EC135 Sliding Door Adjustment
I've been around 12-13 different 135s, old and new, and their sliding doors have always rolled nicely and pushed into the airframe opening and latched like butter. Unfortunately, the aircraft I fly daily is the opposite. We have tried many times over the years to adjust the sliding door and it never get anywhere near what it should be. All parts have been replaced including upper middle rails, rollers, you name it. You can get it to roll nicely but the issue is when it makes the turn in the track and tried to get into the opening it fights hard. You have to push hard to jam it in and then the handle is hard to drive the pin into the upper opening. The adjustment of the bracket the holds the middle track attachment to the door that gives both a forward/aft adjustment along with up and down is what gets us. We have tried everything from loosening all the hardware, pushing the door into the opening, trying to center it and then tightening it down but it's never right. Is there a trick that we are missing? The manual just says to adjust till smooth with a 5mm gap. I'm sure at the factory they have a jig that allows it to get put perfectly in place. I swear I would fly the person who assembles the doors from the factory to my place just to fix this for once. Any tips?