Cherokee drivers

Pinstriper

Pinstriper

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
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423
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Oroville California
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Pinstriper
I recently purchased a Cherokee 140 and love the little window and how you can open it.. That being said it does have quite a vacuum when open.. So I have to ask anyone out there ever have there phone or anything else ever sucked out while snapping a pic? You can remain anonymous if you like ;-)
 
I don't open it when in flight. I only use it when taxiing or preflight.

I use the vents if I need air during a flight.
 
I don't fly with the window open because in mine it really doesn't bring in any air. Most days if I want it that much cooler I ascend.
 
steingar said:
I don't fly with the window open because in mine it really doesn't bring in any air. Most days if I want it that much cooler I ascend.
Click to expand...

Put that scoop in that brings the air inside and you'll get more then you want ;)
 
I do not open the window in flight but I had a plane with a gap in the door that was not sealed. One day I put my approach plate to close to the door and it got sucked out of the plane. After that I invested in a good door seal.
 
I use it often for taking photos. My camera is a little compact one. My rule is: Wrist strap around wrist before getting the camera near the opening. In flight there is quite an airflow going out the hole!
 
Pinstriper said:
I recently purchased a Cherokee 140 and love the little window and how you can open it.. That being said it does have quite a vacuum when open.. So I have to ask anyone out there ever have there phone or anything else ever sucked out while snapping a pic? You can remain anonymous if you like ;-)
Click to expand...

I've never had it happen, but I sure am conscious of it when I open it to snap photos.

(Hint: If you bring along a female photog, it's a great opportunity to get the "lean over")
 
As a preventive measure my iphone in the otter box now has a lanyard.. I'm not gonna be the first :-/
 
I would use the vacuum to hold my iPad in place so I could see a approach plate :wink2:
 
For ground ops, I just open the door.

The little window is for shouting "clear" before engine start and not a whole lot else.

For photos, I take a Cessna. The windows are functional on those.
 
John King has an amusing story about the "clear prop" window in their PA28.
 
The scoops I have seen are placarded against use in flight. I don't open the windows on Cherokees in flight as they seem to add more noise than air.

Well there was that one time I did to reach out and try to shack some debris off the wing...
 
"Clear prop!"

I had a CFI who called it the "tornado window" from the noise it made if not closed.

You get much more ventilation if you forget to latch the door on takeoff. :yes:

Cheers
 
Pinstriper said:
I recently purchased a Cherokee 140 and love the little window and how you can open it.. That being said it does have quite a vacuum when open.. So I have to ask anyone out there ever have there phone or anything else ever sucked out while snapping a pic? You can remain anonymous if you like ;-)
Click to expand...

I confess to putting a baby diaper through that window, about 20 years ago, while over Nebraska at 8,000 ft. It just had to go.
 
Does not the POH list a maximum mini window open speed?
 
drotto said:
Does not the POH list a maximum mini window open speed?
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Yeah... Vne. :D

(owned and flew a Cherokee 140 for a decade and never had any problems losing anything out the window, except maybe an occasional roll of toilet paper :lol:)
 
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I want to say it is 150 odd kts for a Seneca with the same window
 
The storm window on the Cherokee 180 I fly seems precariously attached while sitting on the ground, never thought about trying to open it in flight... Now you all are giving me ideas! :-o
 
I had mine open all summer while training, zero issues. In fact, I did one vid thru it, lemme see if I can dig that up.
 
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My Warrior had a scoop in the window. Only used the scoop during taxi. Eventually cracked the main window enough to get me to replace the whole window. Will never have a scoop on it again.
 
I used that window for photography, but I knew about the vacuum and used a hand strap just in case. It has to be a good strap because once your camera starts banging outside, it may easily tear a simple strap like those coming with flash keys.
 
drotto said:
Does not the POH list a maximum mini window open speed?
Click to expand...

Not that I can find in it. I usually flew with it open except in the winter, with no problems. The scoop is an accessory you can purchase, it tells you to never deploy the scoop while taking off or in the air.

-John
 
Opening the door on taxi works great. I don't see any real need for the scoop.
 
I fly with the mini window open quite a bit. The scoop needs to be "retracted" prior to flying, it's for catching ground vent air only.

And I use it all the time for shooting photos. The quality without the crappy optical quality windows is much better. I've never had anything sucked out of there, and heard a story about one guy who dropped his iphone (but that was his fumbling more than the suction). And "Find my iPhone" didn't help in that case hah.

You can actually order replacement side/door windows with a variety of different size/shape port-holes/removable windows/vents. It involves a 337 I think. I discussed this with one of the window manufacturers at airventure last summer. My plan is to order *both* the pilot and passenger/door window replacements (mine are old) and to get larger vent windows, specifically to better enable photo taking and to allow a little more air flow. Cross flow would be nice,and a passenger photo port would be a real benefit.

I agree leaving the door open works pretty well, but in my experience the vent window with the scoop works better on the ground, and prevent parents of the Young Eagles participants I fly every summer from freaking out and chasing the plane down the taxiway when the door is propped open (I've made it part of my standard ground briefing for parents and participants now).

The scoop doesn't usually cause cracking, until the pilot leans into it too hard and puts too much lateral pressure on the window through the scoop. Mine did that.
 
I need to order one of those scoops for my Arrow, I hear they work great.
 
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