Shock! Horror! Door pops open!

During my pilot training, one day were were in the pattern when my
instructor grabbed the yoke, pulled us into a quasi-unusual attitude,
and popped the door open (Piper Cherokee) and held it as far open as he
could against the wind. "You've just had a mid-air!" he yelled over
the noise. I corrected the attitude of the plane and began a short
approach to the runway. He was explaining to me that 'see, the plane
doesn't fall out of the sky. It's loud, but you can still fly
safely-oh CRAP!' I look over, and he's looking back out the door over
his shoulder. I'm still flying the plane, but I ask calmly what
happened. He starts laughing, and it turns out that the wind in cabin
grabbed the new instrument training hood that he had purchased the day
earlier (to replace a cracked on) and sucked it out the door.

I landed without incident (except for the whole shaking cabin and
missing hood) but it was a complete non-event.

When I try to understand why people panic about stuff like this, I
remember that they see movies like 'The Aviator' that has airplanes
turning into flaming meteors that drop out of the sky when they run out
of fuel, so assuming that an open door is going to do the same thing
isn't that much of a stretch.

It's also possible that this was the first time some of the passengers
on that plane had flown in something smaller then a 737, and they were
ALREADY nervous.

I landed without incident (except for the whole shaking cabin and
missing hood) but it was a complete non-event.

Just had to jump in here and agree. I had the door on my Warrior pop open
on my turn to crosswind after take-off. In the hot Texas summer, I leave
the door open as long as possible to try to keep the cabin temp a little
cooler than a gas oven. I guess I missed the overhead latch after run-up.
I went ahead an made my turn to downwind and reached over and tried to close
the door with my free hand. You already know that didn't work. I reduced
power and slowed to about 70 Kias and kicked in a lot of right rudder.
Closed it with one hand and departed the pattern. Definitely a
non-life-threatening event.

Its a lot more exciting to say the PM cheated death than the truth.

Eddie

Note to Piper owners:
When closing the doors, observe that the top latch does not ride up over
the top of the vertical latching"pin".
If you grasp the door mounted "hooked" latch, check to see if it is
loose and moves vertically or is firmly attached.
If it is loose, it can ride up over the top of the latching pin and give
a false indication of the tap latch being secure.
The door can then "pop open" in flight as the lower latch may not be
strong enough to withstand the air pressure differential between the
cabin and the slipstream.
The solution to assuring the latch is secure is to hook a finger over
the top of the latch and gently pull it downward and guide it so that
the latch hook centers around the latch pin as the door is pulled closed
and engage the top latch lever before depressing the lower latch lever.

In article .com, Ben Hallert wrote:
happened. He starts laughing, and it turns out that the wind in cabin
grabbed the new instrument training hood that he had purchased the day
earlier (to replace a cracked on) and sucked it out the door.

Oh, I can beat that. I opened the window on our old Cessna 140. Instead
of opening normally, it opened an inch or two, fluttered a bit then
departed the airframe and went off to meet its destiny in Galveston
Bay...

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Dylan Smith wrote:
Oh, I can beat that. I opened the window on our old Cessna 140. Instead
of opening normally, it opened an inch or two, fluttered a bit then
departed the airframe and went off to meet its destiny in Galveston
Bay...


Expensive climate control....




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Yawn. The PM should get some J-3 time...ahh, there's nothing like a
warm summer evening, fresh Delta breeze coming from the south, you
slip the Cub in for landing, window latched up and door folded down,
and right at stall the door gently lifts up to let you know you've
arrived...doesn't get much better than that. Unless it's flying an
Aircoupe around with the canopy open...

Mike Granby wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4439341.stm


Oh, good God. What was the big deal? If you can't push a car door open at 60
mph, you sure as hell can't push open an aircraft door at 160 knots.

I've had lots of door pop open over the years. Sometimes I got wet. It was
noisy. Nobody ever fell out. I never set down early to latch the door either.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Mike Granby wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4439341.stm


Did the aircraft dive because of the turbulance or because the pilot
freaked out at the open door. What's the big deal. I was flying a
piper warrior once when the door popped open.
Whoop de do. The slipstream held it closed until I was able to reach
over and re-close it.
It had no effect whatsoever on the handling characteristics of the plane.

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.
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
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

I had a door pop open 3 times during my private pilot training. First
time, early on in the training, MY door opened on takeoff in a C-150.
The CFI took the controls and I held the door ajar. We told the tower we
needed to come back because of an open door and they cleared us ... we
did a little shorter pattern than normal, and the CFI said she noticed
more drag, but no big deal. Second time in a C-152, CFI's door popped
open just after beginning the takeoff roll. He told me to abort, I
pulled the power and started to brake as he got the door shut and told
me to go ahead (we have long runways). Third time in C-152 again, CFI's
door opened at about 500 feet. I didn't even see or hear it, but CFI was
holding onto his door with both hands. I asked, "Am I scaring you that
badly?" He laughed and said "No, door's open!" I asked if I needed to
turn back, but he just shut the door and we kept going. Now, in the
passenger briefing part of the checklist, I always ask passengers to
double-check and assure that their seats and doors are secure.