| Amen to Bill's comments below.
In my case, I had left too large a gap between the door and the fuselage at the lower, forward point of the door. A 90 degree bend of the seal (from horizontal to vertical) already causes considerable stretch in the seal. And I had the "gap" between the door and the edge of the fuselage ever so slightly too large. So after about 250 expansion / contraction cycles, the rubber seal in that "corner" developed rubber fatigue, and blew the hell up. Over the Saw Tooth Mountains at 17,500 are you shitting me feet. It flat got our (My current wife and myself's) attention. We did an emergency landing, got our wits about us, turned up the radios, and headed home at 12,500 unpressurized.
I now carry a couple of bags of Doritos Corn Chips, Nacho Cheese flavored. If / when they blow up, I know its time to replace a seal.
I also take Twinkies and red meat. I eat them while I fly. I want to make sure I don't die because of an aircraft mishap.
Cheers,
John Hafen N413AJ IVP
On Mar 14, 2012, at 10:21 AM, Bill Hogarty wrote: Ralf
Be careful determining what caused the leak. In my case, the valve stem was chaffing as it passed through the door frame where I couldn't see it. Expensive lesson.
Ralf, For a repair procedure check the archives. Ron Galbraith post a detail procedure and I believe others have as well. Paul Bricker
Dear subscribers, I know we had this discussion several times already... At that time I did not pay that close attention because I just replaced my inflatable door seal with a new one and I thought I should be fine for a couple of years. Coming home last night I noticed the door seal pump cycling. The door seal has been used for almost a year now with about 120 hrs on it. I could hear it blowing from the door seal - I think it is coming from the top of the door near my head from the seam where the door seal is glued together. I will look at it closer tonight or tomorrow. Is there a preferred method of repair (procedure/material) or should I get a new one (probably 1500$ by now and a pain to do a nice job without damaging the paint too much) Thanks for your input Ralf
|