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Submitted in the hopes of saving someone else acute embarrassment in the
future:
I had another "dumb pilot" episode today in my LIV-P after returning from 2
days of display at an airshow in Wilmington, NC. Imagine a beautiful flight
home, some soft IFR on takeoff, crystal clear skies at FL200, and 1.9hr
later shooting an easy ILS at CRG in Jacksonville, FL. Imagine taxiing up
to the hanger and shutting down. Imagine now that the door won't open. And
just for grins, imagine that the copilot for the trip is your mother! I
will dispense with the detailed misery and thought processes that went on
(what did those ?^@@&* kids climbing on my plane at the show do to it,
anyway!). Suffice it to say it was getting hot in the cockpit (which was
stuffed with luggage), the windows were steaming up, and I was having the
line guy take a look over the door from the outside. To his credit, he
noted that the key notch in the outer door lock was pointed up--in the
locked position! Thinking about it later, I remembered moving the plane out
of the static display area of the airshow to a "hot" part of the ramp, and
getting out briefly to say goodbye. So as not to get debris in the plane, I
softly closed the door (without latching it). Then remembered I had another
errand to run before takeoff, so I quickly locked the door (I thought) and
ran off. Came back soon thereafter, and remembering that I had not latched
the door, I just climbed in, slammed the latches closed, and checked to see
that they were all overcenter. Took off, climbed to altitude for the great
flight, and the rest is history. It must be that the door handle throw will
slip past the locking plate when closing, but I can vouch that it won't go
the other way if locked from the outside!!!!
Oh yes, how did I get out? Ended up prying up the zerk fitting inspection
cover on the rear seat bottom and lowering the key to the line attendent,
who promptly unlocked the door and got me (yes, and my mom) out. Will be
adding an adjustable wrench and a few other goodies to my in-cockpit tool
kit, and need to see if I can get another key to leave at my FBO. Oh yes,
the line guy is a couple of Michelob 6-packs richer tonight.
Douglas W. Johnson, MD, FACR
Florida Radiation Oncology Group
1235 San Marco Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32256
Voice: (904) 202-7020
Fax: (904) 202-7029
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LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
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