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Canopy Latch not reaching

anumerick

Member
Anyone having this issue? My latch is about 1/4 inch short, do to the rollers. The manual says "latch arm has been made with excessive material so that the exact location of the hook can be varied..." Problem i'm having is the latch is a bit short and the angle is about 1/8" below the point on the roll bar. Moving this forward approx 1/4" will bring the angle up, I suppose this could be bent to the proper angle if needed. And I dislike having to grind the rollers to get the roll bars to match, however before i do anything... I'm looking for any alternatives.
Thanks!

IMG_20171118_224933 by SkyPilot181, on Flickr

IMG_20171118_224922 by SkyPilot181, on Flickr

p.s. The rails are not screwed in yet, hence why the washers are not in place.
 
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On my airplane, I had to grind the roller brackets to allow the frame to move forward far enough. In your situation, you could do that, or adjust the locking arm.
 
My latch is about 1/4 inch short, do to the rollers. The manual says "latch arm has been made with excessive material so that the exact location of the hook can be varied..." Problem i'm having is the latch is a bit short and the angle is about 1/8" below the point on the roll bar.

The excess material is so you can deepen/lengthen the hook to match your installation.
Note how the end of the hook is nearly 3 times wider than the narrowest part. That is so there is extra material for you to custom trim the "reach" of the hook.
 
To get the latch piece and welded pin on the roll bar on the same plane, grind down the tube for the pivot shaft. (This assumes that the windscreen and canopy plexi are already aligned to final spec.)

Go slowly on removing material off the latch itself. I kept filing little by little until I got a nice firm over-center action where the latch sorta snaps closed.
 
I ended up putting a slight "Z" bend in the latch arm itself to raise it about 3/16" to reliably intercept the post, and as others have pointed out you will need to remove material from the aft edge of the latch arm so that it will swing forward of the post and grab it. Sneak up on that dimension a little at a time.

oQ3.jpg
 
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Latch

When latched the canopy handle should be parallel with the centerline of the aircraft. Looks like the latch arm should be flipped over and mount from the other side.
 
When latched the canopy handle should be parallel with the centerline of the aircraft. Looks like the latch arm should be flipped over and mount from the other side.

Of course, you could just drill a new hole in the steel handle so that it is the mirror image of how it is now. But then this RV would be different from every other RV in terms of which way you twist the handle to latch or unlatch. And from a human factors perspective, that's not a good way to be special. So I would vote for flipping the aluminum piece.

You can probably re-bend it so that it fits the other way up, but watch carefully for cracking as you do.

--Bob K.
 
I was so darn excited that it was latching, I didn't realize the mistake. Bunch of kill joys around here. :D After the picture, I removed it and went inside to make fresh bread and didn't return to the workshop.

Thanks for pointing it out. I would have realized my mistake when installing the handle and stuff. Anyhow, since it's a slight bend it should hopefully re-bend without too much stress.
 
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