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Hi Al,
I'm glad everything worked out as well as it did. Congratulations on
keeping your cool in an unusual situation.
I've had several incidents (three I think) of a door coming open,
usually just at lift-off. Nothing worse than a lot of noise resulted.
As I remember, it happened to me in a Cherokee 140, Bonanza, and most
recently on about the third flight in my BD-4. In that instance I had
failed to latch the door due to some distraction just before I took
the active. Is there any possibility of redesigning the way your door hinges so that
it won't depart the plane in such a situation? It might loose some
"cool" factor not having the gull wing door, but from experience I know
these thing happen. :) The possibility of a prop strike, makes
prevention more important.
Bob W.
On Mon, 1 Jun 2009 08:51:04 -0800
"Al Gietzen" <ALVentures@cox.net> wrote:
.Wonder if this has ever happened to any other Velocity ??............Glad
to hear
both you and a/c are OK.....................
To the best of my knowledge, mine is the fourth such incident. Some years
ago, the Velocity factory recommended an automatic lock be used, similar to
the passenger side door. I didn't like the design because it took two hands
to open the door; not exactly what I'd want in an emergency. I thought my
double spring over-center linkage on the latch was the better way; and maybe
was. I don't know, but I have to leave open the possibility that I had not
fully engaged the latch.
Al
--
N93BD - Rotary Powered BD-4 - http://www.bob-white.com
3.8 Hours Total Time and holding
Cables for your rotary installation - http://roblinstores.com/
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