Ditching a RV
 

I am curious if anyone is aware of a RV ditching. My airport leaves a water landing as the most viable option if the engine quits on departure. I have thought through how it might go many times. I have no doubt that the aircraft is going to flip over on its back. The question then becomes how easy or hard will it be to get out of a RV6 or 7 tipup. The more I think it though the more I suspect I should have a canopy breaker installed since I am not sure opening the canopy inverted will be a valid option. Any thoughts or is there any actual history of a RV ditching?

George

George - I've been thinking about the same thing. Would like to know if my "canopy breaker" hammer will actually do the job. Has anyone tried to break a damaged canopy to see how it will work? One reason to have a slider I guess - open before ditching. Ron

RV9
C-FTJE

Try using the search function. This topic has come up a number of times with the same never ending debate comments.

I've heard people say that they can't open a slider during flight is that any truth,, this should be a good discussion, I am looking into buying a RV6 and am wondering the same thing, I had a good friend of mine that was flying a Zodiac 601 with a subaru engine, engine blew a coolant line, filling cockpit with smoke, he had a tipup canopy on it and could not get it open, well he lost orientation and started clipping trees with landing gear and went into the woods at 75mph and he and the engine were ejected off of airframe and fell into the woods, the main fuselage and wings were left hanging into trees 50ft in the air, he was 70ish years old and only had a broke leg, he is the luckiest man I know,he did make the comment that if he had windows or a slider(if you could open it in flight) he could have vented enough smoke to atleast put it down in a field or safe place.

to save you some searching:

http://www.vansairforce.net/articles/Ditching.htm

Personally I was wondering about ideas for ground roll overs and canopies, , as far as the water goes , its just like a car, in our Fire fighting training, exiting a car is as simple as breaking suction, just like the fellas canopy in the story, once you push and pry just enough the suction will break and it will open up.

Assuming you're not in shallow enough water that your canopy is laying in or blocked by the river bed or whatever. Which is what scares me.... :o

The Mythbusters underwater car episodes give me the willies too. Although they've said what folks have learned watching those episodes has actually saved real lives.

That's a pretty scary scenario, especially with a tip up. I'd rather go in the water in pretty much any car as opposed to a low wing airplane, especially one with a tip up canopy. I've never done it, but I'd want a way to break the canopy. Otherwise, you may have to let it completely fill up on the inside before you can open it. Yikes! If the bottom of the body of water is right there, then you're in serious trouble. Your only way out may be to break it somehow. It would be pretty hard to swing anything hard enough to break your canopy, while you're underwater.

Check the archives for past discussions on the issue of ditching.

When upside down, canopy touching the ground, breaking out your canopy is needed for evac.

My favorite tool for breaking the canopy is a removable, unplug control stick with, inserted at the bottom, a mostly solid impact point. Until this, I carried a M9 bayonet for evac.

Check the archives. It is good to see the different perspectives.

I noticed Aircraft Spruce carries a nice canopy breaker tool. Looks like a B-day present to myself. I do recall a prior thread where someone did some testing on a ruined canopy and said they were not difficult to break. I did search before posting but did not see any actual ditchings. I was sure given the number of RV's flying there have to be a couple that have ditched. The link to the RV8 ditching was very interesting.

George