LML Brain Trust,
In order to fully understand this request you should look at
the attached picture.
Here is the situation: Friday afternoon I (Randy
Hartman – Alpha Omega Aircrafters – KCID) received a call from the
owner (Stan Askren) of the LIVP (N654P) that this door handle belongs to.
He tells me he is in Chicago (KDPA) with his airplane and he is locked out. The
forward handle (in the attached picture) pulled out of the door when he was
trying to open the door. The roll pin appears to be sheared off. We
called Lancair and talked to Ross. Ross indicated we need to stick something
in the hole and try to turn the mechanism but he said he hadn’t ever
heard of this happening before. He said if we couldn’t get that to
work we would need to cut the window. Well, I guess you can imagine that
the window cutting seems too far out to accept at this time.
What I am looking for is anyone who may have been faced with
this in the past and what you did about it. Secondly, if no one has experienced
this, does anyone have any good ideas on how to approach this challenge of
getting into the airplane without cutting the window?
I have another LIVP in my shop that I will take a good look
at tomorrow and try to figure something out, even to the point of making (or
having a tool maker make) a special tool that could do the job. This
challenge is further complicated by the distance between me and the airplane –
155 miles. I can fly over there in my L360 in 50 minutes but I would like
to go well-prepared with a pretty good chance of success on the first visit. So,
I am looking to the great brain trust of the LML for assistance with ideas or
warnings as part of my planning to get into this airplane successfully.
Stan tells me that he thinks the aft handle may be broken also so I should be
prepared for that possibility. He suspects some tampering by someone not
familiar with the opening procedure of the LIVP door handles.
Thanks in advance with any and all ideas.
Randy Hartman
Alpha Omega Aircrafters
(319) 360-9775