Mounting Stuff on the Canopy or Glare Screen - Safe?
I am in the midst of an instrument panel refit on a Standard Cirrus that will include a PowerFLARM core. The mount of the FLARM antennas is always a lifely subject here on RAS. I have read and absorbed the very instructive FLARM antenna placement application note.
Anyway, someone mentioned to me years ago that it is a bad idea to mount things on the canopy or canopy rails (PDA, Camera, etc) as it could prevent full ejection of the canopy and leave it tethered to the fuselage by a power or control cable. This could make a bad situation worse (take that statement for what it is worth). Truth or myth?
Assuming for the moment that the above is true, then same logic leads me to the bad idea of mounting things onto a glare screen that is attached to the canopy like with a Standard Cirrus. If mounting things on the canopy is bad, then mounting things on a canopy attached glare screen is also bad.
This finally leads me to how to mount FLARM antennas. Often FLARM antennas are mounted onto the glare screen. But two FLARM antenna coaxes would definitely be stong enoght to tether the canopy, back to bad again. An optional placement of the antenna would be below, but not attached to, the glare screen. However this might impact coverage.
What are your wise opinions?
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