Anyone had a door pop open ?
Early SK's had a habit of dropping the cabin windows, usually over some part of Kernow or the oggin, where no one could be bothered. JR doors are an habitual offender, all previous closing solutions are effective, but a landing in a paddock is the best 
Agusta A109 rear right door departing the airframe at 160+ knots was attention getting: the photographer was unbuckled from the right seat and in to the left seat, before we worked out what was happening
We discovered that a previous owner ( 
) had modified the emergency jettison handle such that there were 4 alternative sets of holes in the spigot for the handle to line up on. And yes, the pins were checked pre flight 
BK slidings doors are fairly agricultural in construction, and often move off the microswitch giving an erroneous door warning light, but can usually be nudged home easily. The pilot's door top catch can sometimes miss fully connecting, but the airflow noise as speed increases soon gives the game away, and the door is robust enough to close easily in flight: similar problems sometimes happened in the 212/412, especially the high time airframes.
Agusta A109 rear right door departing the airframe at 160+ knots was attention getting: the photographer was unbuckled from the right seat and in to the left seat, before we worked out what was happening
We discovered that a previous owner ( ) had modified the emergency jettison handle such that there were 4 alternative sets of holes in the spigot for the handle to line up on. And yes, the pins were checked pre flight BK slidings doors are fairly agricultural in construction, and often move off the microswitch giving an erroneous door warning light, but can usually be nudged home easily. The pilot's door top catch can sometimes miss fully connecting, but the airflow noise as speed increases soon gives the game away, and the door is robust enough to close easily in flight: similar problems sometimes happened in the 212/412, especially the high time airframes.
The mention of 212s and bubble windows brought back a suppressed memory:
Tasked to carry some VIPs late at night in mid-winter over a mountain range. I knew it was gonna be bloody freezing with the big opening in the bottom of the bubble, and I didn't want the blast of 7000' cold air coming in the hole. I cut a section of 6" thick rubber foam to jam in the hole to prevent the blast coming in.
After takeoff, at about 30kt, there was a "fwup" noise and the foam was gone! The pressure differential worked opposite to what i expected, and the cabin pressure pushed the foam out instead of the outside pressure shoving it in.
It was subsequently a very cold flight, but at least nobody complained about being bopped on the head by a foam blank.
Tasked to carry some VIPs late at night in mid-winter over a mountain range. I knew it was gonna be bloody freezing with the big opening in the bottom of the bubble, and I didn't want the blast of 7000' cold air coming in the hole. I cut a section of 6" thick rubber foam to jam in the hole to prevent the blast coming in.
After takeoff, at about 30kt, there was a "fwup" noise and the foam was gone! The pressure differential worked opposite to what i expected, and the cabin pressure pushed the foam out instead of the outside pressure shoving it in.
It was subsequently a very cold flight, but at least nobody complained about being bopped on the head by a foam blank.
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Locking doors on R44
I had a few of those in the early days, especially when heli was not level before take off and pax failed to get all 3 locks in.
With experienced people on board I agree with the slowing down, and yawing part, but then again with experienced people this should not happen to begin with.
With unexperience pax I would not do that, 2 out of 3 locks is more than enough.
I always formally check wether all door are fully locked (3 pins) and in preflight if the hindge securities are OK.
When people take out doors for photos etc, they might not put the pins on the door, so doing the arcrobatic moves with the doors may lead to dropping/loosing the door, this may be more serious than loosing a Mars bar.
With experienced people on board I agree with the slowing down, and yawing part, but then again with experienced people this should not happen to begin with.
With unexperience pax I would not do that, 2 out of 3 locks is more than enough.
I always formally check wether all door are fully locked (3 pins) and in preflight if the hindge securities are OK.
When people take out doors for photos etc, they might not put the pins on the door, so doing the arcrobatic moves with the doors may lead to dropping/loosing the door, this may be more serious than loosing a Mars bar.
I had a door come open twice in the same flight on an R22 based in LA. I was on my way back to long beach from french valley flying solo when the passenger door came open...twice! The door was securely closed and over a period about two minutes the catch managed to creep up and open! I reached over, locked and latched it and carried on back to Long Beach. I was at about 80kts at the time but had no difficulty shutting the door. I reported it as a fault when I got back to base but left LA before the aircraft returned.
I've flown lots of R22's and R44's both old and new and have never had it happen since.
CRAN
I've flown lots of R22's and R44's both old and new and have never had it happen since.
CRAN
Cleartail....
A bit of pressure on one of the footrests might cure that blast of air turning base leg....and why just base leg?
A bit of pressure on one of the footrests might cure that blast of air turning base leg....and why just base leg?
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Doors coming open in the sim can be exciting, too. Way, way back when, I was in the US Army in Germany, and got sent to the UH1 non-visual sim in Hanau for a midnight period. The unit IP decided to have fun with us, and had me working. He had put in all the malfunctions he could, took those out without telling me, and put in another set. There I was, with no gyros at all, in emergency governor, with turbulence level 9 set, on a GCA. Suddenly we crashed. I thought I had caused the crash at first, but the track still showed me on course and on glidepath. The left-seat pilot had been holding the door latch, which was trying to turn with all the turbulence, but he let go to tune a radio and the door, and therefore the electrical interlock, came open and we fell off motion. We quit there, and my flightsuit was pretty much soaked in sweat.
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Use to fly a 500 that had a rear door that loved to pop open. No matter what the mechanics tried, it was only a matter of time before it started popping open again. About the only problem was in the right situation (working low over trees) when the door would slam shut. Sounded like a compressor stall at the wrong time.
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A friend of mine doing his training in an R22 was doing a nav with his instructor of course they were over wooded country at the time and the instructors door actually flew completely OFF!! GOOOOOONE!
The door broke from the bottom hinge and flew upwards ripping off the corner of the top hinge leaving the hinge and split pin still in place on the top. This is where it gets interesting!
Door flies off and upwards you can guess what happened next, straight through the MR and diced into confetti.
They proceeded to decend and land ASAP slight vibration throught the airframe was what my friend had told me but i can still see the fear in his eyes when he tells me the story again.
Landed , shutdown inspected the MR to find a nice little Indentation on the leading edge. Subsequently the aircraft was grounded untill the blades were replaced!!!
The door broke from the bottom hinge and flew upwards ripping off the corner of the top hinge leaving the hinge and split pin still in place on the top. This is where it gets interesting!
Door flies off and upwards you can guess what happened next, straight through the MR and diced into confetti.
They proceeded to decend and land ASAP slight vibration throught the airframe was what my friend had told me but i can still see the fear in his eyes when he tells me the story again.
Landed , shutdown inspected the MR to find a nice little Indentation on the leading edge. Subsequently the aircraft was grounded untill the blades were replaced!!!
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Happened to me a few times in the H300C while on photography flights.
I always fly with one door off during photography flights, two doors off isn't a good idea up here in the cold.
Once with the right door removed and slipping to the right at 35-40kts with a lot of boot on the left pedal and the photographer hanging out the right side, a remarkably heavy wind entered the cabin and blew the left door open. Things started flying around inside the helicopter and to my amazement I lost visual for a second and felt pain in my eyes. Later I realized that the sand from the carpets got sucked out of the carpets and blown into my eyes. It was kind of scary but I kept my cool and looked like the trained professional that I am and was expecting this to happen, until the sand cleared from my eyes. (Had the dark visors on)
It's amazing how much sand the carpets can absorb and this sure taught me to tell the engineer to thorughly clean the carpets at regular intervals!
On another flight, I was flying an aerial ad filming and during one of the approaches to the target the darn left door blew open. Some of the video tapes that the photographer had put on the floor, with some great shots on of course,
started sliding over the floor of the helicopter and almost managed to sneak out the door. But with my rattlesnake reactions I managed to grab them and bring'em to safety. I have to say that before I reached for the tapes, I had assured myself that it would be better to do that in stead of taking the risk of having them flying out of the helicopter and falling onto the heads of innocent people on the ground that were watching a beautifully flown helicopter up there. 
When things like these happen you think, damn it's good to have a strong ticker.
I always fly with one door off during photography flights, two doors off isn't a good idea up here in the cold.
Once with the right door removed and slipping to the right at 35-40kts with a lot of boot on the left pedal and the photographer hanging out the right side, a remarkably heavy wind entered the cabin and blew the left door open. Things started flying around inside the helicopter and to my amazement I lost visual for a second and felt pain in my eyes. Later I realized that the sand from the carpets got sucked out of the carpets and blown into my eyes. It was kind of scary but I kept my cool and looked like the trained professional that I am and was expecting this to happen, until the sand cleared from my eyes. (Had the dark visors on)
It's amazing how much sand the carpets can absorb and this sure taught me to tell the engineer to thorughly clean the carpets at regular intervals!
On another flight, I was flying an aerial ad filming and during one of the approaches to the target the darn left door blew open. Some of the video tapes that the photographer had put on the floor, with some great shots on of course,
started sliding over the floor of the helicopter and almost managed to sneak out the door. But with my rattlesnake reactions I managed to grab them and bring'em to safety. I have to say that before I reached for the tapes, I had assured myself that it would be better to do that in stead of taking the risk of having them flying out of the helicopter and falling onto the heads of innocent people on the ground that were watching a beautifully flown helicopter up there. When things like these happen you think, damn it's good to have a strong ticker.
Had a pair of Clamshell doors on a Chinook come open one afternoon over a very unfriendly neighborhood...I can assure you the Boeing-Vertol version of speed brakes are not as stout as the Boeing style. While in cruise at 120 knots....there was a wee bang sound....followed by some really weird air flow in the cabin and cockpit. The clamshell doors being on the leading edge of the aft pylon....and opening rearwards from the front....well I guess they must have swung pretty hard there for a moment...like a New York Instant really....and just like the old country western song...."and psssst....you were gone!" As the air pressure increased inside the aft pylon....the two aft work platform doors decided to open as well...and they did so with one heck of a bang! It was about then we sensed something was amiss.....that and seeing a crewie with eyes the size of dinner plates speaking in gibberish while pointing a very shaky finger towards the rear of the aircraft. The work platform doors were of better quality than the pylon doors.....we at least came home with them.
