REFLECTOR: Unexpected door opening

KMis178813 at aol.com KMis178813 at aol.com
Tue Jun 2 20:51:26 CDT 2009


Al
  Glad to hear that you are OK. I was also taught to unlatch the door  
before landing off airport. But there is no way I would do that in a Velo. I  
have seen several Velocity's that had other than perfect landings and it 
appears  that the door being latched maintains the integrity of the tube we fly. 
It seems  that from the canard bulkhead forward and the firewall aft are 
expendable as  long as the cockpit stays intact during a incident. Every pilot 
should make  there own decision in such a situation. For some other reason, 
you would be  making a off airport landing adding a unlatched door in the 
mix just sounds life  altering. Explaining to passengers how to get the door 
open is a whole lot  easier than it will be for someone to tell their family 
what happened to  the door!!!   FWIW
     Ken
   
   PS  Door ajar lights as Chuck described are now normal on  most every 
Velo build!
 
 
 
In a message dated 6/2/2009 6:04:19 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
ALVentures at cox.net writes:

 
The lock pin was designed to require two hands  so 
you can not accidently open it or a passenger can not  grab the handle in 
a  panic and open the door.   
Yes, I  understand.  Perhaps it’s stretching the point, but I recall being 
taught  that in the event of an off-airport landing, one should always 
unlatch the  door before you hit the ground to reduce the risk of being trapped 
by a jammed  door.  And perhaps it doesn’t apply to our airplanes, but if I’
m landing  the plane on a hillside, letting go of the stick at the last 
moment while I  get the door unlatched doesn’t seem appropriate. 
I've never seen Al's new passenger latch with a  button, but I hope they 
can't easily do it with one hand.    
I can reach across  and do it; but it would take some practice for the 
passenger.    
Al 



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