Door hinge for removable door

[tgulldave]

You can make your door easily removable if you insert your hinge pins from
the middle of the hinge.
Just cut 3 or 4 of the hinge knuckles in the center of the hinge. (I cut 6
and it was more than necessary but doesn't cause any problems).
You can bend the ends 90 degrees but you're likely to scrape your hand or
arm on them sometime. I initially bent mine. After a few years of
occasional scrapes, I replaced them with straight pins that overlap an inch
or so in the center. It takes pliers or a vice grip to remove them.
You will want to sit inside with the door closed when installing or
removing the hinge pins.
I love flying with the door off in the summer. I was surprised that there
is no noticeable drag penalty on my J Gull.

[tgulldave]

PS If you taper the end of the pins they will slide in much easier.


---In Earthstar_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, <dave.bonkowski@...> wrote :

You can make your door easily removable if you insert your hinge pins from the middle of the hinge. Just cut 3 or 4 of the hinge knuckles in the center of the hinge. (I cut 6 and it was more than necessary but doesn't cause any problems).
You can bend the ends 90 degrees but you're likely to scrape your hand or arm on them sometime. I initially bent mine. After a few years of occasional scrapes, I replaced them with straight pins that overlap an inch or so in the center. It takes pliers or a vice grip to remove them.
You will want to sit inside with the door closed when installing or removing the hinge pins.
I love flying with the door off in the summer. I was surprised that there is no noticeable drag penalty on my J Gull.

[wsweidemann]

Dave,

So...if I cannot dig out the bottom end of the hinge pin, could I cut off a few piano hinge middle "tubes" with a Dremel to get at the piano hinge pin?

Skot

[blaswichk]

Uhhh, kind of, I also just thought that when I read Dave’s comment. Problem is that after you cut away some knuckles, you still have the pin in full length and that also needs to be ever so carefully severed too. Also the Odyssey has the door like my Gull 2000 and you can’t get to the hinge sitting inside cuz it’s on the outside. I will probably still stay scared about trying to remove it for now. Good luck!

[rileywinglowe]

I take my door on and off all the time on my J model. Full length hinge pin, no tricks, no issues.

[earthstaraircraft]

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Sent from my iPhone

[wsweidemann]

Success!

With some prying, bending, clamping, pounding and a few of my favorite stress relief words, today I was able to pull out the pin on the left door of my Odyssey to remove it. After cleaning up the pin with Scotchbrite and bending a 90 degree "handle" I was able to re-attach the door again using only the tiny pliers on my fancy Swiss Army knife. I must say there's not much to that light weight door. I haven't tried it but I think you could stash the un-attached door in the cabin next to the other door while "out in the field" with the door temporarily removed for photos.

In the next day or so I plan to see how it flies so I can go out and take some pictures without that reflective plastic in the way.

Skot
Odyssey N159BS HKS

[earthstaraircraft]

Make sure your map is stowed.
Happy flying
Mark

Sent from my iPhone