Its not always obvious

[NJMac]

I took my wife flying for a dinner date on Wednesday last week. Great flight, good dinner, great evening in general.... Until we're back at the hangar. I asked her to put away the headsets back into their cases, onto the hack rack, and shut the baggage door.

 

I went to close the sliding doors and come back to find her confused about why the door wont shut or open beyond its current spot.

 

I thought it was obvious that to release the hinge, you needed to open it. It was not obvious to her. Got it situated today but thought I might should pass the tip.

 

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[Niko182]

one of my friends did the same thing to my door. on 52Q, the hinge has a minor amount of corrosion on it that sometimes requires an awkward amount of force to close it. She didn't notice it, and closed it as you would a car door and it bent down.

[NJMac]

Honestly that was the most frustrating part. If I would have just shown her or told her it would not have happened.

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[Skates97]

One of the first things the guy I bought mine from showed me was to release the hinge before trying to close the door. Had he not I may have bent it the first time... 

[1964-M20E]

my son bent one for me as well. 

 

You need one?  I have one somewhere around here.

[NJMac]

my son bent one for me as well. 
 
You need one?  I have one somewhere around here.

Thanks for the offer. I've got mine nearly new. But I'm fairly sure she tweaked the door. Its not noticeable until I started looking hard at it. Oh well. A battle scar on a 55 year old plane

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[orionflt]

My wife did that to 2 planes I have owned, 

she is not allowed to close them anymore 

Brian

[Hank]

My front door strap has done that twice, but not the baggage door. Be careful with both of them.

[201er]

My wife has learned to handle the baggage door but I don’t let anyone do the cabin door from inside!

[Mooney-Mark]

I never let passengers close doors (baggage or cabin) since most think it's like a car and they need to be slammed. Better to do it myself and make sure nothing gets damaged or pops open in flight.

[gsxrpilot]

My wife is competent to handle all (both) of the doors on my Mooney. The only other passengers entrusted with doors are fellow Mooney owners. I often have other Mooney owners riding in my right seat and they are always good to handle the door themselves.

[Niko182]

I think the think i hate most about dealing with non aviation passengers is them taking the door and going hulk smash, and slamming the hell of the door. It literally says on the handle, "do not slam" yet nearly everyone does.

[ArtVandelay]

I think the think i hate most about dealing with non aviation passengers is them taking the door and going hulk smash, and slamming the hell of the door. It literally says on the handle, "do not slam" yet nearly everyone does.

I had one climb up on the left wing, fortunately she wasn’t one of Marauders girls. I now will start talking about how airplanes are different as we approach (1 door entry, lightweight so door isn’t slammed, no stepping on the flaps (stay on the black), dual yokes, no touching the panel or yoke, what to do if you get sick.....might need a checklist for preflight of passenger?

 

 

Tom

[tony]

maybe I need to go and spray a little lubricant on mine.......

[Seymour]

I found a Mooney specific Passenger Brief Card in the downloads section here on MS (keyword "Briefing Card")  that has  a great view of " to enter the aircraft" and an explanation of why you can't use the floor for storing your personal items (J-Bar and Rudder pedal interference) and other great tips.   I'm adding my tips to it like  -  "Immediately after takeoff and when preparing to land, I'll ask you to lean towards the door so that I can efficiently move the J-Bar.  Please check that your seatbelt is re-fastened afterwards because I have a tendency to unlatch it with my bloody knuckles."     My plan is to have passengers read it while I preflight (or even email it to them beforehand) and then let them ask questions.   ...and if they don't ask about the bloody knuckles, I know they haven't read it.  

I'm attaching another one found on a CB search of the net from  https://www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/Freebies/SafetyCard/   that was also a contribution to mine.

The baggage door latch is a great addition because I remember having difficulty on my first attempt.  Thanks for posting this!

cary-passengerbriefing.pdf

[kpaul]

6 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

My wife is competent to handle all (both) of the doors on my Mooney. The only other passengers entrusted with doors are fellow Mooney owners. I often have other Mooney owners riding in my right seat and they are always good to handle the door themselves.

The only two times I have had my door pop open was when I had fellow Mooney owners in the right seat.  My wife and daughter have no issues with it.

[Austintatious]

ohh story time:

My stepfather used to own a King air 90.  He was on a trip with a few family members which included his daughter and her boyfriend.  This trip was to include several stops.  My stepfather took the time to train his Daughters Boyfriend on how to properly close and check the cabin door. This was so that he could get in first and not have to climb over everyone on the way to the cockpit.

Well, on one of the stops the BF was going to close the door and my stepfathers Daughter said "its ok ill get it" \... he assumed since she was his daughter that she knew how to shut the cabin door...  Well, she didn't and during the climb the door blew open.  Emergency landing, bend door, grounded airplane.

NEVER trust a passenger to do anything but sit in the seat!

[Herlihy Brother]

A passenger on a recent flight broke mine off as well. Anyone have a spare? Otherwise It looks like a couple hour project to create a new one from scraps around the shop.

[RLCarter]

My E had a piece of hardware chain the keep the door from opening too far, was worthless for keeping the door open with wind. I used a buddies for reference and made one, fairly easy to do. Like always I probably spent too much time on it by turning a steel rivet out on the lathe, and yes I did clean his up and repaint it for letting me use it

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by RLCarter

[carusoam]

Some MSer was making some nice replacements... @gsxrpilot May know the contact...

For used parts like these check with @acpartswhse

Best regards,

-a-

[Andy95W]

IIRC, it was Chocks that was making/selling them... but there might've been some supply/demand/delivery problems and some were a little upset with the process.  Not sure what the current status is.

[tigers2007]

I should pull mine and send it to China and have 5,000 made for $0.25/ea


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