Door Latch & Rear Enclosure
Since we made the front windshield to also be the
doors, all one piece, wrapping all the way around the front, it
was realized that if the door were to come open in flight, we
would have a real problem on our hands. (Note - the pitot &
static air have been moved to under the nosebowl. Could not get
decent readings up top as in this picture)
Consequently, a sturdy and positive latch mechanism
was a priority. The latch is a 3/16 steel rod welded to a real
long AN-4 bolt, making it accessible from inside or outside. It
really does lock very securely. The front end of the door latch
mechanism, where a pin sticks into the right rear edge of the
front nose cone - is done exactly to plans.
One other modification we did - the flat rear side
of the soft cockpit enclosure seemed to be an awfully draggy and
turbulent thing to do to the air stream, especially since we wanted
a radiator about two feet behind it. So we also made a triangular,
quick removable set of back panels out of thin Lexan to fair the
airflow into the radiator and prop.
The front edge of each side is directly behind the
frame diagonals, where the enclosure turns the corner and runs
from one side to the other. This has the sides run up to just
below the bottom side of the gap cover. (Yes, we covered the bottom
side of the gap seal as well as the top. No naughty air is going
to slip up past the engine opening and degrade our lift. Besides,
we need all the lift we can get...)
At the rear, the enclosure opening is a little triangle,
open to the gas tank cavity, drawing out any gas fumes. To remove
the right side, you slide out a hinge pin from the top section,
made of some extra hinge material. (The pin normally has it's
handle Velcroed to a frame member to keep it in place) This allows
you to lift out the right side to access the gas tanks.
Does it improve the airflow any? We don't know,
we haven't tried seeing how it works without it...