Canopy opening in flight

[Tom[_21_]]

Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?

Thanks Tom

[Duster[_2_]]

Yes. A friend had his Silent F-H canopy unlock, but only noticed it when he was trying to figure out why he couldn’t penetrate as well as he remembered. At least in that model, there was no excessive noise or canopy vibration. Locking it appeared not to be a big issue and he continued the flight. Don’t recall how wide he said it opened, though it couldn’t have been much.

[[email protected]]

I got in a rush once and launched with the canopy unlocked on my Pegasus. It rattled a bit while on the runway, but smoothed out after liftoff. It never tried to lift, so I ignored it until after release. No problem locking it in flight.

Reinforced my use of a checklist. Also made me glad I got a glider with a forward hinged canopy. I know of at least two accidents involving side-hinged canopies, and one instance of the rear canopy on a G-103 blowing open and shattering while on tow with a solo pilot.

[[email protected]]

I know of a DG400 which had a canopy open in flight because it wasn’t locked. It did partially open as I believe the pilot’s headset was dangling outside after landing, but the pilot did manage a succesful landing. Happened at Marfa many years back.

[Roy B.]

On the ASH-25 it is possible to confuse the air vent with the forward canopy release (used for bail out when you pull both front & rear releases). If the forward release is pulled in flight the front leading edge of the canopy lifts about 1" and the instrument panel drops about 1". The rear bayonet fittings will hold the canopy in place. This happened to me once and I was able to temporarily resolve the problem by removing my dress belt and looping it under my leg and over the release knob. That held the canopy front down until I got the machine on the ground. I later realized that the incident occurred because I was mildly hypoxic and very stupid. After 3 hours above 10,000' I got cold and pulled the "air vent" shut . . .
ROY

[Dan Marotta]

Well...Â* I once forgot to lock the canopy of my LAK-17a before takeoff.Â*
Three hours and forty-five minutes into the flight I was casually
looking about the cockpit and noticed that it was unlocked.Â* I simply
moved the levers to the "locked" position and continued the flight.

On 8/26/2018 5:35 AM, Tom wrote:
> Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?
>
> Thanks Tom

--
Dan, 5J

[George Haeh]

If you have a lifting instrument panel on a forward hinged canopy, you might not notice until you land.

I saw an L-33 written off landing without spoilers because the pilot was holding the side opening canopy closed. He sideslipped it to a good position, but should have changed his hand to the spoiler handle by 50 ft.

Of course a sideslip to the hinge side would have kept the canopy down.

[Gav Goudie[_2_]]

I once towed an ASW19 with an unlocked canopy, no dramas but
the glider pilot (post flight) described the canopy sucking partially
open then dropping before sucking partially open again. Using his
elbow he was able to temporarily secure it until we got to a height
that allowed him to release and put the canopy locks into the
appropriate place.

The additional (near) airprox with an R44 at about 400ft during
climbout was far more exciting!

At 11:35 26 August 2018, Tom wrote:
>Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that
opening in
>flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged
canopy was
>unlocked on a flight?
>
>Thanks Tom
>

[Eric Greenwell[_4_]]

Dan Marotta wrote on 8/26/2018 8:23 AM:
> Well...* I once forgot to lock the canopy of my LAK-17a before takeoff. Three
> hours and forty-five minutes into the flight I was casually looking about the
> cockpit and noticed that it was unlocked.* I simply moved the levers to the
> "locked" position and continued the flight.
>
> On 8/26/2018 5:35 AM, Tom wrote:
>> Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight?
>> Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a
>> flight?


My recall of several incidents (other people's) is the unlocked front hinged
canopies stay in place until there is something that disturbs it, like turbulence,
negative G, perhaps a side slip. When disturbed, they can pop open momentarily,
but sometimes completely.

[2G]

On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:35:35 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
> Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?
>
> Thanks Tom

Definitely. DG canopies have a single locking pin which can't be closed in flight once unlocked. I have had this happen to me. Another local pilot had it happen in a DG400; a wind gust blew the canopy open and twisted sideways, bending the mechanism. You can't depend upon wind pressures keeping it closed.

Tom

[[email protected]]

On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 11:05:16 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
> On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:35:35 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
> > Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?
> >
> > Thanks Tom
>
> Definitely. DG canopies have a single locking pin which can't be closed in flight once unlocked. I have had this happen to me. Another local pilot had it happen in a DG400; a wind gust blew the canopy open and twisted sideways, bending the mechanism. You can't depend upon wind pressures keeping it closed.
>
> Tom

I'm embarrassed to admit that I did open the canopy on my ASW24 many years ago to free a pinched pee tube. There were no problems at all, just a slight and steady push to the closed position. I guess I lifted the canopy by about 4-6" in the back. I must have used one hand to hold the canopy and the other to pull on the tube. You guessed it: nobody was flying the glider.
Herb

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Monday, August 27, 2018 at 6:06:44 AM UTC-7, wrote:
> On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 11:05:16 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
> > On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:35:35 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
> > > Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?
> > >
> > > Thanks Tom
> >
> > Definitely. DG canopies have a single locking pin which can't be closed in flight once unlocked. I have had this happen to me. Another local pilot had it happen in a DG400; a wind gust blew the canopy open and twisted sideways, bending the mechanism. You can't depend upon wind pressures keeping it closed.
> >
> > Tom
>
> I'm embarrassed to admit that I did open the canopy on my ASW24 many years ago to free a pinched pee tube. There were no problems at all, just a slight and steady push to the closed position. I guess I lifted the canopy by about 4-6" in the back. I must have used one hand to hold the canopy and the other to pull on the tube. You guessed it: nobody was flying the glider.
> Herb

More than once when flying a Grob 103 from back seat with owner or another line pilot they would open the front canopy a few inches to ventilate the hot air out. I was told I could do that and how, but not my glider and I like flying there, so I will not try that. I found in a piper seneca the door pops open an inch or two but can't close it in flight. In an MD500 helicopter, you would have to come to a hover for someone to get a door closed which is why I CLOSED all the doors on the 500 EVERY TIME , even when a gruff high pilot told me he was competent enough to close his own door, he wasn't. Important point here, fly the aircraft. I also witnessed a mishap when the door came open on a Beach Baron (pops open a few inches and stays there) but this "pilot" declared and emergency and then came back and landed hard enough to do real damage to the landing gear and close both runways, right on the intersection. I was surprised as panicked as he was that he did not leave a smoking hole.

[kirk.stant]

> > On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:35:35 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
> > > Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?
> > >
> > > Thanks Tom

No issues in the LS6, at least during tow. Mine has a tendency to mis-locate the locking pins if I rush a takeoff (yeah, blame the glider.. ;^), and it's no big deal to slow down after release and lock the canopy correctly. As a precaution I only unlock and relock one release at a time, but I doubt even that precaution is necessary.

Grob-103 canopy latches are evil. Had a rear one start to open on me during the takeoff during a ride (I was flying from the back with the pax in front) and managed to grab it before it opened more than an inch or two, but single handed on tow could not latch it or force it closed. Had the pax release at a safe altitude and flew a no-spoiler approach, then closed it on rollout to use the brakes to stop. In retrospect I could have tried slipping at low speed to close it inflight, but I don't plan on having to do it again (but of course, you just can't trust gliders...)

Kirk

[[email protected]]

I saw a 1-34 pilot who got a bit rushed during take-off. The canopy flew open and broke but stay attached. The pilot lost his hat and glasses but landed without incident. Like Mark M, I took off with my Pegasus canopy unlatched and heard some rattling. I'm not sure how I screwed that up. The glider was new to me and I think the closed position was opposite of the club's Grob Twin or L23? Most of my previous flights were in an ASW 15 with a completely different latching system. Latching the Peg canopy once off tow was simple. Lesson learned.