The Cessna 120-140 Association Forum

'47 C120

Cold weather question ... we've noticed that our airplane leaks quite a bit of air around the top of the door frame, as the aft side pulls out, exposing a 1/4" gap during flight. This is not the case on the ground (I'm sure, in flight, the pressure difference/Bernoulli principle "pulls" the top of the door frame outward - leading to quite a bit of cold air leaking in). We're in the Northeast.

Question: has anybody seen this? How did you address it, with maybe some sort of an additional "latch" at the top of the door, to keep the door frame flush with the fuselage?

Thanks!

v

Same here, following this thread closely.....

The door is made up of an inner skin and an outer skin. The two layers make it rigid, like plywood. Take your inner door panel off and look at the inner skin around where the door latch is. There are several holes in the inner panel in that area, and if any of them are connected by a horizontal crack this will allow the door to flex and the top rear corner to pull outwards.

Old doors................? I've had that issue for years. The newer C-150 doors appear to be built much more "stout" and I never got that kind of leakage. I "fudged" a repair by adding a little more door seal along the upper aft corner. Not what you wanted to hear? but it's solved some leakage.