Lock'em Up ?

[EDGEFLY]

What kind of door lock Ideas has anyone come up with ? With the Air Show season coming on, I have been considering marginal means anyway of protecting the portable electronics which I might not want to disappear while I'm off to a restaurant or motel while in an unfamiliar area. I know, camp out under the wing, bring your own weapon etc.,ete., but Obama may have already confisticated my BB gun by then.

[Dennis]

If it holds more than 6 BBs, you may be in trouble.

Dennis

[MikeB]

Bill Pancake had a neat door lock that he manufactured several years ago.

Mike

[rkittine]

If there all portable, it might be easier and more secure to bolt a lightweight box in the back with a pad lock. Even if my door locvk was any gooid, the window would be real easy to jimmy.

[clipperfixer]

This should work on the Chief, Champ shown, but I thought it was clever. I believe this is Bill Pancake's lock. Scroll all the way down to the last page.
http://www.vintageaircraft.org/featured ... ampion.pdf

[MikeB]

Yup! That's it. One could put a round piece of tubing behind the sliding windows but I think that would only keep the honest folks out. I suspect a lock of some sort on the baggage cover might be best (other than locking the door).

Mike

[EDGEFLY]

MikeB,

You'e right, Bill has an elegant solution all right. However, I think your idea is more reasonable. Have you ever seen such a baggage door lock? I'm thinking this should be really easy to do. No need for it to be burglar-proof just a deterrent to those light fingered folks who always seem to be attracted unattended electronic gear.

Dale

[MikeB]

My L16 has a plywood cover over the baggage compartment. Actually now that I think of it my Champ did too. I don't think it would be too hard to hinge and put a lock on it or even more simple sink a couple of screws down once the electronics are stowed. I've never lost anything but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. At the local fly ins I'm usually not that far away from the plane and at Oshkosh I usually have everything piled on top of the baggage compartment where the electronics are stored. But you have me thinking now as I have a hand held radio, Adventure Pilot GPS and a radar system for the GPS......none of which I want to lose. At our airstrip fly in one of the pilots lost a camera a couple of years ago.

Mike

[EDGEFLY]

My Chief has a somewhat flexible aluminum cover over the baggage compartment which is hinged at the rear just under the Aux fuel tank gauge. I looked this over the last time I flew and find that the cover overlaps two structural members at the front corners. One is a longitudinal tube ~ 1/2 " dia. running along the side of the side of the baggage compartment (at the top) on each side and the other being the structural tube which is in the vertical plane which supports the door frame on each side. The vertical tube is larger, perhaps 3/4". I can envision a locking approach using two small padlocks which have large enough space between the two legs to go around either or both tubes and through a hole in the top cover which I could easily make. Since no structural member would be modified, I don't see any problem with doing this. I think I'll try it because it is easy to imagine a thousand or more dollars of equipment which otherwise simply be lying around loose in the cockpit secured with no more than Velcro or cable plugs or just on the seat. It would certainly be easy to make this more burglar proof by putting a solid piece of wood or something across the front edge of the baggage compartment cover and fastening it with the locks. I think I'll go the simpler route because my original thought was simply to discourage light-fingered thieves anyway.

Dale