I noticed last evening, while I was on a leisure flight cruising at 6000 feet (and loving my SR20) that air was blowing in on my left leg, and found an opening along the bottom of the door that was about six inches long and about a half an inch wide. At the time, I thought I had not completely closed the door before takeoff.
On the return trip, I was very careful to make sure the door was properly closed. After leveling out, and gaining some airspeed, it happened again.
Anyone else have this happen, or have any suggestions?
and found an opening along the bottom of the door that was about six inches long and about a half an inch wide
don’t know if this is the problem in your case or not, but I have found it quite easy to close the door (and push the handle fully forward to lock it) with the bottom of the door not fully pulled in, which leaves the latch pin at the bottom of the door outside the plastic latch plate (or whatever it’s called) - this results in the door not being closed properly at the bottom, much like what you describe. I find it necessary to pull inward on the handle quite a bit when locking it, and then check the bottom of the door to make sure there is no gap.
Ya, this happens every time on my plane, both sides, if the following procedure is not followed:
Close door, now move handle as far as possible backward, that is, away from the control panel.
Now pull handle tightly towards you, while keeping that handle as far back as possible.
Now move handle forward to latch and close the door.
Now push the bottom of the door to make sure the bottom latched.
If the bottom gives a little, open door, start at the beginning.
Its a hassle at first, but after a while becomes second nature.
-Brand
Ya, this happens every time on my plane, both sides, if the following procedure is not followed:
Close door, now move handle as far as possible backward, that is, away from the control panel.
Now pull handle tightly towards you, while keeping that handle as far back as possible.
Now move handle forward to latch and close the door.
Now push the bottom of the door to make sure the bottom latched.
Yeah, same here. We had two occasions where we took off with the pilot door partially open during training. I appreciate the suggestions on how others are dealing with it.
If the bottom gives a little, open door, start at the beginning.
Its a hassle at first, but after a while becomes second nature.
-Brand
Ya, this happens every time on my plane, both sides, if the following procedure is not followed:
Close door, now move handle as far as possible backward, that is, away from the control panel.
Now pull handle tightly towards you, while keeping that handle as far back as possible.
Now move handle forward to latch and close the door.
Now push the bottom of the door to make sure the bottom latched.
Yeah, same here. We had two occasions where we took off with the pilot door partially open during training. I appreciate the suggestions on how others are dealing with it.
If the bottom gives a little, open door, start at the beginning.
Its a hassle at first, but after a while becomes second nature.
-Brand
We had the same problem with our door. When we had to have some repainting done at the factory, we told them that we were having a door latchin problem. We indicated we were using a similar approach to closing the door. The factory looked into the problem and replaced the door seals. I guess our early delivery had door seals that were to stiff. (SN 1078) The factory replaced the door seals. The said the proper way of closing the door is to have the inside handle at neutral and close the door. it also helps to grab the upper handle and pull that at the same time. The pins are spring loaded and should retract as the door closes and spring out when closed.
Since the gaskets were replaced we haven’t had a problem. We’ve got about 300 hr on our bird since Nov 3rd,
2000