Trap Door

Seems odd that an airplane would have trap doors. Not one that do loop-d-loops, rolls, and fly upside down for extended periods of time.

The idea is that the fuel can only flow one way - towards the flop tube. This only gets installed in the inboard most bay, where the flop tube is located.

You can't see all of it in this picture, put this is part of the plans that illustrate the modifications for inverted flight.



Three interesting things in this picture. you can see part of the hinge gets bent up, this creates a stop to only allow the door to open up so far. Otherwise there is risk that the door could get stuck open.

Second, the hinge pin gets bent, and that prevents it from sliding out (to the right of the picture), once the rear baffle get installed, it prevents it from coming out the left side.

The last thing is that I managed to over countersink one of the rivet holes, and had to use a larger rivet. no biggie.


Other side of the door. You can see another opening in the rib that is open, and that allows for the tank to be filled back up, as it lets the air out.