REFLECTOR: Adding a door

[Hiroo Umeno]

Now that N21HV is in the air (sometime) we are starting to think about what comes after all the tweaks are done.  My wife has signed herself up to doing the upholstery (she has done a few cars and much furniture in the past).  She's also going to do the exterior paint scheme as well.

But, before we get into those, there is the (sore) subject of the door.  When I initially ordered the kit, I ordered the SUV since I wanted the yoke control.  The option to have SE with yoke wasn't offered back then and the SUV was on "launch special pricing".  Of course, I wasn't married and thought I might have an occasional passenger or two and figured that single door wasn't a big deal.

That was then, and now, the situation is a bit different.  My wife loves to fly (with me, but not at the controls) and after climbing in and out of the plane a few times on the ground I hear no end about how "un-ladylike" the whole process of getting to the right seat is.  Particularly, since, even tough we are the same height; she has legs full six inches longer than me.

So, in the interest of domestic tranquility and from keeping her from insisting on me trading in the Velocity for a Wichita Wonder, I need to think about adding a door to the plane, and before the upholstery and paint goes on.

Has anyone added a door to a completed plane?  How difficult is that?  Since my kit was delivered with the door pretty much all done, I have no idea how much work it would entails.  Particularly, since the passenger side window is already installed, it would be a real pain if I had to re-do the window.

Can the whole passenger side fuselage panel (including the installed window) somehow be re-purposed into a door?  My cursory inspection shows that I could potentially build-up a frame forward of the carbon beam, then cut around to create the door from the fuselage itself.  Is this too simplistic?

Any pit-falls and considerations?

Hiroo
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