REFLECTOR: Door locks

Richard J. Gentil richard at naples-air-center.com
Sun Apr 21 08:40:46 CDT 2013


We guys,

All I can say is OOPS!

I thought I was sending that email to a friend who was my mentor during the construction of my Velo. He saved me from many mistakes until I had learned enough about the construction of aircraft to work on my own without making mistakes most of the time. 

Oh well,

Richard

Sent from my iPhone 5

On Apr 21, 2013, at 9:28 AM, "Richard J. Gentil" <richard at naples-air-center.com> wrote:

> Hi Dick,
> 
> I am thinking I want to add a down spring on my locking mechanism as an added safety feature. It would be a five minute job to attach a small spring that could really pay off if anyone were to forget or accidentally bump lock/unlock and set it in flight to the unlock position. 
> 
> Then I just need to see how to operate it when the door is open and you are going to close. Might mean holding in the pin in the unlock position fighting the spring for moving the handle from open to closed too unless I make a aluminum tab to keep the lock pin from going to the lock position till the handle is in the closed position.
> 
> I hope that was not too hard to follow. 
> 
> Richard
> 
> Sent from my iPhone 5
> 
> On Apr 21, 2013, at 9:08 AM, Dennis King <kitfox94 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> I agree with all the recommendations so far to use the interlock on the passenger door.  On my most recent test flight, the air was bumpy and my pilot door latch worked loose far enough to trip my warning light a couple of times.  The passenger door stayed latched because it has the lock.  The over-center springs supplied with my kit (1996) are very weak, so they don't hold the handle forward very well.  I have installed stiffer springs that provide a little more than 10 lbs of preload in the latched position...haven't been able to test them in the air yet, but hopefully will soon.  I don't know if the factory has changed the springs since my kit was shipped, but if not you might want to consider replacing them.  I believe this was mentioned in one of the old Velocity Views newsletters.  I believe they also suggested using an interlock system on the pilot door similar to the passenger side, but I'm still thinking about that.  I'm not sure I would remember the extra step required to open the door in an emergency situation.  In any event, make sure you have a door latch warning light that's easy to see, and activate it with one of the locking pins rather than the latching handle, so the light will be on if the passenger latches the door without it being fully closed.
>> 
>> 
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