Some parts came in from Van’s today. I now had the missing spring for the canopy latch. I installed the spring and test fit the latch. Oddly enough I thought the spring would hold the handle towards the closed position but it tends to open up the handle. I think its function is to hold the latch away from the handle so as you close the handle it will catch the tab on the roll bar. The problem with my fit is that to keep the handle on the outside streamlined the inside handle has to be just off the center bushing (my handle drifted when I drilled the handle shaft). I still get a snug fit, but if it rotates past this the handle will be a bit loose. So I glued, with Sika, a small plastic tab to limit the rotation of the handle. Time will tell how well this works. In my package from Van’s were all new parts for the canopy handle system so if this does not work I can always start from scratch. If it works I can return the extra parts for credit, all the parts total about $76 the spring was only a buck I think, and that is the only part I have sued so far.
The last thing I did on this short day of work was to level the fuselage from side to side, just adjusted the air pressure in the tires a bit to get her level. This is in anticipation of fitting the engine cowl. I measured level at the wing spar cap and using this level across the canopy rails.
