Door Popped Open In Flight (Valuable Lessons Learned)

[201er]

On an IFR departure at gross, I had the door pop open in flight. Luckily I was not yet in the soup and my brother was in the right seat who held the door. First he tried to close it, then we tried pulling together but could not. Pitching up for slow flight didn't help either so I cancelled IFR and returned to the airport. The plane flies very strange with the door open and there are certain vortices created that make flight very uncomfortable. On final approach I kept the speed high and some power in because on my angle of attack indicator I could see that my AOA was higher than normal despite higher airspeed (if you don't have an AOA, get one!). Runway was long so I came into ground effect with extra speed and let it land when it chose to.

 

We pulled off and my brother asked me if he should just shut it or if I want him to get out so I could inspect it. I figured we're already on the ground so I might as well inspect for any damage. Luckily there was no damage but it is a damned good thing I got out to look because it led me to discover the cause! The door lock was in the locked position! So when my brother (who is also a pilot but not in airplane) latched the door, it closed and locked partially but not all the way. It was enough to sink the pins in and keep the door shut but not enough to keep the latch from popping back open. Basically the outside door latch was closed but only up to the lock pin.

 

I am virtually certain that I could not have done this and that this was the result of me giving the keys to my brother to load the plane while I took care of preflight planning at the lounge. Now I take full blame and responsibility for not checking this and it was my fault for taking for granted that he knew how to properly open/close the door. He doesn't remember doing it but I just can't picture myself putting the lock in locked position with the latch open. What most likely happened was he unlocked the door, opened the latch, then wiggled the lock to get the key out which put the pin in the locked position and then prohibited the door latch from fully closing when we departed.

 

Nothing was damaged, no one was hurt, only a few minutes were lost and a new IFR reopened. But this is a valuable lesson learned so I thought I'd pass it on.

 

1) Never trust your passengers with anything, even if they're a pilot

2) The door can be shut with the lock engaged, but it won't hold

3) If the door comes open, don't panic but do try to land ASAP because it may not be something you can deal with in flight

 

In this particular case, there was absolutely no way it could have been dealt with in flight so it's a great thing we returned AND shut down to analyze it.

[John Pleisse]

Which door Mike? The cabin door or the baggage door? The latter can be really dangerous. The cabin door, more of a non-event.

[wiguy]

 Yep, for the most part we need to double-check 'help' from others.

[PTK]

Which door Mike? The cabin door or the baggage door? The latter can be really dangerous. The cabin door, more of a non-event.

+1.

 

I'd say the parrot did it! 

[201er]

It was the cabin door. But I think he broke my baggage door too. Since he slammed it before the flight out, one of the pins is stuck and doesn't spring back out when the latch is closed!

[1964-M20E]

I had a similar thing happen on the main door the top latch engaged but the side latch did not. Operator error getting to know the new plane.

[N201MKTurbo]

This happened to me the day after I bought my first Mooney. Actually it didn't pop open, it was leaking, so being a Cessna driver at the time, I told my passenger to open it and close it again.

 

A little background.... I had bought the plane the day before, I was 26 years old (young and stupid, well smart enough to buy a Mooney). I had about 2 hours in Mooney's with no instruction. It was night and I was on my way to Oshkosh 1984 from Denver.

 

I was over the middle of Nebraska at 9500 and my passenger could not close the door!

 

I said " I'm going to stall the plane, when it starts to tumble to the ground pull the door closed", so I did and he did and we got the door closed.

 

I learned two things that night. One - don't open the door in flight, and two you can close the door if you stall the plane.

 

I'm not recommending this procedure, I'm just saying I did it that night.

[Seth]

As phantom said, "No good deed goes unpunished."

 

Mike I'm sorry to hear about the damage but I'm glad you are okay (and espeically relieved that with the door popping open (rustling of papers and such) your amazing pet bird was not near the door nor sucked out of the plane.  That would have been absolutely terrible.

 

After a few "slamming" incidents by both pilots and non flying passengers, I state multiple times that you slowly open and close doors.  This is not a car, and slamming will break the doors.  You gently press them shut.  Then I demonstrate.  Often, I just tell them that I'll take care of the doors and baggage compartment.  Other times, I instrut them how to do it while watching so that I know it's closed.

 

I had the baggage door open once on the takeoff run because I allowed the instrutor to close it and didn't duble check.  He was not a Mooney instructor but I was getting free time with an instrctor toward my IFR rating (for some retract time).  Needless to say, it opened on the takeoff roll and I aborted the take off. 

 

Good job keeping your head and safely getting back on the ground.

 

Take care,

 

-Seth

[flyboy0681]

This had happened to me too. I tried slowing it down and banking but to no avail. After the incident I looked it up in the POH and the procedure for an open door is to slow to 95, open the vent window, bank to the right and apply left rudder.

[MARZ]

This had happened to me too. I tried slowing it down and banking but to no avail. After the incident I looked it up in the POH and the procedure for an open door is to slow to 95, open the vent window, bank to the right and apply left rudder.

Never saw it in the POH but thats how I got mine shut one day - open the window and slip it.

[201er]

This had happened to me too. I tried slowing it down and banking but to no avail. After the incident I looked it up in the POH and the procedure for an open door is to slow to 95, open the vent window, bank to the right and apply left rudder.

Right. But keep in mind that with the lock in the locked position, this would be impossible as it blocks the opened latch from shutting. That's what happened to me and why it could only be shut on the ground after unlocking it with key.

[jetdriven]

Same here, i dont let nonpilots open or close doors.

[201er]

Same here, i dont let nonpilots open or close doors.

Byron, "pilots" can actually be your worst case cause you take for granted they can do it right when it turns out they don't. You'd automatically check twice if a nonpilot did it. That's part of my cautionary tale.

[Marauder]

I have never had one pop open. I heard a story once that all kinds of dust gets blown up from your supposedly clean rugs. Any truth to that?

[bnicolette]

Same here, i dont let nonpilots open or close doors.

Here here.

[jetdriven]

Byron, "pilots" can actually be your worst case cause you take for granted they can do it right when it turns out they don't. You'd automatically check twice if a nonpilot did it. That's part of my cautionary tale.

 

I thoroughly brief all passengers how to open and close the door (a legal requirement), with instructions they are not to touch it unless needed for emergency evacuation. I will let rated pilots close and open the door after explaining the process including looking up at the top of the door for it to pull in as the latch engages. Nobody but or my 2 partners touch the baggage door. 

[201er]

Byron, any ideas on how to fix my broken baggage door pin?

[jetdriven]

Take the inside liner off and fool around in there to find out what is jammed.  Hit all of it with Triflow while you are at it.  The pin may be bent, which means replacing it.

[N201MKTurbo]

I've had people repeatedly slam the door as I desperately tried to stop them while yelling at them to stop all the while they were saying "What is wrong with this door"!

 

I've started briefing people before they get into the plane.

[Joe Zuffoletto]

Long story short, I had the cabin door and the baggage door pop open shortly after takeoff (separate flights) after trusting passengers to operate them. So for the past 10 years I have not allowed passengers to lock, unlock, latch, unlatch or otherwise operate the doors in any way. Haven't had a problem since.

[sleepingsquirrel]

 I never fool with a popped door in flight. I 've heard of more avoidable tragedies from trying to close a door in flight , to me it's just not worth it. It won't open any more and it won't close. Fix it when you land.  I regularly instruct the passenger that sometimes these doors can pop open and to not be afraid, They couldn't fall out if they tried. Mine is not even that noticable when it does.

I do get some funny looks, like is anything else going to fall off that I should know about?

  A pilot passenger can cause an accident unintentionally. A Mooney aborted take off because while the pilot and Mooney was ready to fly , unaware that the airspeed indicator was dead. The observant pilot passenger called out, NO AIRSPEED! NO AIRSPEED!  The pilot In command aborted the landing with too much speed.  

[jetdriven]

IIRC its the PIC's responsibility to verify the airspeed is alive. While the passenger was being helpful, the pilot is the one that had the accident.

[sleepingsquirrel]

A pilot, passenger can CONTRIBUTE to an accident. Dead or alive the Mooney was ready to fly and without the interjection  would have broke ground and climbed out. PIC is responsible as always.

[omega708]

First flight for my wife (in the Mooney) and she insisted on shutting the door since it was OUR plane.... She'd only flown in a rental pa28 prior to the purchase of 38M. Long story short, she shut part of her sweater in the door. Door pops open at 500 AGL just as I turn cross-wind. She's slightly panicked, but is reassured by the fact that I'm not. Climbed up to about 3k feet AGL, slowed down to VFE and opened the vent window. That having been done, she was able to shut the door without issue. A year later, she still requests that I shut the door.

[aaronk25]

Also make sure when you unlock the door, from being locked you turn the lock all the way to the unlock position or else in flight it can relock which locked my dumb ass inside the plane and when I shut down and realized my situation I had to call airport maintenance to come let me out of my own plane!!!!

Could have been bad in a emergancy!