Jerry Kaidor:
The Sundowner and I earned our Instrument rating today. Boy, do I feel wrung out. We got knocked all over the sky. Tur-bu-LENCE! And on takeoff, the R/H door popped open – I had to come back around and land before the DE could close it. Lucky it was only a recheck; I had a few TASKs left over from the checkride a month or so hence. I don’t know if I could have lasted for a 2-hour checkride in that chop….
When we did the Unusual Attitudes, the DE took the yoke and wonked the airplane over hard. He said “Whoah, let’s try that again! I forgot how big the ailerons on these things are!”
Congrats!
Yeah, the 19/23/24 is known for handling comparable to a Bonanza’s, with as high or higher a roll rate. Few people have ever deliberately applied full aileron just to see what the roll rate is really like (at maneuvering speed or close to it, but no higher). It is slow compared to competition planes, but fast compared to most GA planes. After all, the USA used the Bonanza (in the form of the T34) as a military trainer, and the Canadians used the Sundowner in the same role.
You can close a popped door in flight by doing two things in quick succession. First you yaw the plane (wings level) in the direction of the open door. This lets you or the right seater force the door further open (and will generate some degree of buffeting). Make sure there’s nothing loose in the cockpit that will get sucked out! Then you simultaneously kick hard opposite rudder so that the relative wind will try to slam the door, while you pull on the door to slam it shut. With the right timing this works like a champ. Just don’t let it distract you from flying the plane when you are close to the ground. The open door won’t hurt anything while you climb a bit higher. Popped doors are relatively rare in these planes, as the beveled latches tend to cam themselves in tighter from normal vibration. Unlike most other GA planes, the doors tend to stay closed even if not properly closed starting out, unless someone really leans on a partially latched door.