The hatch has a tendency to vibrate a little during certain RPMs and this causes the screws that secure it to back out on occasion. Tom suggests trying some nylon 8-32 bolts to prevent that from happening...I'll try anything once, so I gave it a whirl. [&:]

I popped off the blind nuts on the inside of the hatch hold-down tabs, then threaded them with an 8-32 tap. I had to drill out the fuselage sides to 5/32" to accomodate the nylon bolts. After everything was trial fit I applied thin CA to all the newly cut wood to make sure everything would be solid. The threads were firm but not too tight after applying the thin CA and the fuselage sides stiffened up a bit...I wouldn't want any vibes to elongate those holes!

I trimmed the nylon bolts down to 7/8" which was enough to let them protrude into the fuse by about 1/4" to give me a warm fuzzy. To make those nylon bolts look a little more at home I colored the heads of them black with the paint pen...we'll see if that lasts. Ideally I need to get some 8-32 black plastic bolts with a hex head for ease of installation and removal at the field. The flat heads just aren't very convenient. [&o]