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Door Incident

D

dhsa

Member
I had an incident in the Dallas Texas area last week when the pilot door of my RV-10 flew off the aircraft at 3000 feet. I was lucky enough to land at McKinney, Texas without injury. The plane sustained damage to the stabilator, area surrounding the door and rear pilot side window. We believe the door is in a lake and unrecoverable. The NTSB and FAA are investigating. Due to this investigation I will not comment any further as to the cause of the incident until their analysis is complete. I will advise ALL RV-10 owners that the Vans safety latch was installed and did not function as designed.

I am out of the Atlanta area and my plane is in McKinney Texas at Aero Country. I am in desperate need of someone with RV experience in the Dallas area to do the repair work. Any suggestions, recommendations or contacts would be appreciated.
 
A&P Randy Richmond at 52F is always a good bet in the DFW area. There is a mountain of RV talent around there - Mel Asberry is on the McKinney side of town, a DAR and mountain of RV wisdom.
 
WOW!!

dhsa said:
I had an incident in the Dallas Texas area last week when the pilot door of my RV-10 flew off the aircraft at 3000 feet.
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David, glad you got the plane back safely, good job

dhsa said:
Due to this investigation I will not comment any further as to the cause of the incident until their analysis is complete. I will advise ALL RV-10 owners that the Vans safety latch was installed and did not function as designed.
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I will be very interested in what comes out of the investigation, and the details of the secondary latch failure.

Again, glad you are safe.
 
I've not built an RV10 and do not profess to be a fiberglass expert in the slightest, but if I can be of any help I'll be glad to assist.

I'm also based at 52F which is not to far from aerocountry (about 10-15 min by air).
 
Thanks to ALL

As always, everyone in the RV community has been the BEST. Responses have been great and I truly appreciate everyone's input.
 
Does not sound good, but I am so glad that you guys are OK.
I also have the standard Vans setup including the safety latch and alarms wired to the Dynon.

At 35 hours I am so cautious and no one but me (as in pilot in command) touches any door handles.

So I am really keen to see what comes out of this.
Also - am I correct to say that this is the first one one the pilot's side?
 
Janekom said:
...Also - am I correct to say that this is the first one one the pilot's side?
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There was a -10 that lost the left door in '08. It hit the HS and twisted the tail cone and then the pilot had a hard landing.

More damage than I thought possible and the guy was lucky to get it back on the ground.

I found the thread but the pictures were deleted some time ago.
 
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I think Sean's idea is the best out there,,,,especially with the 180° handle rotation to get the pins deep into the outer door frame. I just did not have the money to order his kit so I rolled my own for about $150 in parts and almost three days of extra work. Believe me,,,,what Sean charges for his kit is a bargain! I have lots of time and little money though.:eek:
 
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Thanks 9GT

One of the easiest and simplest solutions is to have the handle go 180. Anyone with a standard kit can accomplish this. Even if you don't want to buy the middle cam or install Vans solution. If new builders would cut the handle gear racks in half, instead of per vans instructions, it would add considerable pin length. 180 degrees of travel equals TWO inches of pin travel. Now you can still close a 180 degree handle and have one of the aft pins hanging out the door and still have the door come off. The key ingredient is making sure the pins go INTO the guides and through the fuselage structure. Another good reason to have the magnetic or mechanical proximity switches installed. I truly believe the intention of Vans' latch is to make sure the pins go into the guides NOT hold the door in if you forget to rotate the handle all the way. (I'm not insinuating this happened to you) That goes for my solution too. The cam pulls the door in so the pins have to go into the guides. I made mine so it was a one hand operation to open the door, especially in a situation like Ted just had. Anyone installing these doors should make sure they are easy to close and the pin extension goes through the structure.
Another situation has been the hollow stock pins cutting into the stock plastic guides. I have heard of one incident where the pin lodged into the guide and held the door there until airborne. The relative wind opened the door and it departed the aircraft. Prox. switches would help this scenario as well as solid ended pins.
My 2 cents
 
Bill R wrote that there has been a LH door. He points to a thread and I have also found the NTSB here.
http://www.aircraftone.com/aircraft/accidents/20071024X01649.asp
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It states RIGHT hand door. Why I have asked which door is because in my mind it has only happened on the RH door and that is a sure pattern.

Example - it has happened to someone I know and it was on the RH door and his pax operated the door. At the time he had no alarm connected and the old standard configuration.
 
Janekom said:
Bill R wrote that there has been a LH door. He points to a thread and I have also found the NTSB here.
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I just re-read that thread and there is reference to the pilot's door separating from the aircraft.

Janekom said:
... in my mind it has only happened on the RH door and that is a sure pattern.
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Is it possible that descending blade on the right side of the fuselage causes more "lift" to pull the right door way from the fuselage?
 
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More lift on right

Maybe, but I'd bet on the passenger operation of the handle. Depending on the passenger they would not even have a reference frame when it "just doesn't feel right." That being said I feel it is the pilot's responsibility to be certain everything is engaged properly.

Maxwell
 
The one in Tennessee was pilot's door, IIRC... it's NOT the same incident as the link provided..
 
Radomir said:
The one in Tennessee was pilot's door, IIRC... it's NOT the same incident as the link provided..
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OK, so I'm not going crazy.

In re-reading the thread I referenced, check out post #25. Someone else lost a pilot's side door.
 
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