This thread emphasizes the importance of pre-flight. My partner (No, it wasn't me) flew our Arrow over to Paso Robles today with his instructor when about 3/4 of the way there the plane started buffeting and shaking real bad. The instructor started looking for a place to put her down when my partner scanned all gauges and MP. After looking around for a minute or two and realizing that the engine was running fine, the instructor noticed that the baggage door had flown open. He had placed some oil back there and didn't latch the door. They were able to slow her down and continue on without problem. Slight damage to the door is all. I told him as his punishment, he had to watch the Democratic Convention in its entirety tonight.................
Really, you have absolutely no compassion for your fellow human beings. You are now on my caution list.
Try letting the loose end of a seat belt get slammed in the pilots door of a Cessna 150. It sounds like a serious rod knock on run up. Ask me how I know.
Fortunately, I had read about that in an old AOPA "Never Again" article where someone made a precautionary landing because they believed that the engine was coming apart.
When I was just a few hours into soloing, I was flying a C172 out in the practice area and I happened to notice that the pin was working itself out of the hinge on the cowling inspection door. Whoops. I headed back to the uncontrolled airfield, but before I got halfway there the pin came out and flew up over the windscreen. The inspection door started shaking like mad, and the whole cowling started shaking too. The instruments were all dancing around and I started wondering whether all the cowling screws were still there. I made a straight-in approach and my CFI came out to the taxiway to find out why I hadn't flown a standard pattern. After I told him what happened, he said "That's nothing. Let me tell you about the time a cylinder head blew off when I was over the mountains."
