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Need Advice on Canopy latch adjustement

D

dwbuckeye

Member
Our flying club purchased an RV12 from the builder. We LOVE the plane but our mechanic is new to Vans/Rotax/Dynon, and we are going through a learning curve. Most recently, our canopy seems to have shifted slightly. When we bought it, it worked fine. But now, to latch or unlatch you have to pull - with a lot of force - towards the back of the plane and down. It's almost impossible to do while buckled in - so obviously this is a safety issue.

Any advice on how to adjust is appreciated.

David Wilkins
N120MK
Back 40 Flying Club
Fort Wayne, IN
 
The simplest thing to check is for shims under the white latch block on the roll bar. If there are any, try removing one to give more clearance with the latch. It’s secured with three screws.
 
Thanks Bob. That will help with the vertical - what about the front-to-back? You have to pull the whole canopy towards the back of the airplane for the handle to clear the catch.
 
Check with Van's on Monday and buy a KAI on a memory stick, on how to adjust. Basically they are blue prints on the build. About $10, last I checked. Is this E-LSA or S-LSA ?
 
It's been many years since i built the 12 but I remember it took a lot of fiddling with the UHMW blocks and the latch itself to get it to operate properly.

Don't be afraid to file parts down as necessary to get the latch to work properly. Just do it a little bit at a time.
 
Having similar problem. Replaced struts and now hatch has larger gap at top center and close to zero gap to rear canopy at bottom both sides. Like pivot point has lowered since new struts were installed.

Plan to remove struts loosen pivots, shim canopy to as level as possible and try to latch while loose. Then retighten pivot to see if that improves it. I'll report back when i get a chance to try that.
 
DGPS-RV12 said:
Having similar problem. Replaced struts and now hatch has larger gap at top center and close to zero gap to rear canopy at bottom both sides. Like pivot point has lowered since new struts were installed.

Plan to remove struts loosen pivots, shim canopy to as level as possible and try to latch while loose. Then retighten pivot to see if that improves it. I'll report back when i get a chance to try that.
Click to expand...
I leveled Canopy as best as possible but bottom aft of canopy was still up against rear canopy. That prevented latch from sliding over latch. Removed about 1/16" of bottom canopy on both sides and now latch works as intended.
 

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