kkmarshall
Well Known Member
A bit of excitement yesterday as my wife & I were returning from visiting family in Houston. We were cruising at 6500,75%,170kts,when my wife said "my window looks funny" no sooner than she finished speaking her door window blew out completely! Throttled back to about 110 kts and started assessing the situation. Very controllable with little yaw,I was on flight following so told them what occurred. ATC advised nearest airport but I told them I was considering continuing to my home base. Amazingly there was very little wind coming in,virtually none in front and not blowing on my hand very hard in back. Couldn't see any damage to horizontal stabilizer and as I said,handling normally. We continued the remaining way home (about an hour) and landed uneventfully.
I am not the builder but he had built a 7a before and I believe was the first customer completed 14a to fly (or nearly so) I have been trying to contact him with no luck to verify if he used Weld-on or Lord or whatever. I have the usual cracks in the paint around the windows that you see on a lot of the earlier builds
('07 first flight on mine) but it was not raised from the original flush fit to the cabin top. It came cleanly out of the joggle on all but the top and about half the aft towards the top. But I was able to cleanly pull some more out of the joggle after we landed. Makes me think I should replace all the side windows! The residue of the adhesive is sort of tan in color if that is a clue to what type it was.
I had always heard the cracking was cosmetic only so I had never been concerned but this changes everything! This window's cracking was at the forward lower edge going up a 3rd of the way and probably back a 3rd of the way. Obviously it pulled off in that area first (what my wife saw for a split second) and then when the slipstream got under it a bit it was game over.
Bummed about the thought of replacing all side windows but very thankful nothing was struck on the tail and that it handled so well through it all.
Crazy prop blast thumping while taxiing though. Just a heads up for anyone with cracks of more than an inch or two.
I am not the builder but he had built a 7a before and I believe was the first customer completed 14a to fly (or nearly so) I have been trying to contact him with no luck to verify if he used Weld-on or Lord or whatever. I have the usual cracks in the paint around the windows that you see on a lot of the earlier builds
('07 first flight on mine) but it was not raised from the original flush fit to the cabin top. It came cleanly out of the joggle on all but the top and about half the aft towards the top. But I was able to cleanly pull some more out of the joggle after we landed. Makes me think I should replace all the side windows! The residue of the adhesive is sort of tan in color if that is a clue to what type it was.
I had always heard the cracking was cosmetic only so I had never been concerned but this changes everything! This window's cracking was at the forward lower edge going up a 3rd of the way and probably back a 3rd of the way. Obviously it pulled off in that area first (what my wife saw for a split second) and then when the slipstream got under it a bit it was game over.
Bummed about the thought of replacing all side windows but very thankful nothing was struck on the tail and that it handled so well through it all.
Crazy prop blast thumping while taxiing though. Just a heads up for anyone with cracks of more than an inch or two.
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