On a recent flight I had a bad feeling that I forgot to lock the front baggage compartment. Turned out I had locked it. Has anyone ever flown with it unlocked. What does an unlocked one do in flight?
I have a friend of a friend that was careless enough to do just that. I heard it was just fine in flight. Not until final stall into a three point landing did it pop up for a few seconds with no harm done. Good thing that flight was straight and level because the compartment was full of gear.
Now he has a rule never to remove the key without locking it closed. And of course giving it a good tug during pre-flight.