Video of door pop, pilot error (not Mooney)

[midlifeflyer]

On 10/3/2024 at 10:47 PM, Ragsf15e said:

I think an emergency is pretty much up to the pilot.  If the PIC thinks it’s an emergency, then it is.  If they want priority, who am I to disagree?

I don’t think a request for priority is necessarily the same as declaring an emergency. 

[Ragsf15e]

5 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

I don’t think a request for priority is necessarily the same as declaring an emergency. 

True, you can always ask for priority, like saying “minimum fuel”, but it doesn’t mean you’ll get it and it can mean different things to different people.  Declaring an emergency puts you and atc on the same page.

[Paul Thomas]

Part of my passenger briefing is how to operate the door. I have them close it, reopen it, and close it again so that we can depart. I've never had a passenger close a door incorrectly door after I've briefed them.

I had one pop open on my last BFR while using the flight school's airplane. I believe he was a newly minted CFI and it was a learning experience for him. It was no big deal for me and I offered to slow down and slip the airplane so that he could close the door. He wanted to land at a nearby untowered field to do it so that's what we did. It's a small distraction in most airplanes as long as you keep flying the airplane normally. During my primary training, my CFI had me open it up in flight and I learned that you can steer the airplane with the doors.

[Hank]

1 hour ago, Paul Thomas said:

I had one pop open on my last BFR while using the flight school's airplane. I believe he was a newly minted CFI and it was a learning experience for him. It was no big deal for me 

The plane flies just fine with the door open. It's not like it will open very far (slow planes excepted).

[201er]

On 5/18/2025 at 11:19 PM, 201er said:

And again sadly 

 

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/512349

 

The probable probable cause is out for this one and some opinions/suggestions:

https://data.thedtsb.org/accident/beechcraft-95-b55-n4321z/

 

 

[RescueMunchkin]

I don't have any experience with a door opening on a low wing plane, but the passenger side door opened the first time I flew a Cessna 172 (solo, very shortly after I got my PPL) because I came from the 150/152 and didn't realize we needed to push forward on the 172's handle to lock the door.

I was a little bit freaked out that my flight backpack would fall out, but after I was at cruise altitudes and verified everything seemed secure, tried and failed miserably several times to slam the door shut.  I decided it wasn't worth being concerned about and completed the 45 min long flight to my destination and didn't really feel like there was anything different about the flight characteristics.

I had a door pop on takeoff roll in a C150 with my instructor on board once before too when I was a student and it was just a simple aborted takeoff.  I do miss how much better the brakes are on those Cessnas compared to the Mooney.

Edited May 20 by RescueMunchkin

[jlunseth]

When I bought my plane years ago, my instructor and I went to Scottsdale to pick it up. An annual had been performed but not a very good one. The door opened on takeoff. We tried closing it but could not get it done in flight. We flew over Raton (over the toe of the Rockies) at 16,000 and all the way to Kansas, where we stopped for fuel, with the door ajar. It was definitely cold over the Rockies and only so much the heater could do. It subsequently turned out that the latch was maladjusted and simply would not hold.

I can tell you from that experience that, (1) it is practically impossible to close the door in flight, the instructions in the POH notwithstanding, (2) it is not a big deal, the plane flies just fine, you will have some noise and wind and if it is cold outside it will be cold inside, but there is no reason for panic or an emergency, (3) the door will not open and no one will fall out - the slipstream is too strong and while the door can't be closed it won't open more than an inch or so either. Just leave it and find a convenient place to land.

Baggage doors are a different issue. We had a very good family friend who took off from the now-gone Coronado airport in a twin with several on board for a ski trip at Taos. The baggage door in the nacelle came open. He tried but was unsuccessful to get the plane back safely and all aboard lost their lives. Early on in the life of this forum there were at least a couple of incidents of Mooney baggage doors coming open, one just causing heavy vibration and the other coming off the aircraft and impacting the elevator or rudder, don't remember which. There is just no excuse for allowing anyone other than the PIC to be the last person to check or open the door, and it should be locked in flight. Yes, the emergency latch still works. No excuses now.