21 & 22 Mar 2025

Well this was a challenge! The door latches were installed without too much trouble but the same cannot be said for the roller brackets which get attached inside the fuselage for the door latches to clip under. This really is not a good design at all, they're not adjustable and so the slightest mismeasurement creates all sorts of issues - and it's really tricky to get them correctly aligned. This took way longer than I anticipated

I made a mistake on the pilot's door a few weeks ago by not fitting the exterior rubber seal prior to fitting the internal roller brackets. This meant I had to redo them, and as a result I had holes in the wrong place on the inside skin and in the canopy frame. I repaired the latter with some medium cure AMT LR30 resin and cloth, then sanding back to shape. It worked well and is really strong, so a bit of paint and all will be well again.

The inside skins were a bit more tricky, I had to de-rivet small sections, remove the lower rivnuts (they were about 1mm too low vertically, but sufficient to not be usable), then close up. I had to order new stainless striker plates too, so decided to install the lower rivnut in the striker plate instead of behind it and consequently used a step drill to open up the fuselage skin slightly to accommodate that

Repairs done, I tackled the job again, starting with the right side rear and then front, working very slowly to check alignment. I needed to install one thin AN4 washer under the M5 screw head for the rear latches on the doors to prevent lateral movement, and I also needed to bend them slightly outboard to clear the roller brackets. Eventually it all came together, I tightened up the latch mechanisms on the doors, secured the internal screws using Loctite 222, installed the latch covers and handles

The latches lock in position with a reassuring click