To be clear, that’s the INTERNAL Lock…

But I’ll first start off by noting that in the push to get the mechanical systems like the canopy latching system or the nose hatch latch configured, the R&D obviously takes up a lot of time and understandably there is a lot of redo’s involved in that.

Case in point is that as I worked on attempting a slight reroute of the nose hatch latch cable —in my attempt to dump the time-busting and involved intermediate bracket— I was 3D printing off my first production version of the canopy latch internal lock handle (in red) vs the previous 3 versions I had made (in black) over the last couple of days (see below), which was further a complete redesign of the first style I created.

That being said, I am happy to report that my nose hatch latch cable reroute worked, allowing me to chuck the intermediate bracket and simply run the cable from handle to latch lever… simplicity in design and function always being best.

As I showed yesterday (while I wasn’t showing all the versions of the internal lock handle) I created a threaded insert to secure the canopy latch internal lock.

Prepping and floxing this threaded insert into the side wall was actually my first task of the day, and here it as installed and cleaned up [Note wires coming from out of sidewall… I had planned on connecting these to a micro-switch mounted inside the internal lock, but there just wasn’t enough room… so the electrical wires are coming out, replaced with safety wire to remotely manipulate the switch —now housed forward of the panel].

And here is the assembled canopy latch internal lock installed.

A few key things to point out:  As I mentioned above, my first design was much larger and focused on latching down on the forward end of the handle.  This caused a clearance problem in both being able to physically grab the handle to open it, AND with the alt-static switch on the panel.  I then simplified the design and made it like a block “C” that simply flips aft over the handle.  My first iteration was, again, too big and I had to bring the size down a couple of notches.  Lastly, the in-wall wire is attached on the bottom arm and pulls the switch (forward of the panel) closed, and small springs manipulate the switch housing and switch open when the internal lock handle is open (forward) as it is here… kinda.

And here it is flipped aft, with the wire pulling the switch closed.  There is a small gap of less than 1/8″ between handle and internal lock, but with the play in the handle before its over-center apex, this play has literally zero opening action at this point.

I then got to some finishing on the canopy to longeron seam.  The main fill needed along the longeron to clean all this up is immediately below the canopy frame edge, near the top of the longeron… essentially flattening out much of the curve at the TOP portion of the longeron (vertically).  Of course more sanding and more micro will be required, since this is just phase 1 on the canopy-to-longeron fills.

Ok… still pressing forward!