Baggage door

[DBeaulieu]

On the leading edge of the baggage door (where the skin angles in the vertical) there is interference of the door skin, forward former, and eventually with the stringer as the door is progressively opened. I sculpted a bit of door skin out which improved things a bit with the former, but the range of door swing forward is rather limited overall. Not inclined to notch the former as it will lead to fabric cover issues I think. Trimming too much off the skin will result in a gap between skin and former. How are other builders of the Patrol dealing with this? All thoughts and idea appreciated!

Cheers! (Dave from Maine)

baggage door skin 1.jpg

[Bcone1381]

I put a little piece of rubber silicone about 1/16" thick under the skin at that place....maybe less. It holds the skin out just a bit to give it more clearance allowing the cargo door to open more. I also put small striker for the skin edge to touch to protect the fabric skin there. I'm not sure I'm done yet with that. I suppose a tether from the fuselage to the door to limit the door from opening to far may be a good resolution. My door opens past 90 degrees with those modifications.

[joehmason]

I trimmed the skin back as far back as possible without creating a hole or gap to the inside. Then I used a small cable lanyard from McMaster and riveted it to the top door former and the tubing on the door to limit the forward travel. It opens just under 90 degrees to the fuselage.

[Viking]

Mine is exactly the same as yours. As a function of the hinge location, the skin moves out away from the door as it's opened, until it eventually contacts the stringer. I set mine up by trimming as much as I reasonably could off of the front edge of the door skin, and I'm planning to source a pneumatic door strut to hold the door open. My intent is to attach the strut so that when it's all the way extended, the skin won't make contact with the fabric at the stringer. I have put this aside for now until the fabric is installed, but that was my idea anyway. It would also be easy to fabricate a stop cable from 1/16" cable used for the elevator trim. Would be lighter than a strut.

[DBeaulieu]

Seems it's an inherent design feature and we're all in the same place with it. Thanks for the comments!

Dave (from Maine)

[kestrel]

New hinge tabs that move the pivot point out and back solve the problem. Mine opens 180 degrees without interference.

[DBeaulieu]

Thats' what I'm talking about...never crossed my mind, but now I have something to work with. Thanks kestrel

[Collin Campbell]

Yes, that is the fix. Model 5 kits had the same issue on the rear cargo door. I addressed this issue with Mark some time ago and hopefully later kits will reflect improvements.