Door seal, inflateable or no?

On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 07:33:45 -0600, "Jim Burns"
wrote:

Our Aztec's door seal needs replacing. I'm wondering how many people go the
inflatable route and what their experience has been. Would you do it again?
Does it block noise and air better than the standard seal? Does it push the
door away from the frame or cause too much pressure against the latch or the
hinge? Electric or hand pump? Best make/model? STC/337/field approval or
simple log book entry?

Have installed (and flown inside of) both hand and electric versions.
Most drastic change I ever noticed was on a 310. The hose blew off as
I was giving it a couple of extra pumps and we thought the engine was
coming apart.

Perhaps the hand bulbs have changed, but the ones I useta put in were
identical to a manual blood pressure cuff. Every 100 hr, I took the
bulb/valve apart and cleaned off the internal check valve with
alcohol. After about 4-5 years, the bulb and the hose had deteriorated
and had to be replaced.

Put one in a Seneca that had the hand pump clipped to the center
console, and had an inflate/deflate "switch" mounted in the panel.

The electric models are pretty choice, but you still need to keep an
eye out for leaks in the system. Aztec's are prime candidates for
being quieted down a bunch by an inflatable seal.

BTW, the seals I'm familiar with were STC'd, and with any STC, a
maintenance record entry and a 337 (should take yer local IA about 10
minutes to complete and file) are definitely required.

On the Aztec's, I seem to remember an exposed aluminum skin edge on
the door frame where the seal mates. This may have to be dealt with.

Hope some of this helps;

TC