Three tips to close a tight canopy in hot weather.

1. When my ASW 24 was new and I went to Hobbs, I had to carefully sand the frame (rear center), as UH described.

2. Last year, the canopy became difficult to close in hot weather (this was both before and after the bullet holes, btw). "Helpful" ground crews were, at one point, slamming their fists into the rear frame until I finally got them to stop and gently *push down on the nose of the fuselage" to lift the tailwheel off the ground. That flexed the forward fuselage enough that the canopy dropped into place easily and I locked it down.

3. Also last year, it got easier to close when I waxed around the perimeter of the fuselage cutout where it touches the canopy frame in the labyrinth seal to reduce sliding friction. Before that, black paint from the underside of the canopy frame was sticking to the white gel coated fuselage cutout.

I don't know how applicable these tips are to a typical high-performance two-seater with a nose wheel, however.

Chip Bearden