. So we removed the skirt and sat back to think about things.

3. Finally, we decided that the bubble HAD to be at least temporarily attached to the canopy frame before the skirt could be drilled in place. The only reliable way we could think to do this was to install a few temporary rivets through the canopy bubble again. For now, we just clecoed it back in place on the frame.

4. Next, we decided that the best way to locate the skirt holes would be to use the same "transfer line" technique that was used for the canopy. So we put blue painter's tape on the canopy bubble, and I began drawing the V lines from the holes in the canopy frame. These lines will be transferred to the skirt to locate where to drill.

5. We discussed the next steps, and came up with a plan to complete the canopy and skirt installations.

My thanks to Jim for his adult supervision this evening. More than with any other part of this project, it really helps to talk through what you're going to do with the canopy/skirt with someone else first!