In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Ron Garret wrote:

I was at nearly 1000 AGL wondering why my climb performance
sucked so badly before I figured out what was going on.

The slightly ajar door affected the climb performance that much?

Yes, I was really surprised. I actually first noticed it just after
rotating. Usually there's about a three second lag between rotating and
liftoff, and then the plane always climbs very smartly. This time it
was 4-5 seconds, and the plane lifted off a few inches and then actually
settled back onto the runway for an instant before finally taking off.
I thought it was the high altitude (despite the fact that I've flown out
of high altitude airports before and never had that happen). I even
remarked on it at the time, saying, "Hm, that was interesting." My wife
noticed it too because she knew exactly what I was talking about.

I've had single latches pop open on me before, but this was the first
time that I forgot to close the door entirely. I think it happened
because this was the coldest weather I've ever flown in. Invariably, at
my homebase VNY if you let the door swing all the way closed it gets
uncomfortably hot in the cabin, and so I'm always holding the door ajar
until the last possible moment (and no, I don't mean just before
rotation!) But at Truckee it was 40 degrees or so and the sun was
behind the mountains, so it was comfortable without holding the door
open. There were a bunch of other things that were different from my
usual routine (first time operating out of an untowered airport with
intersecting runways in use, most flight hours logged in the Cirrus in
one day). And finally, I really think the new Bose headsets contributed
too. I've had door latches pop before, and with my old Peltors I could
hear a whistling sound begin even before rotating. With the Bose we
were doing 120 knots with the door completely open and I couldn't hear
it at all. (This is not to say that the Bose blocks out all noise -- it
doesn't, it just seems to do a particularly good job in that frequency
band.)

rg