Today's flying adventure...

[blillpers]

I needed another hour in the air before the end of August in order to keep my license, and it was a beautiful evening so I decided to go flying after work. I did the preflight of the old 1963 Cherokee 180, filled up the tanks, everything seemed perfect. So I sat down and began reading the checklist to myself. I got to "Door - closed and latched". Here, I've made a habit of always closing and locking the door, then opening it again just to make sure it opens. Just in case I would have to get out in a hurry for whatever reason. This time, however, I suddenly sat there with the door handle in my hand.

I tried my best but I couldn't get the stupid thing open. The airfield is a small one a few miles away from any civilization and I was alone. Thankfully, I had my phone with me... 1% battery left! I called the first person I could think of and tried to explain the situation. Before he could reply the phone died... I decided to wait a bit and see if anything would happen. Luckily a number of small GA fields in the area use the same frequency, and on a nice summer evening like this I was pretty sure someone else would be in the air.

However, 2 hours later absolutely nothing had happened and I still couldn't get the door open. The whole "don't leave your dog alone in your car" concept started to make sense within 15 minutes in the sun, and there wasn't much shade to find anywhere I could taxi the plane. I was about to give up and try the emergency frequency when my friend's coworker turned up. Apperantly everyone else my friend could think of was busy. The door opened perfectly fine from the outside, and fixing the handle took perhaps 5 minutes.

The flight went perfect after that, but it's a bit disturbing to imagine what could have happened if I had an engine failure, went down in a field and couldn't get out... Checking the door twice is certainly something I'll keep doing!

[BrianW]

Well there's something I've never thought about when flying Pipers. I would have been hesitant to takeoff with the door inop too, thankfully most airports around here are pretty active. I wonder how often that's happened.

I'm also curious what country you're flying in that you could loose your license due to not flying enough hours? The FAA has the 90 day rule for carrying passengers, and the biennial review but thankfully the license never expires.

[blillpers]

Sweden. Maybe I should have been more clear, the license itself doesen't expire but the single engine piston rating does. You need to fly at least 12 hours (including one hour with an CFI) every second year. Thus you can fly as little as you wish the first year and then do all 12 hours the second year.

The other option if you don't reach the required 12 hours is to do a new checkride, wish is expensive, like 10 hours in the air expensive.