Hi All,

Here's an interesting situation that happened to me today. 

The background -- I haven owned my Lancair IV-P since the start of July -- so I am still learning about it.  I am still waiting for some paperwork to legally fly it under the Canadian registration and in the past month or so I've been sitting in it, taxiing it around, looking in the baggage compartment, putting keys here and there.   In my looking/testing phase I must have put the key in to lock the cabin door.  However, I couldn't figure out which was locked and which wasn't locked -- either way I turned the key it didn't really lock it.  Fast forward to today... typical sunday at our small airport with many guys walking around telling tales and going flying.  My brother and his wife hadn't seen the plane yet so we marched over to the hangar and we got in.  I was showing off the buttons and the gee-whiz stuff.  I then closed the door to show them how much room there was and I proceded to latch the doors like I have done countless times.  After 5 more minutes of show-and-tell I went to open the door and only the first handle opened. The second handle wouldn't budge.   At tihs time I thought that it was probably stuck or something.  I had my cell phone so called one of the mechanics who was outside talking with the guys and asked him to come in and free us.  He walked in and went to open the door and said, "Dico, its locked. And there's the key" (as he pointed to the key hanging on my panel).  Of course, with any other plane I've ever owned there have been numerous holes (windows that opened, air vents, baggage doors, etc) that could be opened to pass the keys out.

So here we are... (luckily inside a hangar as it was 25C outside)... 3 of us... with a key that they need on the outside of the plane.  About a half dozen guys all ran to their planes to get their fuel key (which is the same round style that opens our IV doors)... none worked.  I have to tell you that you have to keep your wits together as it is a very strange feeling knowing that you can't get out of a small space as things are starting to get hot.  I would run the cabin fan for a few minutes here and there to move the air.  I then thought of our fuel strainer in the plane... it has a phillips end on it so I started taking the panels off the door.  As I got the panels off I noticed the lock and it was indeed engaged and there is nothing on the inside that would un-lock it.  I had to lift the latch about 1/4" to get it over/past the notch in the door handle.  This proved impossible with the screwdriver as it only has about 2" on the end of the fuel strainer and doesn't fit in behind the chains that open/close the latches.  I checked the first aid kit I had just purchased and found a small pair (perhaps 5" long) pair of metal sciccors.  I was able to wedge them behind the locking latch and slowly wedge it out and with some muscling the latch popped open.

There were three very relieved people that got out of the plane and enjoyed a cool breeze.  Its amazing how fast the cabin will heat up even indoors.  I can't image what would have happened had this been on the apron at some small airport in Arizona and 40C outside. 

Anyhow, after a breath of fresh air we took a good look at the door lock and it appears that you need to really close the latch quickly (or firmly) to latch the pin.  I obviously didn't do this when i was playing with the lock a couple weeks ago... however from the inside handle, with more lever arm, this was very easy to latch the lock.   I ended up taking the door lock (the inside latch) off the lock so that this can never happen again (I am not one to ever lock my plane as i would prefer someone just open the door and steal stuff rather than break in and do damage -- and then steal my stuff).

So I thought I would share this story as it could happen to anyhow... even though you may know how the lock works, it only takes your child or someone playing around to move the lock to the latched position and you'd not figure it out until you actually got in the plane to secure it for flight!

Happy to be free again,

-Dico