- Joined
- Jun 1, 2016
- Messages
- 1,187
- Reaction score
- 368
Well, add me to the list of Piper (PA-23) Pilots Who have had a cabin door open in flight. All I can say is WOW, and I now see how people can die from this scenario. I’ve had issues on and off the last few years with my cabin door fitting and latching. This spring a few times the top rear lock bolt has let loose but the bottom has stayed locked. I’ve always just came right back around, landed, and relatched and locked the door. Easy peasy. Today it happened again on a short flight from my Maintenance provider to my home airport which is only 15 miles away. I thought no worries I’ll press on since it’s a short flight. A few minutes later the bottom let go and the door opened just a few inches. But those few inches are enough to really make things sporty to say the least. The turbulence and vibrations it caused on the horizontal stab was eye watering and a bit frightening. I wasn’t sure how it would react when I got slow but I knew I didn’t want to go fast based on the vibrations. Luckily it was only a few minutes and I chose to land on our grass runway which was more into the wind, wider, and more forgiving than our concrete. My main problem is that I always feel like I latch and lock it correctly before start up and I can’t find any rhyme or reason why it occasionally pops open. I’ve got over 15,000 hours in quite a few airplanes, and honestly I believe this event scarred me the most of any I have encountered. Anyone else in this club?
Quick shot of me trying to land.
Quick shot of me trying to land.
