These pictures are not great because I took them with my iPhone which does not have a flash. I forgot to take my good camera to the hanger today, but the iPhone did ok in a pinch. There is no way I could service the radio connectors without doing a hatch like this and if I ever make a few bucks and want to add a Garmin G430 to the panel, it would be virtually impossible to do it with an access hatch. I bit the bullet and started making it the morning. Of course the downsides of these hatches are they can leak if you do not seal them well and then you have water in you radios. The hatch is made from 2024 - .032 aluminum, as is the hatch frame. The doubler and nut plates get riveted to the skin and the hatch gets screwed to it with 6-32 SS 100 degree screws. I will make a silicon gasket in place to make sure there are no leaks. I also cut the holes for the defroster/cooling fans using a 3 ¼” instrument hole knockout punch and matched drilled the mounting holes. I am still thinking about adding a hatch in the next frame, but will sleep on it first. It does add some more serviceability to the plane, but it is another place that can leak.
