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

"Peter R." wrote in message ...
....snip...
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

Nice fairly uneventful way to find a new checklist item!

"Peter R." wrote in message
...

....
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.

Yea, but what about the trail of socks, pants, shirts and underware that you
left all the way from Chicago to St. Louis when the luggage door opened?

:-)

--
Geoff
the sea hawk at wow way d0t com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
Spell checking is left as an excercise for the reader.

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote

Yea, but what about the trail of socks, pants, shirts and underware that
you left all the way from Chicago to St. Louis when the luggage door
opened?

At OSH this year, while working point on 36, I found a Chicago sectional,
folded to the OSH area. I wonder if someone left a door open during
departure, and got that sucked out in the process.

Even then, it was only a 2001 sectional. Good to be up to date, huh? g
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...
At OSH this year, while working point on 36, I found a Chicago sectional,
folded to the OSH area. I wonder if someone left a door open during
departure, and got that sucked out in the process.

Even then, it was only a 2001 sectional. Good to be up to date, huh? g

Hey, that was mine... It's not the first map that I've lost while flying
with my canopy back... And it probably won't be the last either... Good
thing my LORAN (with an even *older* database) is bolted down...

"Grumman-581" wrote

Hey, that was mine... It's not the first map that I've lost while flying
with my canopy back... And it probably won't be the last either

chuckle That's funny that someone here claims it. Small world.

Well, a fellow pilot is using it, now. One of the senior ground directors
that lives in that area said, "hey, that's newer than what I have. Lemme
have it, please." g
--
Jim in NC

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote:

Yea, but what about the trail of socks, pants, shirts and underware that you
left all the way from Chicago to St. Louis when the luggage door opened?

They were, no doubt, forcibly ejected between that little crack when my
aircraft explosively decompressed (never mind it is not a pressurized
aircraft).

--
Peter