RV-12 Canopy Incident

[Phantom30]

Originally Posted by 2johns

[IMG][/IMG]
I believe once the canopy rises to a certain level, nothing is going to stop it, including the new steel struts. I suppose most of us are guilty of leaving the canopy latch sitting on top of the fuselage frame to improve ventilation during taxi and run up, a situation set up for disaster. I have installed a secondary safety catch as shown in the photo. It is not foolproof, but should help.

Like your idea...simple, but provides "anti-lift" protection... Love this forum😎

[Chrysopelea]

I'm not sure if it's been suggested yet, but I'm thinking of installing some safety cables to help keep the canopy from over-opening when open, if a wind gust or anything of the like happened.

The stock struts have weak plastic ends, and I know there's a metal upgrade, but safety cables would really REALLY keep that canopy from folding forward and causing a prop strike.

To me, in my mind, they'd be easy to install, and would offer MUCH greater protection than just the struts, plastic or metal.

Race car wheels are all tethered so in crashes the wheels don't separate from the cars, and I think properly installed cables (simple bicycle cables would suffice if installed properly and in the correct manner), and those struts on our RV12's have really bad geometry, and I suspect a good gust could rip the metal ended ones from their mounts.

Safety cables would solve this issue permanently IMO.

[tomkk]

I thought of doing the same thing but it's pretty tight at the canopy end of the strut. I wasn't sure how to attach the cable at that end without risking it binding up. I'll be interested to see how it works out for you.

[DaleB]

I would be afraid of cables just damaging the attachment points as they rip out in the event of a truly evil wing gust (or jetwash). Leverage can be a b**** and that canopy is an awfully big sail. Better to keep it from getting away from you, than to try to arrest it once it does. I like Scott's idea a lot because it is simple, dead easy to use, involves no cutting and no modification to the canopy latch itself.

[Chrysopelea]

To me, we're talking about two things here. One is keeping the canopy from blowing open when it's shimmed up by the latch, maybe while taxiing or stationary, and then there's the other thing which is keeping the canopy from blowing forward when fully open.

I plan to buy the metal ended struts soon.

I talked with someone at Van's and they said they were working on a cheap and easy to install latch safety doo-hickey so you can taxi with the canopy shimmed up (oven door cracked open mode).

In my head, I'm thinking that a pair of cables, attached at points with better geometry (the stock strut setup gives the canopy a LOT of leverage over the struts), if installed properly, could save the canopy if it were to be blown open. I would think the cable loops could simply drop down inside and hang down near the little utility pouch.

I'm going to explore this as soon as I get my plane back from it's annual.

[rvbuilder2002]

It would be extremely unlikely for an RV-12 canopy to fail the struts from a wind load if the canopy was already in the fully opened position.
It is the shock loading when the canopy slams from closed to fully open that is the problem.

A prototype safety bracket was on the RV-12 Demonstrator for the trip to OSH. It or something similar will likely be available in the future.

[Ueli N]

It seems like if we could get some struts with better internal damping, that would extend the time to fully open the canopy, could solve most of the problems.
Don't know if the struts come with different specifications in damping?

[Piper J3]

Originally Posted by rvbuilder2002

A prototype safety bracket was on the RV-12 Demonstrator for the trip to OSH. It or something similar will likely be available in the future.

Any chance of a picture for those of us that didn't make the trip?

[rjtjrt]

Originally Posted by rvbuilder2002

..........
A prototype safety bracket was on the RV-12 Demonstrator for the trip to OSH. It or something similar will likely be available in the future.

Scott, I predict substantial early demand for such a bracket from those with flying 12's.
Hopefully there will be a good inventory of the new safety brackets available at the time they are released.

[Harvey rv12]

I too would like to see a photo of Van's latch modification.