I Originally Wrote: I uploaded my club's manual on the use of our EW
Recorder flight
logger system to http://www.geocities.com/jhderosa/av...lightrecorders.

"Cats" Commented I read your documentation, and noticed you are
recommending mounting
the antennae on the canopy in your club gliders. *Have you checked to
see it won't impede ejecting the canopy?

I reply:: A valid concern. The antenna bracket is held to the canopy
with 4 small suction cups.
While they do stay suck quite well (as the antenna is very light
weight), the cups come
off very easily with only a modicum of force and the canopy will
certainly eject quite
fast when it encounters a high wind load.. As you can imagine, I
haven't tested this.

Along the same idea, I have seen PDA's attached to the canopy and
feel
that this is an especially bad idea for the same reason you mention,
the canopy might not
eject properly. The PDA is typically firmly mechanically mounted to
the canopy rail or
large suction devices to the canopy itself. Either way it will NOT
give way at all easily.
The PDA cable is generally pretty stought and firmly connected to the
PDA to
prevent it from dislodging during flight. If you think that the cable
will break, try it
yourself. You will find it more difficult than you imagine.

The extreme case of all this would be the canopy ejecting to the side
and staying attached, which would fairly quickly put you into a tight
turn, spiral or even a spin.
All in all, not the situation you want to be in while trying to bail
out. If you must do this, then
please put in a slide disconnect of some sort which will easily pull
free during an eject
but stay connected during flight.

Good luck and stay safe.

- John "67" DeRosa