REFLECTOR: Unexpected door opening

Wed Jun 3 08:21:10 CDT 2009

I would agree that there is greater chance of maintaining structural integrity with the door closed, but that also means that energy that might have been dissipated in the collapse of the airframe will have to be dissipated elsewhere (occupants?). This seems to always be the trade off in design and the recent trend has been in collapsible structures which are energy absorbent.

the other issue is, of course, post crash fire. The fear is that the crash will jam the door and you would be trapped in a burning plane.

Larry Epstein

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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