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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