Flying_Monkey
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- Sep 22, 2014
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Just thought I'd share my experience yesterday. Landed at a small uncontrolled airport in the SoCal mountains. The parking area is on a bit of a slope. Shutdown the engine and had my buddy chock the front wheel. He opened the nose baggage compartment to retrieve a chock but I told him to just use the one laying on the ramp and he closed the compartment. He chocked the tire and we had lunch.
After lunch, I got in the plane and he removed the chock and we taxied for takeoff. During the takeoff roll and while the nose wheel was lifting off the ground, the baggage door came flying up. I had a pretty strong negative association with the nose baggage door being open in flight and I think it came from something on this forum or maybe an accident report I read. I didn't even really think- I just eased back the throttle, let the plane settle and started to apply the brakes. It looked like there was a good amount of the 3500 ft runway left. I did not slam on the brakes but applied them fairly aggressively. It took a long time to slow down and as we approached the end of the runway I realized I had to use total and complete braking force. We skidded a bit and ended up rolling off the runway into the dirt a little. Luckily the transition to dirt is pretty smooth and the surface isn't too bad there. I made a call on the radio that we aborted and needed to taxi back. There were no other airplanes flying near the airport at all but we both kept an eye out and stayed on the radios while I taxi'd the plane 180 and back onto the runway. Went to the run up area, shut down and walked around checking the tires, struts, etc etc and securing the baggage door. In hindsight I should have checked to make sure it was closed properly- my friend has no experience with this airplane and the mechanism on the baggage door. I do not believe the mechanism failed in any way- I think he just never shut it properly. From now on I will be more thorough in checking the baggage door and do a better walk around pre-flight after lunch. I think I was complacent about the walk around since we were both looking at the plane the entire time from our lunch spot.
After lunch, I got in the plane and he removed the chock and we taxied for takeoff. During the takeoff roll and while the nose wheel was lifting off the ground, the baggage door came flying up. I had a pretty strong negative association with the nose baggage door being open in flight and I think it came from something on this forum or maybe an accident report I read. I didn't even really think- I just eased back the throttle, let the plane settle and started to apply the brakes. It looked like there was a good amount of the 3500 ft runway left. I did not slam on the brakes but applied them fairly aggressively. It took a long time to slow down and as we approached the end of the runway I realized I had to use total and complete braking force. We skidded a bit and ended up rolling off the runway into the dirt a little. Luckily the transition to dirt is pretty smooth and the surface isn't too bad there. I made a call on the radio that we aborted and needed to taxi back. There were no other airplanes flying near the airport at all but we both kept an eye out and stayed on the radios while I taxi'd the plane 180 and back onto the runway. Went to the run up area, shut down and walked around checking the tires, struts, etc etc and securing the baggage door. In hindsight I should have checked to make sure it was closed properly- my friend has no experience with this airplane and the mechanism on the baggage door. I do not believe the mechanism failed in any way- I think he just never shut it properly. From now on I will be more thorough in checking the baggage door and do a better walk around pre-flight after lunch. I think I was complacent about the walk around since we were both looking at the plane the entire time from our lunch spot.
