Started August 15, 2006
Door locks are totally optional. Door locks will do nothing to stop the thief who is intent on stealing your prize possession, as all he has to do cut the fabric to get in. They do however, help prevent curious people and children from opening the doors at air-shows. The system I'm using is quite simple.
I bought the ignition switch set (P/N A510-2K) from Aircraft Spruce. This set came with 2 door locks that were keyed the same as the Ignition switch. Since I want one key to fit everything, I called their customer service department and ordered another lock set that was keyed the same, for the cargo door.
Main Cabin Doors
As previously mentioned, I elected to not have the door latch handles for the main cabin doors exposed on the outside. To open those doors, you have to open the window and reach inside. So, all that is needed to lock the main cabin doors is to lock the windows in the shut position.
I started by making some brackets to hold the door lock mechanism. These
brackets were made from .080 thick steel plate. The hole was made with a
combination of a step drill and files to create nice fit of the lock
mechanism:
:
Note: in the above picture above, you can see the latch mechanism
has been bent at a 90 degree angle. This was done for a reason that
will be explained later.
The brackets were welded to the bottom window frame as shown here:
You can see the hole better in the above photo. It has flat sides on
top and bottom to keep the lock from rotating inside the hole.
Here is the bracket as viewed from the outside. I left it inset just a little so I would have a room for the aluminum window frame to slide in there.
The lock as it comes from Spruce wasn't quite long enough to reach past the
edge of the 3/4" square tube. Therefore the latch mechanism had to
be modified slightly. Here is the lock from the outside with a couple
pieces of .032 aluminum to simulate the window frame:
The same bracket was installed on the forward cargo door, about 6" below
the door latch.
Make sure that you install it to clear the aft cargo door latch. Since
the aft cargo door can't be opened without opening the forward door, all
you have to do is secure the forward cargo door.
Again, this will not keep out a determined thief, but it will keep out the kids and looky-lous who feel its ok to just open the door and get into someone else's airplane.
Door Locks
Completed: August 16, 2006
Total Time: 6 hours