Shock! Horror! Door pops open!

On 14 Apr 2005 08:50:10 -0700, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

When I was a student pilot, during the long hot summer days of
Sacramento, we always kept the doors open in the Cessna 140. Every once
in a while I'd give the door a shove with my elbow and refresh the hot
cabin air. On my private checkride, the examiner spent the entire ride
trying to get the door to close, saying he was going to fall out. After
the ride he chewed the FBO out up and down for having a door that
wouldn't stay closed. I never thought to try to close the door, it was
hot!
A year later, with a fresh IFR ticket in my pocket I flew the family
down to Monterey. At about 11pm over the Salinas mountains IFR the door
on the Bonanza popped open. Charts flew everywhere, including out the
window. I tried slipping, etc but couldn't get it closed. Since it was
dark I didn't want to try some small airport I'd never been to before
so I diverted to Modesto (a larger airport). I just remember thinking
to myself that if there was ever a time I was going to forget the gear,
this was it. On landing, it is important to grab and hold the door
though. About 1/2 through the roll out the door sprung full open and
then back again. It almost came off the hinges. I think the roundedness
of the Bonanza door made it different than the flat Cessna door. The
Bonanza door trailed about 4". You could pull really hard to hold it to
only 3" but the last bit wasn't going to happen.

The Bonanza door, like the Cherokees and newer models serves are part
of the structure.

The Bo door is the most spectacular when it pops open as it sounds
like a shotgun being fired.

I'm surprised the Bo door opened on the roll out unless you had all
the vents open. Normally it won't open unless there is a tail wind.

In flight there is no sense pulling on it as it should stay about 2 or
3 inches out. You are pushing against a lot of air pressure to open
it farther and it's unlikely it would even match the opening as the
structure "springs" out of shape slightly with the door open. So the
darn door doesn't even fit the opening.

OTOH it's a good way to get the carpets clean.


My wife and kids probably have a good 600 hours sitting in the plane
now and are all very execellent door closers. The Bonanza just had a
strange door closing mechanism. You turned the handle past two clicks

All the ones I've seen only have one click, but you close the latch to
where you think the thing is latched, then push it another inch and
you hear a click. If you don't get that click the chances are about
10:1 the door will pop open just after rotation.

The door popping open is no big deal, unless you don't have any more
charts:-)), but enough Bo pilots were dumb enough to kill themselves
trying to close the door, that was added to the AirSafety Foundation's
training. That and when doing stalls they'd block the yoke so the
pilot couldn't use the ailerons.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com
to grab both latches, something that was missed that night. I now drive
a Mooney and the door is much more obvious. The door handle doesn't
like up with the arm rest unless it is fully closed.

-Robert, CFI