Closing the door on a Cirrus in flight

Jim Macklin wrote:

In general, a door popping open is not an emergency,
airplanes will fly just fine with a door in trail if it has
come completely open.
snip

In the Bonanza I fly, I have experienced the door popping open, the luggage
door popping open, and a passenger window popping open. The first two were
so uneventful that it wasn't until I commented on the background noise when
my co-pilot seated passenger talked on the intercom did it finally dawn on
me that the doors were not properly sealed. However, the window coming
open was more startling.

Last August, I had two of my three boys in the airplane, with my five year
old sitting in the back right seat. The weather was 1,500 overcast in 5
miles vis and I was flying IFR up to Lake Placid, NY. Within a few
seconds of leaving the runway at takeoff, there was a sudden and startling
"Boom!"

Upon clearing my head of the shock of that initial noise, I then caught
that telltale sound of outside wind noise. A quick look back over my right
should confirmed that the rear passenger window, the window next to my
seated five year-old that tilts out from the top, was open and fully
extended.

I immediately went back to flying the airplane and realized that we were
going to be entering the cloud deck. I called ATC and requested a level
off at 1,200 feet followed by a vector to the north (out of the departure
corridor), explaining that the window had just popped open. I also added
that if I were unsuccessful I would need to be vectored back around for a
landing.

The controller quickly approved my request, so I leveled and turned, slowed
the aircraft about thirty knots so as not to get too far away from the
airport in deteriorating visability, waited until the airspeed had
stabilized, then engaged the AP.

I continued to watch the airspeed and altimeter until I was happy that the
AP had the aircraft, then unbuckled and reached way over to the right to
grab the handle of the window. Not knowing how much it would need, I
pulled very hard and, amazingly to me, the windows quickly slammed closed
with very little resistance.

Back in my seat, I re-buckled my seatbelt and called ATC to report that I
was successful. They turned me back on course and cleared me to my
previously assigned altitude.

Incidentally, it was not my son who had played with the window that caused
it to pop (he is not the type), but rather a mechanic who had worked on my
aircraft the previous day and had opened the window for cooling, but failed
to slam it closed for the lock to catch. I then concluded that this was a
previously undetected weak point in my preflight checklist.


--
Peter