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

That is the finest thing I have read in a while.

I want to know who gave her the bruises? Last time that happened to me,
when a friend closed the door and I didn't check it, no one got bruised.

I wonder how many sky divers get bruised when they go up in a plane without
a door.

AliR.

"Mike Granby" wrote in message
ups.com...

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

AliR wrote:
That is the finest thing I have read in a while.

I want to know who gave her the bruises? Last time that happened to
me,
when a friend closed the door and I didn't check it, no one got
bruised.

I wonder how many sky divers get bruised when they go up in a plane
without
a door.

Yeah :-)
As I understand it she got bounced (Not the skydiving term) around and
hit the side of the window.
I can state now that at no time in aeroplanes without doors did I
bruise an arm !

I modified a 182 and 206 for jumping some years ago. After removing
the hinges I cut off a triangle at the bottom forward corner and
riveted it to the frame. That was so I could hinge it at the top and
the door would clear the strut. Fabricated a new latch that went fore
and aft and a new door handle in the middle that you could twist.

To work it, the pilot unlatches it and pushes out hard. The
slipstream makes it climb until it contacts a rubber bumper under the
wing. Dif pressure keeps it firmly there while the crazies leave.
The pilot pushes left rudder and the door slams shut. He reaches over
and twists the handle then heads back for another load of crazies.

My point is, Im sure with the Piper-style door, you can close the
vents, slip the aircraft and latch the door a bunch faster than
heading back. Am I wrong?

"Mike Granby" wrote in news:1113400218.905492.56470
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


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


Thank heavens the window didn't come open!

"Judah" wrote in message
. ..
"Mike Granby" wrote in news:1113400218.905492.56470
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


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

I like the example she is setting. Maybe GW should use an Aztec for Airforce
One. Reduce the tax bill a bit.

my favorite aviation resrepresention is an adam sandler movie (can't
remember name), where him and another convict or something land a
medium size twin on a mesa, (due to fuel starvation), and it tweeters
on the edge for a while

of course they make it out the back door, and as the plane falls off
the cliff it explodes like a supernova. (from what, the oil? they're
out of gas)

oh wait i must correct myself, i just saw the lifetime movie
"airspeed" in which a bratty prep schooled 14 year old girl lands a
plane. both controller and pilot just guess at random terms.:

james wrote:

of course they make it out the back door, and as the plane falls off
the cliff it explodes like a supernova. (from what, the oil? they're
out of gas)

An empty gas tank is much more explosive than one with fuel in it.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

George Patterson wrote:
An empty gas tank is much more explosive than one with fuel in it.


Yes, but then there's nothing to burn. Movie airplanes burn like they had more
fuel on board than the 9/11 jetliners.




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
George Patterson wrote:

An empty gas tank is much more explosive than one with fuel in it.

Yes, but then there's nothing to burn.

James said "explosion."

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.