What am I? Door latches

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“The Cessna 172’s pilot’s door was always hard to properly latch shut. My student pilot would get in and pull it inward hard, and repeatedly: Bang! Bang! Bang! in a vain attempt to latch it. Of course, so had the prior left seat occupant, and their predecessor, and so on, such that the door was rather misaligned and the loose handle didn’t always stay in the right position to allow for latching. When students would give up on their banging and look to me for advice, I’d point at the Hobbs meter, and say something like ‘you see that? It reads five thousand and change hours. That means that your door has been mistreated just like that about five thousand times. Let me show you the proper, gentle technique to closing it properly.’ Putting the interior handle in the correct place (click!) and giving the door a gentler, more reasonable pull would always do the trick.”—Ferdi Mack, CFI, AOPA Pilot Information Center

“Most aircraft doors are built flimsier than people care to know, and the door-lock mechanism has often not seen a drop of lubricant in years. I have seen the biggest spectrum of recommended door closing protocols from owners ranging from just breathe on the door to slam the demons out of it.”—Carlo Cilliers, CFI, A&P, AOPA Pilot Information Center

“Piper PA–28 airplanes have only one door. But that door has two latches—and you must remember to fasten them and also make sure your passenger knows how to operate them as well. After all, your passenger will exit the airplane before you do in the event of an off-airport landing. In many PA–28s, the mechanism resembles this: The top latch is a large, centered clasp, whereas the bottom has an automotive-style handle on the inside. You would think this type of redundancy prevents doors from accidentally opening in flight, but it still happens. Remember: Fly the airplane! It will get noisy in the cockpit, but you and your passenger will be fine so long as you don’t allow it to distract you from the task of flying the airplane. Land as soon as practical and fix the door latch on the ground.” —Jill W. Tallman, technical editor

“Super Cub door latches are accessible only from inside the cockpit. To open and close the door, you have to be inside the airplane. No problem if you are already in it, but what about getting in a Super Cub with a closed door or closing and securing the door after a day of flying? Just open the window on the opposite side of the cockpit and reach across to close the door the latch it shut. Then close and lock the window (if a window lock is an option on your Super Cub). Not so hard for tall, long-armed pilots. But for petite pilots, you might have to climb up on a tire in order to be tall enough to reach through the open window to the door latch!” —Alyssa Cobb, eMedia managing editor, Sweepstakes Super Cub project manager