Not my proudest sunday.....


We took off from a warm place and had the door open while taxing, however, I failed to properly close the door prior to T/O. While climbing @ 5500 ft, I noticed the door latch not secure. I moved the latch and pop...the door cracked open. My wife and kids were not amused to say the least.

I have had doors open in barons previously and they are a non event. First time in the aztec. Also a non event, but the plane shakes funny with the door open.

Its been bugging me all night & morning that I let that happen, failed to use the checklist and have visual confirmation. Live and learn I guess, but its the little crap that can kill you.

Rgs,

Patrick.

I had that happen in a Cherokee years ago with a non-pilot passenger. We must have done a poor job latching and it popped at ~3000ft. No big deal, and I told the guy to try to close it. What I wasn't expecting was him to open it plenty wide, I'm guessing to get a big swing on it, like you might expect someone to do in Grandpa's Olds Cutlass. When he did, the resulting loss of lift caused pretty dramatic roll to the right. "Ah, yeah, never mind, we'll go back and latch it correctly.."

i'm sorry but that is funny(the big wide swing) , i can imagine what it felt like.
gary

You can steer a 152 that way using just the doors

As a kid I was Dad's air conditioning in the old Aztec. The drill was that on hot days as soon as we had all three on the ground and were slowing down, I was to open the door. I learned early on what an outstanding speed brake it made.