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RV6 Open Canopy...
I would like to start a brief discussion on canopies opening in flight inadvertently and the results thereof. I understand that tilt up canopies (especially the ones that open sideways) can open I flight and blow off, but what about sliders on the RV6, RV7 and RV9?.
Secondly, is it even physically possible to open the canopy n the 6 or 7 in case one needs to exit the aircraft in flight. Why would one need to exit the aircraft? the reasons should be obvious; structural failure due to aerobatics, fire, angry wife etc... I'm about to embark on basic aerobatics and would like to hear from others experiences with the slider canopy. |
Owners of -6, -7, and -12 tip-ups have had canopies open in flight (usually due to forgetting to latch on departure) and they can be flown normally apart from the canopy sitting partly open (6" or so if I recall) and the glareshield blocking some forward view. They are unlikely to depart without some "other" confounding factor... Canopy jettison pins pulled, for example, or maybe excessive gyroscopic forces?
The sliders are reported to be almost impossible to open more than a few inches in flight, the aerodynamic loads want to close them. A number of people have modified the forward rollers to attach to quick-release pins that could be pulled if jettisoning the canopy in flight was desired. In that case, one would pull the pins first (while the latch is holding the canopy shut), then release the latch and try to slide back. The aerodynamic forces should lift the front of the canopy off, and tear the slider block off the rear track. All in theory, of course. I don't recall any reports of *intentional* canopy jettisoning where the pilot continued to the ground safely. |
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Not caused by, necessarily... but associated with. (Same as most other aircraft with doors or canopies) |
Tip-Up canopys
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I can say from experience that an unplanned open tip-up canopy should not result in a loss of control unless the pilot stopped flying the aircraft. |
My experience: Two times I have had my primary latch open on my tip-up -7 due to me not getting it completely latched before takeoff. both times my secondary latch on the "roll bar" was closed so it only raised an inch or so until that caught it.
The first time I had my wife with me and we were able to get it shut when I slowed almost to stall and she pulled and I latched. it takes a pretty good pull to get it back down. The second time I was solo and didn't have enough hands to pull down, latch and keep straight so I just had to land. I didn't notice any adverse handling at all. |
This topic has been discussed in depth many times over the years. The archives contain all these threads....the search engine is your friend. :)
Bottom line, the tip-up canopies (RV-3 and -4 excepted) will ride open about 6" and can be closed if the plane is slower than cruise speed. The sliders are very difficult to open much past 6". |
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Open canopies don't create an unflyable RV. |
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However, I think that the above statement holds true no matter what you're flying. I've been a CFI for a long time now. With primary students, when they are getting close to solo, I'll pick a time on either the upwind or final when they have a relatively high workload, reach across the airplane (c-172) and pop the pilot side window open. WITHOUT FAIL, every student I've ever done this to will immediately focus on closing the window even if we're only a couple of hundred feet in the air, and even if we've talked about "fly the airplane first" less than an hour before in the preflight brief. Any thought of holding Vy in the climb, or keeping a stabilized approach on final is immediately abandoned due to their new #1 priority of closing a window that could be open all the way up to Vne with no problems at all. When I do a BFR we'll discuss this and I suggest that we go through the same exercise, as well as opening the door in flight. I've worked with more than one relatively high time Cessna pilot that had no idea it's possible to open the window in flight, not to mention that there's a process for closing a door in flight. If they had a door or window pop open before we talked about it and went through the process, I have zero confidence that they would have performed perform any better that the 15 hour pre-solo student. |
My slider wouldn?t budge
Not one inch. One of my first flights didn?t latch all the way so I slowed to 70 kts or so, tried to pull it back and slam it shut but no way. Was real loud and windy but no other bad things happened.
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Spent the day washing/waxing the plane. At the end of the day it was so nice decided to go out for a flight. After 10+ hours was a little tired. Cranked up, talked with ground, received taxi instructions and soon was in the air. Headed out North, towards a friend's home on a remote lake. Descending from 2000ft to 1500 to get my airspeed up for a zoom climb, right at 200mph (mph on ASI) started to pull up. Before that happened, the roll bar latch holding the canopy down let go, that's right forgot to latch the side latch. Big popping noise followed by medium wind noise in the cockpit. With headphones could still here the Kenai Tower talking with a Cessna. Main thing was it wanted to do a nose tuck, almost full elevator before it stopped, was adding trim at the same time as pulling, what made the big difference was reaching up and pulling the canopy down, immediate elevator control. Just a couple of inches made a big difference. Just like you mention, do believe you could control pitch with the canopy. Once in a climb and slowing down was finally able to pull it down enough to rotate and close the roll bar latch again. Reduced airspeed back to Kenai. Not my best day for reading/following my checklist....Skipped right past the line to check/verify the pilot side latch. A wake up call for sure. As far as controlling the plane, it was not responding like it normally does when moving the controls. A little was not working well, more force and about 2/3 nose up elevator leveled it, more initiated a climb. After level flight established reached up and grabbed the D handle and pulled down a couple of inches. Was riding about 6" open and took some force to pull down, at first I did try to close, but it would not, actually think it came down crooked, might have been able to close if I could have watched the rails to verify lined up right. So, just held and flew normally until the airspeed went below 140 mph: at that time was able to close the roll bar latch. Best regards, Mike Bauer |
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