ASRS Reports

I was quite surprised by how much the door impacted the controllability of the airplane. While the door being partially open should not in itself be an emergency, the controllability issue created the potential for a loss of separation in the high density traffic area.

I was in a left turn, looking off my left wing, when I noticed a shadow above me. I immediately rolled out of my turn, seeing the jet in front of me. I was shaken up, because I had no visual of the traffic, until after their passage.

This near-miss brought to my attention my lack of taking action to prevent it.

I was at a loss as to how this could have happened as I consider myself a very cautious and safe pilot.

Upon turning to final, I got an iPad alert of traffic. I initially thought it was the system reporting me to myself.

They quickly discovered the radio stack was sagging in the rear and the vent tray for the factory radio stack was resting on the controls. They also indicated the straps were not secured.

I believe that the cause of the incident is due to the current task loads of ATC operators. On this flight, Approach did seem to have a higher volume of traffic than previous times I have flown through their airspace.

Crossing over the upwind leg while there is traffic is not only illegal, but is very dangerous. I am certain that the evasive action taken prevented the collision of the two aircraft.

To prevent a recurrence of this event, I shouldn’t fly a single-engine piston aircraft for more than three cumulative hours without fueling up. Having a personal minimum can standardize the manner in which I fly older general aviation aircraft that might not be relied upon based on their original performance data.