The Raptor glider comes with a smooth-fitting carbon shell of a canopy but unfortunately, despite R2hobbies' product description, this doesn't come with a canopy latch mechanism.
After some deliberation, including two type of spring-loaded canopy latch mechanisms, I decided to go with the single-wire system. For those not familiar, this basically entails gluing a strip of spring wire to the underside of the canopy, with the ends extending past the canopy shell front and back.
The idea is that the front wire is slid under the fuselage rim at the front of the canopy recess, and then the canopy is pushed far forward until the back wire can be slipped under the fuselage rim at the back. The canopy is then slid back into it's recess.
For the wire, I used a length of excess control rod cut from the fuselage push-rods, and hot-melt glued this to the canopy. The extent of gluing affects the amount of retention force - closer to the extremities means shorter wire flex and therefore greater retention force, although this also places more stress on the canopy so this is a balancing act. The length of wire also needs to be adjusted as excessive length can cause fouling at the front or problems tucking in the back.
I'm a little uncomfortable at having to deform the canopy each time it's fitted and removed, but it doesn't appear to stress it unduly.
The appeal of this system is that no modification is required to the rather delicate canopy as would be required with canopy latches, and that the result is an unblemished external appearance; the canopy held in place as if by magic...
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