A New Cure for an Old Woe

Developed by Alberta, Canada-based Airworthiness Resources Corporation (arc), the arc Quikex (Quick Exit) is a Transport Canada-Approved Cessna 206 forward cargo door modification.

Certified under Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) SA20-34 and marketed formally as the Split Forward Cargo Door Window, arc’s Quikex modification allows Cessna 206 passengers to quickly and safely disembark the aircraft in emergency situations by opening the airplane’s forward cargo door—regardless of flap position.

The STC eliminates the need to install Cessna’s SK206-40 Service Kit, which was introduced in 1991 for purpose of facilitating operation of Cessna 206 cargo doors from within the aircraft—a feature absent in the model’s initial OEM iteration.

Notwithstanding the robustness and versatility for which Cessna’s 206 has been renowned since it’s 1962 introduction, numerous fatalities incurred during 206 mishaps have been ascribed to occupants’ inability to egress the aircraft under duress. Of particular note is a disproportionate incidence of drownings suffered by passengers of float-equipped 206s.

Extended, the Cessna 206’s flaps effectively block the aircraft’s cargo door, precluding its opening under the most favorable circumstances. Inverted and submerged following a botched landing or an outright ditching, the 206’s cargo door is nigh impossible to open. Moreover, the procedure for opening the 206’s cargo door from within the aircraft is neither obvious nor simple.

Transport Canada, having determined the machine’s OEM-supplied cargo doors failed to meet emergency exit criteria, certified the Cessna 206 with a limit of five occupants—one fewer than Cessna intended.

Airworthiness Resources Corporation, aware a remedy for the 206’s cargo door ailments was apt to be a hot seller, set its engineers the task of developing such.

The solution at which the arc boffins arrived, the Quikex modification, enables Canadian Registered Cessna 206H and T206H models certified under TCCA TCDS A-212 to operate with up to six occupants—a boon to backcountry charter operators. Additionally, the Quikex modification occasions no change to the cargo door’s normal operation of functionality—yet another boon.

Sales, installation, and service of arc’s Quikex modification are offered exclusively through Coast Dog Aviation, a Pit Meadows, British Columbia-based, Transport Canada Approved Maintenance Organization with AMO approval #87-10.

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