Chapter 18 – Canopy Latch Hooks

Today I finally got back on the build a bit by determining where my canopy latch hooks (C2-Ls) will get mounted to the left longeron.  

I started by determining the alignment of the canopy latch hook attach points on the canopy side, then marked the associated C2-L AN3 bolt positions on the longeron.  

After marking the canopy latch hook attach point locations at the respective Fuselage Stations, I then measured the required 0.6″ down from the top of the longeron at each canopy latch hook attach point and marked a crossline to identify the spot to drill.

I then drilled a small pilot hole at each canopy latch hook attach point location from the interior outboard and then drilled each pilot hole out further to 3/16″ diameter.  

From there, I drilled each hole with a 1/2″ drill bit from the outside in to clear out the foam at each hole and create an opening in the glass skin to allow clearance for the AN3 bolt heads.  

Now, you may have noticed that I have 4 canopy latch hooks –2 forward and 2 aft of the pilot’s seat– versus the 3 called for in the plans.  The reason behind my using 4 canopy latch hooks is simply to keep my significantly oversized canopy nice and secure during flight.  Moreover, my rollbar longeron mount messes with the original plan’s location of the middle canopy latch hook and required me to move it forward to avoid the rollbar mount. This left quite a gap between the middle and aft canopy latch hook assemblies, so I added a fourth canopy latch immediately aft of the rollbar mount.

Below are the aft 2 canopy latch hook attach points with the AN3-13A bolts and 2 each AN970-3 washers in place.  Since my longeron is about 0.3″ thicker from the front seat aft, I’ll need to increase the length of the aft bolts a bit longer than the current AN3-13As.

And here we have the forward 2 canopy latch hook attach points with the AN3-13A bolts and 2 each AN970-3 washers in place.

Finally, here’s a shot of the very forward canopy latch hook in place at the plan’s position, F.S. 44.  Of course, this canopy latch hook is definitely not per plans either since I’m using a very different canopy latch handle than the stock version.

During this trip down to NC I’ll try to knock out the longeron side of the canopy latch setup and prep to finish the canopy side latch assemblies on my next trip down.

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