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In a message dated 12/14/2001 10:48:18 PM Mountain Standard Time, lancair.list@olsusa.com writes:

<< The kit comes with a handle which is at right angles to the torque tube which carries the dual claw latches and overcenter link spring.  I would not recommend fitting it this way because you end up with a 2" lump of filler material sticking out of the fuselage. >>

Not so, grasshopper!  (For you Kung-Fu fans -- don't know if it was ever on in the U.K.)

Mount the ugly black collar in the fuselage as per the plans.  Remove the chrome plated handle, wrap it with protective tape, clamp it in a vise up near the end that goes in the ugly black collar, place a block of wood on the end sticking out of the vise, and whack it with a hammer.  The result is a shiny chrome handle with a nice bend in it which conforms reasonably well to the sloping fuselage side.  My "unsightly glob of micro" only protrudes about 1/2 inch.  Okay, maybe 5/8".  Still, it looks good.

Re-wrap it in tape, glob the micro on, and pry out the handle when cured.  Remove the handle and take your wife's sandpapered popsicle sticks for filing her nails and you can finish-sand the micro to get a custom-fit receptacle for the now-flush-fitting handle.

You'll probably have to go back with micro a couple of times until you get the whole thing done, but it works out okay.

- Rob Wolf

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