Steve Koerner wrote on 5/10/2019 1:30 PM:
I'm hypothesising about a certain risk scenario that could happen: landing somewhere or crashing somewhere and canopy won't open. If it's hot especially, one might not last long enough for help to arrive if summoned by phone or radio.

My question is how to get through a canopy that's stuck or has a broken latch mechanism. Maybe someone has had relevant experience with this issue?

An obvious possibility might be to grab the window and try to tear the plexiglass apart (after donning kevlar gloves perhaps). I don't have a good intuition as to whether that is possible or not. Has anyone ever done that or does anyone maybe have access to a junk canopy to try it on? Another possibility is to carry a small saw or some other tool. Are there any specific tools that you know will work effectively on canopy plexiglass yet are compact enough to stash in a tight cockpit (there's no room to carry a hammer)?

Is there anyone that has been trapped in a glider, and a canopy breaking tool
would have allowed escape? I can't remember any. The only glider I can recall
flipping over on landing was an H301. The field was a soft plowed one, the pilot
mishandled the tail parachute, causing it to land in a nose-down attitude.


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf