Door opens on takeoff....one less Aztec in the world

[Skylane81E]

And Lance makes an absolutely correct statement once again. Although for me sometimes it was my own stupid fault.

Every time it was my fault

 

[comanchepilot]

I had the door pop open on a departure from Oakland - [and yes - when I got home it needed adjustment] I told the tower, asked for once around the pattern, a quick landing and to keep my IFR flight plan open please.

The controller sounded like he was going to panic - I got a clearance to land and did a short pattern and came around - landed - and see the fire engines coming at me. I called ground after I re=closed the door and they asked me three times if I needed assistance and if all was ok. I told them three times that yeah, we were fine - door is closed and ready to depart with whatever the ATIS still was.

It took 15 min to get back to the runway and depart because in an excess of concern [panic] they had closed my IFR flight plan . . . and I needed to call and get CD to get a new strip.

Perhaps they seem to have panic stricken cockpits on open doors - and they are more of an emerg in a jet than a single - given that many open out and are air stairs and thus can get ripped off - and who knows, maybe the last guy with an open door stalled it in for all I know -

 

[Skylane81E]

Had a window pop open on my first solo. Could have become a statistic until I remembered my instructor's words "Fly the airplane". Speed had degraded quite a bit. Don't recall if I ever closed the thing or not. Didn't hurt anything, just noisy.

I'm going to say it,

Thank you for posting this and admitting that you would have been the cause of the crash had it happened, if everyone remembered this...

 

[Fearless Tower]

IMy conclusion:
Past designers of small airplanes had no f'ing clue how to design door latches.

I don't know about that. For the door handles and latches on my 1948 170 Cessna used 1940's automobile parts.

 

[danhagan]

I've actually flown a plane with the doors to final. My CFI was teaching me ways to get around locked flight controls. He had the yoke come apart on him one day and found that he had to land via power and the doors.

Got to do this in the 152 just before checkride with the CFI. Flew the full pattern with doors, trim and power (no yoke). We did flare with the yoke though.

The 152's I trained in the right side doors always popped open on rotation no matter how hard you slammed them the first time or try to insure they were secure during the run-up. Even happened on first rotation on solo when CFI jumped out ... had seen it so many times it was no biggy. Fly to downwind, trim and shut it on the downwind, if that failed land full stop.

 

[brentee]

I've actually flown a plane with the doors to final. My CFI was teaching me ways to get around locked flight controls. He had the yoke come apart on him one day and found that he had to land via power and the doors.

I want more of this story!

 

[Skyscraper]

What a shame. Had this happen to me on one of my first solo flights. Right seat door comes open on the Cessna 150. After messing with it for about 1 second I realized I was paying less attention to flying so I just said screw it and told the tower I wasn't going to touch n go but instead come in for full stop. Too bad poor judgement just ruined a nice plane.

 

[weilke]

Piper doors are supposed to pop open once in a while, it's somewhere in the TCDS.

The only problem with a door popping open is that it usually sucks the paper chart off the copilots seat .

Two years ago, someone put a brand-new G3 Cirrus into a tree in Gaithersburg after the door opened during a IMC departure. I imagine it is distracting to have this happen, but it should never end in the loss of an airframe.

 

[comanchepilot]

Had a window pop open on my first solo. Could have become a statistic until I remembered my instructor's words "Fly the airplane". Speed had degraded quite a bit. Don't recall if I ever closed the thing or not. Didn't hurt anything, just noisy.

I had a Cherokee door pop open at 6500' in December in New England - noisy was not the issue. It got real cold real fast.

 

[Warrior]

reminds me of the Eastern 1011 crash into the Everglades. they were fiddling with a faulty indicator light and no one was minding the store. the plane flew itself into the glades.

 

[ProspectingCFI]

Had this happen to me in two seperate Seminoles. The planes are still ok

 

[HighFlyingA380]

Shoot, my Duchess' latches didn't even work half the time. It was routine to do the whole lesson with the doors pooped open. No big deal. I'm honestly quite curious to know what nonsense was going on in the MEIs head...

 

[Inverted]

What a dumbass.

 

[rbridges]

I guess this guy will find out the answer to the renter's insurance question someone asked the other day.

 

[flyingron]

Car doors took a massive change in the sixties with the introduction of the so-called "Nader pin". I've never had a door open on the Navion

 

[spinfire]

Sounds like a good reason to properly brief the speed below which you can safely abort takeoff for any minor reasons. If I'm going less than 20 knots with ample runway still available and anything isn't right I'd rather abort the takeoff roll.

Ted, are you sure your DPE's freak out wasn't intended to test your reaction to a hypothetical student doing the same thing?

 

[wabower]

Many older airplanes have been modified as well. Both of the Ce-180's I've owned have been retrofitted with the big locking pin and 180-deg throw-over door handle. Cessna changed their factory locks as sometime around 1979 IIRC.

Car doors took a massive change in the sixties with the introduction of the so-called "Nader pin". I've never had a door open on the Navion

 

[FORANE]

 

[Ted]

Sounds like a good reason to properly brief the speed below which you can safely abort takeoff for any minor reasons. If I'm going less than 20 knots with ample runway still available and anything isn't right I'd rather abort the takeoff roll.

I get going fast enough that basically once I push the throttles forward, I have at most 10 seconds after which it's safer to just keep going for anything minor than abort the takeoff.

In the airline world, they pay attention to stats on aborted takeoffs for a reason. It's considered a safety issue.

Ted, are you sure your DPE's freak out wasn't intended to test your reaction to a hypothetical student doing the same thing?

Very. That was the 4th checkride I'd taken with him, and had various other dealings. He was also a bit shaken up by it, which I could tell was real and not faked.