With every checklist having a “doors closed” item, and with quite a few accidents having been caused by taking off with a door unlatched, I wonder why a warning light is not a common thing?
The TB20 has a microswitch on the pilot side door (only) which operates a courtesy light. This is useless in normal operations and is a great way to flatten the battery since that circuit bypasses the Master switch. But it is the passenger door which is probably more likely to be left unlatched…
The DA40s I have flown have such a switch but on a number of occasions I have had false warnings.
DA42 has microswitches on all doors and latches which are integrated in G1000 CAS (Crew Alerting System) and I find it very useful.
The baron has a light too…
Yes Diamonds have switches in front/back doors, in DA40 it used to give me false warnings in steep turns, it’s very useful for pax backdoor (less visible & will blow up if left open) and on front canopy it’s nice to have (same shared for LHS/RHS and will not go open even unlatched)
Columbia has pannel annunciator for latching the door as well as the pneumatic seal activation
It would be good to have something similar for bag doors, to avoid losing my possessions 
The Tecnam P2006T has switches for both front and rear (pax) doors and annunciates on the PFD (G950).
The DR 400 has an advanced audio and visual warning if you leave the baggage door unlatched……… as you increase the power to do the mag checks the door flaps open and shut resulting in a loud audio warning ( door banging ) and the visual warning of the door opening and closing.
You can steer with the doors in-flight with the Auster :-)
Reminds me of a funny story I saw on AvWeb several years ago. An MD-11 was taxiing out, and ATC told them their aft baggage door appeared to be open. The crew, checking the instrument panel, saw no warning lights and told ATC “don’t worry it’s just the APU inlet door”. As they accelerated down the runway, ATC told them “Your APU appears to be leaking luggage!”
alioth wrote:
ATC told them “Your APU appears to be leaking luggage!”
Funny, that would have been Steve Kennedy
“whatever you need to do, you can do” at 3:10
Ibra wrote:
It would be good to have something similar for bag doors, to avoid losing my possessions
DA42 has sensors on front baggage compartments doors as well.
