Bob
Some excellent replies here and it sounds like some, by pilots who have
experienced various doors opening, without disastrous result.
I've had a number of doors come open on quite a variety of aircraft
(does that say something about how really fragile they are?) and not
much more than a fright to either me, or the PAX. As part of my own
training regimine, I cause a door to open for many of the flights I
give with students to show them the non-existent danger or proper
procedures to close said door again.
Have had baggage doors pop open on several aircraft and had to land to
close them again. No big deal but certainly annoying. Open doors on
some aricraft that disrupted the airflow, like the Pipers, and
Beechcraft with the cabin doors that curved up on the fuselage. It is
more of a fright factor than anything. Vertical cabin doors are nearly
impossible to open more than a handspan in flight with airflow pushing
them shut.... Cabin windows, like the emergency exit on Barons, cause
nothing more than a loud roar and scare crap out of whoever is sitting
there....especially over the Sierras at night out of Tahoeggg
I participated in an accident investigation years ago on a Beech Queen
Air A65/80 that crashed after a baggage door opened in flight shortly
after takeoff at ABQ. It turned out the baggage was spilling out of the
compartment into the left propellor causing an engine failure. It was
not an aircraft design problem causing the crash, but one of pilot
error. I got involved simply because the aircraft that crashed was one
digit away from the one I was flying at the time and we used it to
attempt duplication of the crash scenario to see if it was aircraft
design or pilot error.
Bottom line is, I don't think an unexpected door opening on any
aircraft is cause for crash or panic. Structural integrity may be at
risk in some high speed exotic aircraft, but I don't know of any that
are that critically affected aerodynamically.
Same can be said of instrument failure and a pilot doing the panic
routine just because they didn't have the airspeed, or altimeter, or
compass, or ????
If you are still concerned, go up in the aircraft you normally fly with
an instructor or experienced pilot, and crack a door to see what it
does. If nothing else it will prove
how difficult it is to open the door enough to cause danger.
I remember the time whan I tried to make a parachute jump from the
backseat of a Piper TriPacer back in the early 60's and ......well
thats a story for another time after we have a San Pablo.....ggg
Ol Shy & Bashful