Spent a significant chunk of time going through the plans, identifying all the tubing needed to finish the various components of the airframe and comparing it with what I have left. This resulted in yet another order to ACS, but not too big this time - managed to keep it below the $100 cut off for USPS shipping.Then fabricated the latch for the left door. Two pieces of 3/8" * 0.058" tubing are welded to the door frame to create the pivot for the handle and the guide for the latch pin. The handle itself is fabricated from 1/4" * 0.035" tubing with a loop on the outside and a simple handle on the inside - why? who knows? but it's what the plans say. I haven't bent the tubing to form the internal handle yet so I can remove the mechanism from the pivot to clad the outside of the door with aluminium as required. A lever was fabricated from 0.071" 4130 plate and this was connected to the latch pin with some 1/16" wire. Some 3/8" channel is used to hide the mechanism from the inside and create the end stops for the travel of the mechanism. Finally a tab was welded to the frame to hook the return spring onto which keeps the latch pin closed unless the handle is turned. All very simple and works well but takes a few minutes to get everything aligned.
