PA-30 Door Seal leaks

[Tim Puliz]

Do any of you Comancheros have a solution for my air leaks coming from the door of my PA-30? Even though I have the air-inflatable door seal, I get quite-a-bit of air coming through. It's really uncomfortable for the rear passengers on these cold winter days.

Sincerely,
Tim Puliz

[N3322G]

Hi Tim,

Noticed this is you first post. Welcome.

If we run the heater in the winter, we are usually roasting the passengers behind the front seats.

If the air is really coming in the door with inflatable seals, wow. I haven't used inflatable door seals but our heater has always overcome any door leaks so I'm wondering a few things
1. Is the door correctly adjusted? This is a time-consuming iterative process with instructions in the Service Manual. BTW, I don't do this kind of work but others have described it. It is why I have decal-ed the outside of the door and the top of the fuselage with Do Not Lean on Door signs.
2. Is the inflatable seal working as designed?
3. Is the heater performing as designed?
4. Are all the heater ducts connected?
5. Are there other airflows coming into the cabin from the wheel wells or other areas under the floor?
6. Is the door lock mechanism working correctly? We had ours taken apart and lubricated last year - made a huge difference.

Ironically, I'm working on a new heater problem myself

Hopefully one of the above thought is of help to you.

[steen]

Hi, Tim.
I have a 30-B and when I bought it many years ago the door leaked like crazy and the only way we (my son and I) could stand it
was to shove wet paper towels into the gaps on the flight home to Il. from Cal. Long trip with a noisy door.
I followed the maint. manual and installed a new rubber seal and carefully adjusted the door per the manual and common sense after
I figured out the angles resulting from the adjustments and got a solid door that operates nicely (nobody closes the door but the pilot).
That was 20+ years ago and the door still operates great, seals great today, without an inflatable seal or a Cherokee lock added.
Unless the door has been damaged, it is a good seal with the standard door seal parts and very careful adjustments.
Steen

[Kristin Winter]

A door rigged properly shouldn't need the Cherokee latch at the top which is STC'ed when all else fails. Maggie's door works fine without it, and when I do the interior, or if it starts to leak, I will replace worn parts in the mechanism.

[Tim Puliz]

Kristin, Steen, Pat:

I think I sent off my post before I was done by mistake.... I'll start over.
Yes, the heater works well. It roasts everyone out when set to high, and it is not quite warm enough on sub 32 degrees flights. We are always switching from high to low...and back again. I fly out of northern Nevada and it has been typically around 0 degrees f at 11000 ft. this time of year.

I was hoping for a simple solution; like an additional door seal material... but it doesn't appear that is the answer. Yes the inflatable seal is inflating. I did make some adjustments to the door latching hardware last year when I noticed the the upper right locking pin was not properly engaging when the door was closed...

I will get with my mechanic and look at the maintenance manual regarding the door adjustment. It appears to be lined up well, but obviously air is still coming through.

Tim

[N3322G]

Tim,

If you want to read a bit, the Service Manual is on this website under the Tech Tab on the Home page. Just click on International Comanche Society on the top of this page and you'll get back there. Cabin Door search got me right there 4.41.

At first glance I found the number of pages and sections intimidating at first but after using Control F to find what I wanted, it went pretty well. Some paragraphs, I know all too well. I've found it nice to know a bit before I ask even a Comanche knowledgeable mechanic to work on the plane.

[Tim Puliz]

Will do.
Thanks Pat.

Tim

[Tim Puliz]

Test

[Tim Puliz]

Thanks to all of you who posted suggestions to my cabin door seal issue. I downloaded the PA-30 maintainence manual from the Comanche Flyer website and provided it to my mechanic. After discussing all of your suggestions and reading the manual, he made adjustments to the hinges and that solved the problem. Wow! that was easy.
Tim Puliz