Flying With Canopy Open

[Ghost two-six]

Okay, I'm sure this is somewhere on here from before but when I ran search I came up with everything but what I was looking for.

I used to own a Grumman Tiger and on that aircraft you could fly with the canopy open about six inches as long as you remained at or below 112 Kts. It was great for Florida as you could get outstanding ventilation as you climbed up to cooler temps. Once at altitude you leveled off, closed the canopy and let the aircraft accelerate to cruise airspeed. On that aircraft if you forgot and left it open as you accelerated the canopy would actually slide FORWARD and try and close itself - a great reminder.

My question is can any of the Vans "Sliders" be left open a bit in flight ? What happens if they are ? I don't see any pictures of anyone flying around like this so I assume it's a no-no. I did see a bit about a guy who completely removed the canopy and installed a fastback type fabrication over the baggage area but that's not what I'm looking for.

[bret]

Two tinny screws up front and a pice of C shape plastic holding the rear? I would never chance losing all af that hard work and a posible tail strike!

[JonJay]

There is at least one RV3 out there with a convertible open cockpit set up. I could not imagine it in a 6, 7, or 9.
There is a reason that Biplanes typically have closures that wrap up shoulder height and limit cockpit exposure, and most of them are pretty darn slow.

For the side by sides, you can't even open the canopy in flight if your life depended on it. I don't understand the aerodynamics of it, but even in taxi mine becomes hard to open. Even if you propped it open only a few inches, it would have to be a dramatic change in airflow over the canopy.

I would be scared to even try.

[Ghost two-six]

Interesting, the Grummans don't seem to be all that radically different, I wonder how they get away with it ?

[rvbuilder2002]

One primary difference is that on slider RV's, the canopy lifts up in back as it begins to open.
On the Grummans it just slides straight back...

[flyboy1963]

you gotta love the blazing advancements in aeronautics.
The Thorp T-11, first flew in 1946, yes, not a typo....1946!

now an LSA from Indus aviation I think..

http://generalaviationnews.com/2005/...e-thorp-t-211/

the little slider canopy can be half-opened in flight, altho the airflow over it is about half that of an RV, if it's built for it, no huge aerodynamic mystery at play apparently, ditto the Grummans....(just built the frame for people to grab and lean on etc...... apparently makes it strong enough for air loads)

[Charles in SC]

I guess it must be ok to taxi with a slider open as I have seen it done quite a lot.

[A6PILOT]

Search RV-8 improved airflow by Jon Thocker. Should give you some insight.

[A6PILOT]

I just did a forum search for Flying with canopy open and got a bunch of good threads. It has been done.

[Isaac]

There is a write up in the March 2015 issue of Sport Aviation magazine titled "Open-Cockpit Flying in an RV". A RV-6A builder modified his aircraft to fly without a canopy installed. Looks like it was a good bit of work, doesn't seem all that practical but eliminated the effects of canopy partially open.