Thoughts on ditching after a big accident with my RV7 in 2015

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Sam Buchanan

A thought exercise....shoot a canopy and frame at the tail of your airplane with a velocity of 150+ mph and see if any catastrophic damage occurs.....

Try keeping an aerodynamically indeterminate shape like a canopy in a straight line at 150mph... Given the starting orientation, it's likely it will climb as it departs, possibly clearing the tail.

And, it could only accelerate from 0mph to 150mph (relative to the aircraft) in the 10 feet between the aft canopy latch and the vertical stab if it stopped dead when released... It will start out with the speed of the aircraft and decelerate until it gets to the tail. It may only have 20mph difference at that point.

For a tip-up water landing, unlatching everything may be enough... It'll probably open when you hit the water. Maybe with enough force to depart from the airplane.

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by Steve Melton

anti-splat vert stab straps may help prevent that. slow down and jettison, flip over, unstrap and swim away. simple as that.

put on your safety glasses before jettison.

I think it would be foolish to assume that the only damage to be concerned about if a canopy were to contact the vertical stab, would be failure of the fwd attach point.......

It would also be foolish to assume that anyone that just flipped in an airplane... into water.... at high speed with no protection from a canopy (I.E., your face / upper body takes the full brunt and force of impacting the water) will be clear minded enough to unbuckle seat belts and then swim out of the airplane.......

[luigi_from_italy]

To Snowflake

As I mentioned, I do not have a clear recall of the flip, I think (but I am really not sure) that I have perceived the first "touch", again no big decellaration (but, maybe, adrenaline was pumping enough to feel it unreal).

A factor might be the flaps which, in my case, were at 0 and also the the damaged wing could have made the stall speed slightly higher.
Flaps do not make a huge difference in RVs (not as much as 40 degress in a C172), but, maybe, could have prevented the flip? I don't know, for sure I did not deploy flaps due to high risk of "changing" something in the weak equilibrium that I perceived in that moment looking at flap itself and wing.

My consideration is that the most dangerous situation is ditching in shallow water where the aircraft can easily fall inverted on the bottom of the sea with almost zero possibility of egress.

[Tom @ N269CP]

Originally Posted by luigi_from_italy

My consideration is that the most dangerous situation is ditching in shallow water where the aircraft can easily fall inverted on the bottom of the sea with almost zero possibility of egress.

Luigi,

Ironically, the closed canopy may have kept you alive in this instance as it created an air pocket for you while you regained your senses and orientation.

May sound like a crazy idea, but maybe having a snorkel tube/hose/mouthpiece which you can manually extend through a removable plug on the cockpit floor would buy you time while the hydrostatic pressure around the canopy equalizes facilitating opening. Would be easy to stow for flights over water.

I can easily imagine how running through that event in your mind may give you nightmares. I'm really glad you survived to tell the tale and give us all something to think about. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[moosepileit]

Google a "HEED".

HEED 3 - The Original Helicopter Emergency Egress Device

http://www.heed3.com

$350 Amazon. Few minutes of SCUBA.

[Gary7A]

I've used a HEED both in dunker training and working
in my pond. If I ever fly much over water I'll buy one of my own.



Gary Kohler
Ohio