REFLECTOR: Missing forward hatch

[J.F.Sheehan at larc.nasa.gov]

I believe the airplane flies well without the doors as well.
folks have left them at the airport too

> I have a latch on the removable front hatch as well.  Do you have any 
> pictures of how the assembly was installed?  Did the latch fail?  Or 
> some other faster?
> 
> I have a toungue that holds the front edge in place, and a spring loaded 
> fiberglass latch I made.  I'm fixed gear so won't have the high 
> pressure, and the front area is not sealed with respect to the cabin. 
> So hopefully in my case there is actually a vacuum holding the hatch in.
> 
> Good to know the airplane flew fine without the hatch.
> 
> Chuck Harbert wrote:
>> Yesterday, when I took off, my forward hatch exited the plane just after 
>> lift off.  Obviously, this caused me some concern, but it soon became 
>> evident that the plane flew fine with a 1 sq. ft. opening in the nose. 
>> Fortunately, I had sealed the cabin from the nose, so I didn't have a 
>> 100 kt wind blowing in. I went around and landed without a problem.
>> 
>> I access my battery from thru this hatch and use a battery tender, so I 
>> must not have secured it properly when I reinstalled the hatch. I have a 
>> spring loaded latch similar to a door latch that keeps it secure.  I 
>> think when I rotated the wind came in thru the front wheel opening (RG) 
>> and put pressure on the bottom of the door which blew it open. The small 
>> chain that held it broke quickly, and the hatch went over the windshield 
>> and didn't hit the prop. I was glad that the chain broke because it 
>> would have beat up the front of the plane and possibly come into the 
>> windshield or prop in level flight.
>> 
>>> From now on I will have screws fastening it down. I'm passing this 
>>> along so 
>> 
>> that you may learn from my experience.
>> 
>> Chuck H
>> 
>> 
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