RV6 Open Canopy...

[MED]

Originally Posted by Bsquared

I am close to finishing a 14A. The 14 does not have the secondary latching point on the roll bar and instead uses a micro switch that will annunciate visually on the EFIS and also in your headphones If the latch is not engaged when you hit an airspeed that you select......I think 40 knots is the recommendation. This system has its own possible failure modes. Just curious what others view as the +/- of this approach vs a secondary latch.

My open canopy alarm comes on with rpm, as well as airspeed. If I forget to latch before run-up, it warns me.

[TXFlyGuy]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

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.

A friend of mine had a sliding canopy detach inflight. It slammed into the tail structure, doing a fair amount of damage. Luckily, the plane was still flyable, and he made to an airport for repairs...and a change of underwear.

[Ralph Inkster]

Would be very educational if he has a picture of the damage he could share.

[mbauer]

After my experience with the canopy opening on my RV-6, and the nose dive it wanted to do, been thinking about my reactions.

The one thing that I'm convinced is: 1st thing after recognizing what is happening, grab the D-handle and pull it down from the 6" it is open.

The elevator starts working like normal.

I muscled the elevator all the way back to my stomach before is started working to level the plane at near VNE.
I waited until the nose dive was cancelled before reaching for the d-handle to pull the canopy down to about 2" open at the top.

With the elevator full back and the sudden lowering of the canopy, a very steep climb initiated pulling 3.8G's.

I know that if I had grabbed the D-handle, the control issue of stopping the nose dive, using the elevator, would not have been needed.

Thought process says to fly the airplane with the controls.

We all know how responsive the controls are. What got my attention is how the normal control movements didn't work. This caused a delay in the recovery.

Elevator not responding to the stick pull, the feeling of the elevator just flopping around with no pressure on it will set off a whole new set of alarms, right when you don't need them.

This caused another time delay in taking the correct corrective action: Close the canopy!

Granted all of these time delays didn't last but micro-seconds, still work load during an emergency needs to be kept to a minimum.

Best regards,
Mike Bauer

[JDeanda]

Ah, here it is... I promised to look for my wife's essay on her canopy open incident. This happened in March of 2014. Sorry, I'd garbled some of the details in my earlier post.


Inadvertent canopy unlatch in flight in RV-6.
Recent report of a pilot being flung from his tilt-up canopy Experimental Zodiac compels me to share my recent experience with a tilt-up canopy unlatch in-flight in my RV-6.

I was giving rides at Santa Paula Airport and was with my third young future pilot. This was to be her first ride and she was excited. I got my 9-year old passenger strapped in and then strapped myself in. Ran the check list, started up, rolled to run-up area and ran that check list including verifying canopy latched and locked (did I miss the locked?!) We climbed out and I turned the stick over to my passenger and talked about the wonders of flight. It was slightly bumpy but not too bad. (Did I bump the canopy lock?) We got to 2500’ and I leveled off for a quick scenic when suddenly with an explosive force, the canopy popped, the plane nosed over, I was off the seat and tight up in my harness; my checklist, sectional and headset departed the plane. A look at the airspeed and altitude showed a rapidly increasing airspeed and decreasing altitude – what the.. I pulled off the power but couldn’t pull out of the dive.

My first thought was “midair” and I looked around and up and saw the canopy up. I reached high up for the handle on the canopy and pulled with all my strength. I felt the nose relax a bit and was able to get level. I looked at my passenger and was greeted with a big smile as if this were the best ride ever. I explained what happened and that although not a big deal, it was too noisy now for us to continue the flight so we were going back to the airport.

I slowed the plane down hoping I could get safely slowed enough and then muster the strength to latch the canopy but found out that was not going to happen. I even used both hands at one point, trying to hold the stick with my knees but when I let go of the stick, the nose pitched down and when I was able to pull the canopy down with two hands, the stick needed attention so that was getting me nowhere. Ok, so now I am holding the canopy handle down with all the strength I have with my right hand, holding the stick with the left and needing to add power. I juggled with that for a little bit and then thought I better make a radio call and let everyone know I am coming back and need the pattern cleared. My Bose headset is slapping against the outside of the plane so I again get the stick squeezed between my knees so I can pull the head set back in by the cord. Pulled it in and saw it was broken and the earpieces were dangling on their wires.

Ok. I look over at my smiling passenger and announce that I am going to take her headset so I can call on the radio and warned that it was going to be loud when I did that. Now I am holding the canopy with my right hand and my arm is about to give out so I need to switch for a moment. I think about how to do this – and with the agility of an epileptic elephant, I let go of the stick with my left hand and the nose pitches down, I stretch up to reach the latch with my left hand and let go with the right and grab for the stick and get it all back together and fly like that for a few minutes till my right arm is ready to go back to the job of holding the canopy down and then go through the gyrations to switch hands.

Ok, got that settled, now how to get the headset off the passenger and on my head. Passenger is too little to help so I have to do this myself. I look over and say what I am about to do and I again squeeze the stick with my knees trying to hold it there and I grab the headset off her head and she immediately puts hands to ears because it is loud and windy and I jam it on my head and get back on the stick. Cool. Now I calmly press the button on my stick to make the call and realize that’s not going to work because the button for this headset in on the stick over there in the passenger seat. Great. I really need to make this call because it is real busy at the airport today. I lift my feet off the rudders and lift my legs up so that I am grabbing more of the stick and while holding the canopy with my right hand I reach over with my left, press the button and make the call.

I enter the pattern and am able to fly a normal pattern while holding the canopy with my right hand and working the stick and throttle with my left. I lower the flaps downwind abeam and slow further and try letting go of the canopy. It still rises up but not too much and is not causing the nose to pitch down. It is controllable and I relax just a little bit. I come in for a normal landing as if nothing were amiss. I asked my passenger if she enjoyed the exciting ride and with a big smile she told me yes. She must have expected a wild ride. That little girl is going to very surprised the next time she flies and all is calm and straight and level.

I was a bit worn out physically from the experience but not terribly frightened by it..until I read about the Zodiac pilot. I know that if my passenger and I were not strapped in, we would have been thrown out – the canopy popping open and immediate pitch down was that violent. The airplane was not controllable and if I had been unable to pull the canopy down, we would have made a big dent in the ground.

The lesson here for me is to make sure the canopy is latched before take-off and check again after getting bumped around and check again just to make sure. Also thinking about converting to a sliding canopy!

Dianne Williams
RV-6

[paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading; S.Buchanan]