Al,
Surely your old door didn’t look better than
that! You did a really good job!
Did you decide that the door was probably not
correctly latched as opposed to the latch failing???
Bill B
The old door looked the same – although my
gun skills have improved some since, so the paint job may be slightly better.
The door is held closed by four 5/16”
steel pins; which are held in steel tubes in the frame of the door, and insert
into steel tubes imbedded in the door frame in the fuselage. It would
probably take more than a ton on force the make them fail. The aerodynamic
forces on the door when closed are probably in the range of few pounds. Best
guess is the door was only partially latched, and worked loose in flight.
Al