Door Opening In flight
So this happened to me on Sunday, 4000 ft about halfway across Cook Strait (13 NM of ocean not nice) Had not noticed the door was not latched properly on my check until the Pax pointed out she could see day light through the top and was it supposed to look like that.
I reduced power and cracked the door to re-seal big mistake. the door didn't fly open but the suction from the airflow made it impossible for me to close securely.
I was in a controlled VFR climb so the controller noticed i'd dropped nearly 400 ft trying to secure the door. i told him i had an issue and was returning to NZPP - got clearance to descend and return to the airport.
On the way down i reduced power again and this time managed to get the door to latch and then by sticking my fingers in the hole in the roof make the latch lock, the passenger helped keep the plane in a shallow decent
I could then continue the journey (another 20/30 mins) and landed uneventfully at NZOM
The Pax was strangely OK with the whole thing until she heard my tone "You really need to hold this door shut" once shut she was good as gold! brilliant .
lessons learnt.
Pre flight properly!
Tell the controller you have an issue first then try and fix
maybe not open the door at all! (that really freaked me out)
Nice day for it tho,.. nice flight once i'd got the heart rate back below 160
go on tell me what i did wrong....