Nick Leonard
Member
I just got back from a wonderfully trip to Oshkosh and now have about 50 hours on the Hobbs. On the flight home I determined that I need to do something about the doors and would like to seek the general wisdom of the group to discuss options.
Here are my issues, yours may be different so please chime in:
1) Flex in the doors during flight is causing
a) gaps between fuselage and door edge. This is noticeable to me because I have not determined the best gap seal (Van's, Master Carr, etc) to use for my installation and so don't have any installed yet. The issue is that the doors flex a great deal, leading to pins pulling out and losing doors in flight. The seals cover up how much flex is actually occurring.
b) The window to door finish is cracking at several corners. Fiberglass tape around the windows did not prevent this (although they may have been sanded too thin.)
My thoughts are that the system does not have enough locking/engagement points along the outside perimeter and that the addition of one "safety latch" at the bottom center is not a solution to the real problem. The doors will flex and therefore making them stiffer (rebuilding with carbon fiber layers?) is another band-aid solution.
I keep thinking of how the Glass-Star doors have multiple points of locking/engagement and how simple that system is on "their" doors. Other thoughts, although not necessarily practical solutions are:
- Changing the hinge points to the front of the doors like the Cirrus. A potentially challenging solution but it adds a measure of safety to the design should other points fail.
- Having fixed engagement points along the top edge between the hinges that would automatically engage as the door is closed.
- Adding locking points along the sides and bottom as the handle engages.
Is anyone working on any of these or other approaches? What other considerations am I missing? I'm hoping to (re)start a discussion on this issue, find the best potential options, while identifying what others are trying or have tried. Your thoughts?
Here are my issues, yours may be different so please chime in:
1) Flex in the doors during flight is causing
a) gaps between fuselage and door edge. This is noticeable to me because I have not determined the best gap seal (Van's, Master Carr, etc) to use for my installation and so don't have any installed yet. The issue is that the doors flex a great deal, leading to pins pulling out and losing doors in flight. The seals cover up how much flex is actually occurring.
b) The window to door finish is cracking at several corners. Fiberglass tape around the windows did not prevent this (although they may have been sanded too thin.)
My thoughts are that the system does not have enough locking/engagement points along the outside perimeter and that the addition of one "safety latch" at the bottom center is not a solution to the real problem. The doors will flex and therefore making them stiffer (rebuilding with carbon fiber layers?) is another band-aid solution.
I keep thinking of how the Glass-Star doors have multiple points of locking/engagement and how simple that system is on "their" doors. Other thoughts, although not necessarily practical solutions are:
- Changing the hinge points to the front of the doors like the Cirrus. A potentially challenging solution but it adds a measure of safety to the design should other points fail.
- Having fixed engagement points along the top edge between the hinges that would automatically engage as the door is closed.
- Adding locking points along the sides and bottom as the handle engages.
Is anyone working on any of these or other approaches? What other considerations am I missing? I'm hoping to (re)start a discussion on this issue, find the best potential options, while identifying what others are trying or have tried. Your thoughts?