Baggage Door

Happy Labor Day! Well, this turned out to be an "interesting" 3-day holiday weekend for us. We went to Des Moines to attend our friends' wedding, but unfortunately we got our dates mixed up (100% my fault) and thought the wedding was on Saturday instead of Sunday. It turned out that there was also a different wedding taking place at the same time and location on Saturday, which we of course ended up at, all dressed up and ready for a fun night. It slowly dawned on us that we were in the wrong place when we didn't recognize anyone in attendance, including the bride and the groom once they appeared. Sometimes an epic fail makes for a great story!

Mike and Sarah at the wrong wedding... Thanks to the groomsman who took this photo!

So by the time we stayed another night in Des Moines to attend the correct wedding, we really didn't get much time to build over this long weekend. That's ok though! We did get some time to continue with the baggage door and take some more pictures of the custom latch assembly though:

Cutout is 1" x 3-3/8", starting 1/2" forward of the aft edge of the door and vertically centered on the existing hole punched for the key lock. The cutout will go through two rivet holes in the door leaving two small notches in the cutout, but they will be covered by the latch when it's installed.

A 1/8" thick steel plate 3" x 5" was fabricated to strengthen this area of the door. The cutout at the bottom is made to clear the baggage door frame.

The latch installed into the hole and screwed into place

The baggage door with latch installed

The inside baggage door cover with modified  cutout, measuring 3-1/4" x 1-1/2". A new #30 hole was drilled to mate with the frame, which must be cut to allow clearance for the latch.

The door riveted together and installed in the plane

The latch holding on to the F-1031 Upper Baggage Door Seal (the bolt is temporarily wrapped in electrical tape until I get a rubber stopper for it)

Closeup of the latch and frame cutout

The open baggage door, inside cover isn't riveted on yet

A video of the door in operation

It works great!! I still need to figure out two more things with the door before it's done: (1) The frame needs stiffening in the area where I cut it so that it won't have a tendency to bow. It's not bad as-is but I want it to be a little better. I should be able to rivet a piece of 0.032" aluminum between the two halves and that should easily take care of it though. (2) Before riveting on the inside cover, I want to source and install a small strut to facilitate the opening and closing of the door, as well as limit its travel. In addition, I'll need to finish up the F-1031 channel and install provisions for a microswitch and striker plate. Again, shouldn't be too big of a deal.

That's pretty much it for now! I'll be on travel the rest of this week, so there probably won't be much more progress until this coming weekend... until next time!