Ron makes some good points.

A Requirement is needed before designing anything.
For the Vari Eze /Long Eze canopy latch/lock system.
An example that is probably incomplete/can be improved:-

Latch
Secure canopy for flight - unaffected by in-flight vibration.
Operable with arm/hand strength of a teenage girl.
To be 'security locked' from outside without use of a 'door'.
Security lock will not 'over centre' the latch mechanism.
Security key lock to be flush with outside fuselage.
Latch to include a micro switch for the Eze warning system
Must be able to be opened by GIB.
Independent of safety catch.

Safety Catch
Independent from Latch.
Automatically engages when canopy is closed.
Can be reached/released by pilot and GIB

Attached photos of my solution sorry about their poor quality. I was leaning over for outside and hence all a bit shaky.
Note the photos were taken with the canopy open so actual latching is not shown - but works fine.

Mike Tooze O-235 VE G-EMMY

On Tuesday, 21 January 2020, 17:48:01 GMT, Ron Springer <ron228rj@...> wrote:

I have the rotary latch and I both like it and hate it. On my first flight with it, it slowly walked itself open during climbout and tried to kill me. Luckily the safety catch did its job. On the ground, I can sit in the plane with it latched and push up as hard as I want and the canopy won't budge. But, in an environment with vibration and buffeting, it can rotate itself open.

It depends on being over center and/or friction to stop it from rotating open. I don't think you should depend on a canopy being held closed by those things. I discovered that I am not the only one that has experienced this problem. It needs to have a real locking mechanism. I modified mine so it can't happen again.

Ron

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 12:11 PM Nick U <unick3@...> wrote:

I found the rotary latch from www.eznoselift.com to be an easy install and works great.  I was able to close off the door, and now only have a small hole in the side of the plane for the key.  It works with the existing LGEZ hardware too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick Ugolini, www.nickugolini.com  

Charleston, SC 

LongEZ N29TM (for sale)

Cozy 4, N826ER

Selling:  Canard Fuel Probes

On Jan 19, 2020, at 1:56 PM, Doug Kan <doug@...> wrote:

Anybody know of a good and hopefully inexpensive flush door handle for a LongEz. Maybe something like the Tesla door handle?

Attachments:

• 1.1 Canopy latch lock layout - Copy.jpg
• 2 Canopy closed and latched - Copy.jpg
• 3 Canopy in locked position - Copy.jpg
• 4 GIB conopy lock release knob - Copy.jpg
• IMG_0181.JPG