Canopy popped open in flight

To make a long story short I was doing some sub 3G maneuvres today in my RV6a (tip up)when all of a sudden the canopy came unooked from the bar it was supposed to be latched to. I had to steer with one hand and pull the canopy down about 6 inches or more to re-latch it. It was awkward and a bit unnerving. One latch couldn't quite be re-secured completely until I got back down on the ground. A post flight evaluation revealed no damage or obvious mechanical problems. I suppose its possible that one of the latches was not fully seated on the bar when I locked it down, but it sure felt right when I was going the run-up check list.

My question is has anyone else ever had a tip up canopy pop open unexpectedly and if so what solutions are possible for this kind of problem?

Thanks,Clark

The Canopy on my RV-6A tip up popped up shortly after take off and after one small effort to fly the plane and reclose, without success I had my wife (non pilot) just hold on to the canopy, reduced power and returned to the airport without any problem, landed, and reclosed.

I think what happened is that while it seemed like the canopy closed and locked, the safety bar did not slide under. After that I made a visual check after turning the safety bar. A couple of other times on visual inspection the safety bar had turned but was not under the roll bar.

Canopy popping open

It has happened to us twice!!!!
Both times with two pilots on board...both owners!!
once at the end of a flight....still haven't figured "how" on that one.
We have added "Canopy Locked-BOTH" to our checklist, and visually check the upper one now. We also found our main latch arm was not adjust properly and wasn't going completely over at the back latch, bottom.
nothing like a canopy popping open to make you look really close.
I can't believe I'm admitting this......
Hope it helps someone else.
Safe flying
Bob Martin
RV-6 tip-up

Fly the airplane

You're not the first, and you won't be the last. The canopy seems to sit about 6" trailing end up. I wouldn't try to hang on to it, just fly the airplane. Don't get distracted, fly a normal pattern, close it on the ground.

Pete

Thanks for the responce

I"m going to inspect the whole latch system of my tip up canopy, and I'm also going to add a more detailed "canopy locked" entry into my pre take-off check list.

Thanks all for the good sugestions and stories.

My canapy has opened twice on my tip-up RV6.

The first time I simply forgot to completely pull it down & lock it after a long taxi in the summer heat. That was just complete stupidity on my part, but the canapy just gradually opened up higher & higher as I climbed out & speed increased...I had to slow down a bit in the climb, but was able to pull it down and latch it (really no big deal).

The second time it happened I was in a dive at about 215 mph when all of a sudden...POW...it popped open violently with a resulting downward pitching reaction (if I had been on the deck doing a high speed pass at this speed I would have ate the ground before I could have reacted in time...this scared the hell out of me I can tell you that!!). The canapy lifted up and stabilized at about 18" open at this speed, thus the reason for the extreme pitching down moment. I had to chop the throttle to idle & pull the plane back nose up till I approached stall speed, and even then it took all the strength I had to pull the canapy down & get it latched. Upon further investigation after I landed (I landed immediately after this happened) I discovered that I had latched the upper arm but apparently had not completely locked in the lower safety bar. With vibration in flight the lower bar released its lock on the bottom supports of the canapy leaving only the upper to hold it closed. With the added uplift in pressure at the 215 mph dive the upper latch pulled itself open by flexing the rear support channel and plexiglass itself resulting in a fairly deep scratch in the roll bar in the process as the handle dragged across it (luckily the plexiglass canapy itself didn't fracture and break, which I am amazed didn't happen!).

Please note that if you ever forget to latch the lower safety bar, or it ever comes loose in flight that the upper latch will NOT necessarily keep the canapy secure (especially at high speed in a dive), and could be VERY dangerous down low at high speed. This incident scared me so much that I am now installing a special plate on the roll bar that the upper latch has to lock into so that th canapy frame can't flex and disengage from...I suggest that others who have a tip-up canapy do the same.

From this incident I have concluded that leaving the canapy completely unlatched and taking off is not a dangerous safety concern. Also, if the lower safety bar is securely latched, but the upper isn't latched at all it too is not a problem. Only latching the upper one but NOT the lower one is the real danger. The other conclusion I have made from all of this is that building the plane with a slider canapy is a far better & SAFER way to go for any RV6 or RV7 in my opinion!!!

It would appear I have another check in the list for slider... I still haven't 100% decided which I'm going for. I should have a chance to fly in both at some time soon .

I'm not quite sure what is happening here. Whether or not your canopy latches are not being properly adjusted or what. I've been flying tilt-up canopy RVs for over 14 years including aerobatics and have never had one come open.
Mel...DAR

Oh, boy, here we go again! Looks like we are going to have a bunch of builders wanting to trade-in their tip-up for a slider.

BTW, how many of you shot primer on those latches?

Tracy.

would a pin in the lower latches help?

I'm the guy who started this interesting thread which is bringing some good storys for sure.

Tloof's storys is not too far from my own acutally, as I was also diving but not quite that fast. His discription of why it happened sounds pretty plausable to me. I had to pull hard on the handle to re relatch it, and I also had some unusual pitching moment as well. I can only guess that aerobatics can cause some unanticipated pressures on the canopy.

My question is then could you add a pin to the lower latches on a 6A tip up for aerobatic flying and take it out for normal stuff? I realize that an easy exit in an emergency situation is desirable, but maybe the trade off could be worth it, to have total confidence in your canopy latch system. Possibly a pin system with a release cable accessible for quick unpinning would work. Any ideas?

I have about 80 hours of time in my plane with only this one unual incident involving the canopy, so I believe it is a sound design. I would just like to improve on that design slightly under circumstances of moderate "G" loading in unusual attitudes.