Roll up door for Cessna 206 (STC)

[oLIVE 0]

Hello everybody,

i've already read the topics about the Skydiving STC's for the Cessna 206 but i did not find the answer i'm searching for.

I would like to purchase a roll up door for my Cessna U206F for skydiving operations in French Polynesia.

I'm trying to get in touch with those 2 companies within the US. Have you ever worked with them ?

https://jumpplanes.com/

https://www.soloy.com/jump-kit.html

Do you know if they are still in activity actually ?

Thank you very much ! 

Blue skies 

Olivier

[riggerrob 558]

Ihave worked with both roll-up and slide-up doors on Cessna U206. I found the roll-up nylon door to be awkward to operate with only one hand. Think of a tandem instructor who has finished tightening all of his student's straps.

OTOH slide-up, clear Lexan doors are much easier to operate with only one hand.

[JoeWeber 2,294]

On 11/16/2022 at 4:53 PM, riggerrob said:

Ihave worked with both roll-up and slide-up doors on Cessna U206. I found the roll-up nylon door to be awkward to operate with only one hand. Think of a tandem instructor who has finished tightening all of his student's straps.

OTOH slide-up, clear Lexan doors are much easier to operate with only one hand.

Yep, but all roll up Lexan doors need to be designed and built properly. I've spoke to this here before so will avoid the details but more than an ease of operation thing it's a safety thing. Most Lexan jump doors in use in Skydiving cannot be kicked out in an emergency. That's an industry wide problem.

Edited November 18, 2022 by JoeWeber

[gowlerk 1,903]

36 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Yep, but all roll up Lexan doors need to be designed and built properly. I've spoke to this here before so will avoid the details but more than an ease of operation thing it's a safety thing. Most Lexan jump doors in use in Skydiving cannot be kicked out in an emergency. That's an industry wide problem.

Which makes me want to ask if that is any different from a regular door in a small aircraft after the frame has been twisted?

[JoeWeber 2,294]

8 hours ago, gowlerk said:

Which makes me want to ask if that is any different from a regular door in a small aircraft after the frame has been twisted?

Don't know. Maybe the door would still work fine. I once flipped, rolled, and skidded on it's roof a '53 Chevy down a mountain road. It was well crushed, for sure. When it came to a halt I kicked out a window before thinking to try the door which opened easily. But I don't count on that luck with jump doors. I think they should kick out regardless of condition. Obviously, there's no guarantee.

[pchapman 261]

I always wondered if there would be enough flex in a roll up jump door to be able to kick it out.

The aluminum L brackets typically used  do look fairly solid, but maybe over a few feet of width on a typical jump door, there would be just enough flex to pop one side of the plexiglas out of its channel. I dunno. One wouldn't want them so light weight that after wear and abuse and accidental bumps against them, that they start coming half out and flailing around.  Kicking the rollup door open is just something one doesn't have the opportunity to test at a  DZ, unless one is really good at getting out of town fast and never coming back.

[JoeWeber 2,294]

1 hour ago, pchapman said:

I always wondered if there would be enough flex in a roll up jump door to be able to kick it out.

The aluminum L brackets typically used  do look fairly solid, but maybe over a few feet of width on a typical jump door, there would be just enough flex to pop one side of the plexiglas out of its channel. I dunno. One wouldn't want them so light weight that after wear and abuse and accidental bumps against them, that they start coming half out and flailing around.  Kicking the rollup door open is just something one doesn't have the opportunity to test at a  DZ, unless one is really good at getting out of town fast and never coming back.

AS I've previously posted it's about design. I designed mine differently from what you have likely used. And as a part of the design I built doors and then kicked them out to know. But that's how I roll.