Day 184

These Sling TSi’s are very cool planes. The kits are a little frustrating at times. Just about everything with the hatch latch system is custom measured, drilled, cut and fitted. That would be fine, if only the manual was more straight forward and had all of the steps. Haha. Just about have one door completely done with the other about half way.

The first challenge is to get the handle backing plate to fit. Standard drill bit sets only go to 1/2. The hole needed to be 0.91 inches for it to fit. So we ended up drilling it out with a 7/8 step bit and then sanding the hole with 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a drill bit. Working slowly around the hole until the plate would fit snuggly.

Next was to interpret the incomplete and inconsistent manual instructions on assembling the latch system. Along with many parts having to be sanded or slightly filed to get to fit together. It came together though. There were also a handful of rivet nuts to be installed.

There are also latch covers that come larger than the hatch. These are measured, cut and sanded until they fit.

Lastly is getting the covers to fit the latches themselves. There are slots that have to be measured and cut out to accommodate them.