Berkut Canopy latch

[tonyslongez]

My buddy John Andrejeski has his Berkut here in Las Vegas. John let me borrow his canopy latch to duplicate. Pretty neat the way Dave R. used these latches. I had to modify my longeron slightly but well worth the extra effort. I'm talking to a machine shop right now to make these latches in quantitiy, it took me about 2hrs each to make. I had to make the handles too. Next up will be the canopy hinges. From what I understand Dave will not make these latches any longer when he was making them he charged 65$ a pair without the longeron hole inserts. If you'll notice in the pic I haven't milled for the ball stud yet. I just ordered the ball studs and ball end mill from McMaster Carr. I'll have them completed by the end of the week. Notice the two slots for the O-Rings this is to keep the assembly water tight. I need to back fill the longeron area with pour foam and sand everything to a nice pleasing shape. I'll lay the hole area up with 4 plys of bid.

 

The first 2 Pics are the original Berkut canopy latch, the next two are the copys. I used 7079 bar stock for the lock and 60661 on the handle they are now polished and ready to be anodized. I have included pics of the longeron as well.

[tonyslongez]

Here is the lock area of the longeron with 4 plys of bid. You can see the pour foam that I used to contour the area around the longeron doubler. the locks are now finished and ready to be installed

 

Tony

[Jon Matcho]

Tony, some comments:

• I may be dense, but I have no idea how that latch works.
• On the picture with the curing glass... you do trim that and put peel ply on for clean seams, no?
• The longeron is now twice as wide in that area -- are you sure that's not going to be too annoying?

I am just curious.

[tonyslongez]

1) No john I doubt your dense at all. It's a simple over center lock really, here are some pics that may help clear it up for you. The ball stud is attached to the canopy when the canopy is closed you simply rotate the handle. The stem of the ball stud which is attached to the canopy is the only part of the stud protruding thru the lock. You cant pull the ball thru the stem slot.

 

2) I did trim that yes but I didn't use peel ply on the edges. I'll go back and knock them down with some sand paper later.

 

3) I don't think so my fuselage is easily as wide as Jonh's Berkut and that area of the longeron is the same width as his when I got in the berkut you barely notice the longerons of course the berkut longerons are that wide all the way to the firewall. Dave R. made a really nice molded piece of composite that you can install weather stripping into.

[Jon Matcho]

Sounds good Tony. That metalwork looks good. Rain seal is even better.

[Lifessamsara]

G'Day Tony,

 

as always, lovely work, great finish! Given your innovative application of other designed engineering solutions, do tell what you have in mind for the safety latch for the canopy? The standard LEz spring sheet metal?

Further to Jon's lead, what is your proposed solution for sealing the canopy as well?

 

Keep up the great work mate.

 

Cheers,

 

Bruce.