kentb

kentb

Well Known Member
I'll make a confession. Last night I took off and for got to latch down my tip-up canopy. As I was climbing out I noticed that it just didn't climb right and there was more noise than usual.

I reached up with the right hand and pulled down as hard as I good and then shoved the latch closed. Of course that didn't work. You can't get the canopy low enough for the latches to catch to lock it down.

I announced that I would be returning to land and just flew the pattern normally. Taxied to takeoff again and this time latched the canopy down.

If it happens to you don't bother trying to latch it in flight. It can't be done.

The plane flies very close to normal with the canopy up, at least at pattern speeds. The thing only raises up about 3 inches.

Hope this helps someone with the same problem.

Kent
 
I've done the same... once. I have a habit of latching the center latch but missed the side latches at one time. The canopy sides lifted a little with the center raising about .5" or so amd noticed more daylight coming though the side skirts. I found that if I got slowed down to pattern speeds, I could get the canopy latched with a little effort. But don't forget to fly the airplane!
 
I've done it with the slider. The canopy latch was not on the before take off check list until then. Now it is in red letters, CANOPY LATCHED.

Has not happened since, check lists work. :)
 
In the Beechcraft training program a mandatory proceedure was to have the door pop open at rotation to show that the proper proceedure was to FLY THE PLANE back to a landing and LEAVE THE DOOR ALONE. It gets noisy, you will loose any maps on the passenger seat, but the plane flys fine. As I recall, at that time about 5 people a year were getting killed trying to prove they could close the door. Is it possible? Yes. Should it be done? No
 
Slow down to about 80MPH and it is no problem.You will have to hold the stick with your knees while you pull down the center handle with your right hand and throw the latch with your left.All this can be done in a few seconds.
As Jim said fly the airplane.
 
johnfurey said:
In the Beechcraft training program a mandatory proceedure was to have the door pop open at rotation to show that the proper proceedure was to FLY THE PLANE back to a landing and LEAVE THE DOOR ALONE. It gets noisy, you will loose any maps on the passenger seat, but the plane flys fine. As I recall, at that time about 5 people a year were getting killed trying to prove they could close the door. Is it possible? Yes. Should it be done? No
Click to expand...


I remember my primary instructor popping the door open on me once during training to see how I would handle it. I was mostly amused, it's a distraction but an aerodynamic non-event. Fly the airplane.
 
kentb said:
I'll make a confession. Last night I took off and for got to latch down my tip-up canopy. As I was climbing out I noticed that it just didn't climb right and there was more noise than usual.

I reached up with the right hand and pulled down as hard as I good and then shoved the latch closed. Of course that didn't work. You can't get the canopy low enough for the latches to catch to lock it down.

I announced that I would be returning to land and just flew the pattern normally. Taxied to takeoff again and this time latched the canopy down.

If it happens to you don't bother trying to latch it in flight. It can't be done.

The plane flies very close to normal with the canopy up, at least at pattern speeds. The thing only raises up about 3 inches.

Hope this helps someone with the same problem.

Kent
Click to expand...

Actually it can be done quite easily.
Fly at 80 to 85 with full flaps.
The lower speed helps reduce the lift on the canopy and the full flaps reduces the low speed level flight angle of attack, which further helps reduce the amount of lift of the canopy.

Above all else...fly the airplane. If you don't feel comfortable messing with the canopy latch in flight then landing is the best choice.
 
Well....

I don't think that I could have been much over 80, but that was most likely 80 kts. I was in a climb and I could not pull down enough to get the side hooks to engage. I also had the flaps up by this time.

Just thought it was better to land then continue to fight the process. Maybe next (god forbid):eek: I'll try to level off and slow down.

Kent
 
I, too, have forgotten to engage either latch on take-off in the tip-up style -6. It is a non-event as long as you fly the plane. I gain about 1500' leveled off at a relatively slow speed (probably around 80 kts) and had no trouble engaging both locks. But, I found that I needed to both slow down and level off (while, of course, flying the airplane).
 
I have my "before takeoff checklist". It's about 10 items than include normal items such as instruments, controls, mag check; and then I have those forgotten items, that either I've forgotten or someone else has forgot. This includes canopy lock & gas caps locked. It's just a small laminated list, but it's very effective.

L.Adamson --- RV6A
 
Hi Kent,

This must have happened at Pierson field yesterday, I was the RV-4 you said hi to that took off right behind you on your second try, I think you made the right choice coming back to land. So what brought you to Vancouver?
 
My friend has a sail boat on the Columbia.

Russ McCutcheon said:
Hi Kent,

This must have happened at Pierson field yesterday, I was the RV-4 you said hi to that took off right behind you on your second try, I think you made the right choice coming back to land. So what brought you to Vancouver?
Click to expand...

Randy owns a white RV10 on the field and now is sailing a CAL 20 boat. He is training me to help him race it.

It is so much more fun to fly from Lenhardt's to Person then to drive. :)

Although by the time I drive to the airport and get the plane out, it probably doesn't save me much time. But that not the point, I get to fly.:cool:

Kent
 
I've said it before I'll say it again:

Habit patterns, habit patterns, HABIT PATTERNS! They will save your life. Doesn't matter what you're flying. If something interupts your habit pattern, you start again, for a particular phase of flight, be it start up, take off, whatever.
 
Checklist

Kent
Glad it was a non-event.... I did it once with a Cherokee, and don't want to go there with my slider.

Now that you have an AFS EFIS you can use the on-screen check list. It has saved me from embarrassment (or worse) more than once!
Jim F, Hanagar 50
 
Even with a checklist

I have a pre-flight and a run-up checklist and I repeat some of the more important items just to make sure. One of these items is "canopy closed and locked". Then there was the day that I did my pre-flight, did my run-up, heard a Bonanza driver call for a two mile straight in and decided to wait. Well, the two mile must have been more like a five mile, it was hot and I opened my tip-up for some air. You can probably guess the rest.
 
Pre-lineup Checks/DVAs

Learnt this when I was training for my PPL and have found it's still valid with my new toy..
Trim - set for takeoff
Mixture - Full rich
Pitch - Fixed
Fuel - Fuel pump on, have sufficient pressure and contents with Fullest tank selected
Flaps - set for takeoff (ie up in the RV)
Instruments - set, serviceable with all Ts and Ps in the green.
Hatches & Harnesses - Closed and Secure
Controls - full and free (stir the pot)
Takeoff Brief - for engine failure before and after takeoff
Traffic - visually locate other traffic in the circuit
Radio - lineup call prior to entering active runway

Seems to be working so far :)
 
sjjonesnz said:
Learnt this when I was training for my PPL and have found it's still valid with my new toy..
Trim - set for takeoff
Mixture - Full rich
Pitch - Fixed
Fuel - Fuel pump on, have sufficient pressure and contents with Fullest tank selected
Flaps - set for takeoff (ie up in the RV)
Instruments - set, serviceable with all Ts and Ps in the green.
Hatches & Harnesses - Closed and Secure
Controls - full and free (stir the pot)
Takeoff Brief - for engine failure before and after takeoff
Traffic - visually locate other traffic in the circuit
Radio - lineup call prior to entering active runway

Seems to be working so far :)
Click to expand...

I would revise the mixture setting to "as required".
You won't want "full rich" when taking off from Leadville, CO. Of course this may not be a factor in New Zealand.
I would also recommend that for short field takeoff use 15 degrees of flap.
 
Reading all of the "been there, done that" type replies in this thread make me feel like a bit less of a dummy for blowing the canopy off my RV-4 two weeks ago. Unfortunately for us -3 and -4 drivers (RV-10 too, I suppose,) failure to latch the canopy (door for the -10 guys) is a much less forgiving "whoops."
 
Been there, done that

but not with an RV yet. Short story. I was giving instrument instruction in a Beech Sierra a long time ago (KMLU) with a student who was doing the flying and one student observing from the back seat. The weather as I recall was around 300 and 3/4 (O.K., I was hungry for the hours). Right after liftoff the left side door popped open with a loud bang. Almost instantly we were up in the goo and solid IMC. Our first thought was to just whip it around the pattern, land, close the door then try again. Well it wasn't quite that easy, remember, 300 and 3/4? Well it was going to take some time to get around for the ILS so we decided to head for the practice area and try to close the door once we were on top and in the clear (tops at 2000'). So, we're on top, I took the airplane and had the student try to close it. No Way! He couldn't even get it close to closed. I slowed down as slow as I could and almost but still no way would it close. He said "it keeps sucking the door away from the plane".
Then it dawned on me, the suction on top of the wing from the production of lift is the culprit. So here is what we did. We increased the speed to cruise and with ATC's blessing pulled the nose up to about 20 degrees and did a slight negative push "I mean slight" the instant the lift was reversed on the wing the door slammed closed.
Our lessons that day:
[Always fly the plane first.
[The pressure on the top of the lifting surface is much lower than the pressure in the cockpit (low wing plane)making it impossible to close in normal flight.
[Always fly the plane first.
 
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kentb said:
I don't think that I could have been much over 80, but that was most likely 80 kts. I was in a climb and I could not pull down enough to get the side hooks to engage. I also had the flaps up by this time.

Just thought it was better to land then continue to fight the process. Maybe next (god forbid):eek: I'll try to level off and slow down.

Kent
Click to expand...

Note that just slowing down isn't usually enough. In my post I said slow down, lower the flaps, and fly level (the second and third things reduce your angle of attack which reduces the lifting force on the canopy).
 
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