Accident report - PDA's can restrict emergency exit

http://tinyurl.com/yzfpzb

With the increase of use of gizmos in the cockpit I think it is worth
warning the fliying community of this potential deadly mistake,
especially with glare shield instalations of instruments such as TPAS.
I almost fell trap to it myself when considered wiring my glare shield
installed TPAS to the glider battery. Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

Be careful out there,

Ramy

"Ramy" wrote in message
ps.com...
http://tinyurl.com/yzfpzb

With the increase of use of gizmos in the cockpit I think it is worth
warning the fliying community of this potential deadly mistake,
especially with glare shield instalations of instruments such as TPAS.
I almost fell trap to it myself when considered wiring my glare shield
installed TPAS to the glider battery. Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

Be careful out there,

Ramy


Good point, Ramy.

All wires, that could potentially interfere with canopy jettison, should
have a pull-apart type plug/jack. Alternately, the wire might be light
enough so that it is easily frangible. Although, even small gauge insulated
wire can be surprisingly strong. For my TPAS, I use an adequate length of
extra wire, secured under the glare shield with easy to pull apart Velcro
taps, so that the canopy will be well on its way before the wire surplus is
taken up. This to allow the inertia to more easily break the wire or yank
the little plug out the back of the unit. I'm not ready to test this just
yet, but I'm reasonably sure it'll work (g).

bumper

My PDA blocks the red canopy jettison handle on the right side in my 26e,
however, the PDA is mounted on a gooseneck that easily deflects out of the
way when pulling the handle

Ramy wrote:
Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

And don't expect the canopy to fly off when you pull the handles. I
had reason to open the rear latches of my ASW28 in flight. I expected
to have to pull down hard to keep the canopy from rising. Instead I
had to push up firmly to release my relief tube from under the
instrument panel.

I don't want to find out what happens if the forward attach points are
also released but I'm expecting to have to push hard to make the canopy
depart.

Andy

Ramy wrote

With the increase of use of gizmos in the cockpit I think it is worth
warning the fliying community of this potential deadly mistake,
especially with glare shield instalations of instruments such as TPAS.
I almost fell trap to it myself when considered wiring my glare shield
installed TPAS to the glider battery. Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

Right, Ramy. The same goes for the GPS loggers many of us have parked
on the side rail of the canopy. My Cambridge Model 20 is threaded for a
mounting screw but I use Velcro instead to provide one more point of
failure (a positive thing this time!) in case one of the connectors
hangs up if I jettison the canopy (actually, in the case of the Model
20, I suspect the connectors and the wires to which they are affixed
might be reluctant to part without considerable force). Yeah, a logger
flailing around on the end of a wire while I try to exit doesn't sound
like any fun but neither does the canopy flailing around at the end of
said wire.

Antenna connections are likely to be a little trickier because the coax
is stronger than a 22 ga. wire. Pushing the BNC connection together but
not locking it by turning the ring provides a measure of safety, though
you should probably retain the connector some other way (rubber band,
etc.).

The best way to check this is to release the canopy on the ground and
lift it off. Anything that hangs up is a potential death trap.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

"Ramy" wrote in message
ps.com...
http://tinyurl.com/yzfpzb

With the increase of use of gizmos in the cockpit I think it is worth
warning the fliying community of this potential deadly mistake,
especially with glare shield instalations of instruments such as TPAS.
I almost fell trap to it myself when considered wiring my glare shield
installed TPAS to the glider battery. Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.


Good point thanks for passing it on. I also am guilty of doing just
this.....I have a VL mounted on the canopy rail along with a PDA. I have
rationalized that neither "appear" to have strong connections.....the PDA
wire is small and the VL connector is the phone type which looks like it
would part easily. I also use the velcro idea Chip talked about.

One of the issues with an old guy like myself is that my vision is poor and
I find it nice to be able to not only look at the PDA closeup but to be able
to change settings on it without my fingers bouncing around at arms length.
Maybe time to reconsider it all though.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

I tried various PDA instalations over the years. What works best for me
and also the simplest solution is to mount it on the leg above the knee
in a 30-45 degrees angle using a simple mount. The mount is strapped to
the leg and the PDA velcroed to the mount.
The advantages a
1 - Easy to read and access the PDA.
2 - Does not restrict outside visibility.
3 - Due to beeing sightly lower in the cockpit it gets less direct sun
reflections.
4 - In case of a bailout the PDA would part easily from the velcro.
5 - Does not require more heads down than scanning the instrument panel
as it is almost at the same line of sight.

Ramy

Kilo Charlie wrote:
"Ramy" wrote in message
ps.com...
http://tinyurl.com/yzfpzb

With the increase of use of gizmos in the cockpit I think it is worth
warning the fliying community of this potential deadly mistake,
especially with glare shield instalations of instruments such as TPAS.
I almost fell trap to it myself when considered wiring my glare shield
installed TPAS to the glider battery. Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.


Good point thanks for passing it on. I also am guilty of doing just
this.....I have a VL mounted on the canopy rail along with a PDA. I have
rationalized that neither "appear" to have strong connections.....the PDA
wire is small and the VL connector is the phone type which looks like it
would part easily. I also use the velcro idea Chip talked about.

One of the issues with an old guy like myself is that my vision is poor and
I find it nice to be able to not only look at the PDA closeup but to be able
to change settings on it without my fingers bouncing around at arms length.
Maybe time to reconsider it all though.

Casey Lenox
KC
Phoenix

Andy,

I had the same relief tube problem in my LS8 in flight. Decided to
unlock and lift the canopy slightly to free the tube. You release both
the forward and rear canopy locks with the same handle in my glider,
one on each side. As you found out, I had to push considerably hard to
get the canopy off the rails. Then, I needed a third hand to yank on
the pee tube (and another one to keep the glider from porpoising). Pee
tube clear and un-kinked is now on my check list.
Regarding the subject at hand: my transponder antenna is on the glare
shield and has the pull-apart connector on the cable that has been
discussed here. I also have a seperate ground cable from the aluminum
ground plane under the glare shield to the glider metal structure that
seems to have improved my transponder operation.

Herb, J7

Andy wrote:
Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

And don't expect the canopy to fly off when you pull the handles. I
had reason to open the rear latches of my ASW28 in flight. I expected
to have to pull down hard to keep the canopy from rising. Instead I
had to push up firmly to release my relief tube from under the
instrument panel.

I don't want to find out what happens if the forward attach points are
also released but I'm expecting to have to push hard to make the canopy
depart.

Andy

On a related note saw an ad for the new mac laptop and they made the
power cord attach w/a magnet, to keep the computer from hitting the
ground when someone trips on the power cord. I havent looked but it
would be interesting to see if there are off the shelf magnetic wire
connectors.

On Dec 7, 5:06 pm, "Herb" wrote:
Andy,

I had the same relief tube problem in my LS8 in flight. Decided to
unlock and lift the canopy slightly to free the tube. You release both
the forward and rear canopy locks with the same handle in my glider,
one on each side. As you found out, I had to push considerably hard to
get the canopy off the rails. Then, I needed a third hand to yank on
the pee tube (and another one to keep the glider from porpoising). Pee
tube clear and un-kinked is now on my check list.
Regarding the subject at hand: my transponder antenna is on the glare
shield and has the pull-apart connector on the cable that has been
discussed here. I also have a seperate ground cable from the aluminum
ground plane under the glare shield to the glider metal structure that
seems to have improved my transponder operation.

Herb, J7

Andy wrote:
Make sure you can jettison your
canopy and bail out easily.

And don't expect the canopy to fly off when you pull the handles. I
had reason to open the rear latches of my ASW28 in flight. I expected
to have to pull down hard to keep the canopy from rising. Instead I
had to push up firmly to release my relief tube from under the
instrument panel.

I don't want to find out what happens if the forward attach points are
also released but I'm expecting to have to push hard to make the canopy
depart.

Andy

Ramy, glad you posted this. My microphone is mounted to the canopy and
I should check to make sure it would not restrict the canopy jettison.
My PDA is actually on a gooseneck from the panel and is not a factor.

Darren

Interesting topic. I had considered putting the PDA on the rail of the
canopy.

One possible simple "break away" connector that was recently
recommended to me is a USB connector. They are simple and inexpensive
gold plated slide connectors with four contacts. Purchase a USB
"extension cord" which has a male and a female connector (don't ask me
which is which). Cut the cord in the middle and splice it into your
serial connection to the PDA

All you need are four connections;

USB Pin 1 - Power +5Vdc - DB-9 pin 8 (may be vendor specific)
USB Pin 2 - Transmit - DB-9 pin 2
USB Pin 3 - Recieve - DB-9 pin 3
USB Pin 4 - Ground - DB-9 pin 5

Anyway, if you cut the PDA cradle cable, there should only be four
wires. Three may be a shield which you should connect to the shield of
the USB. Connect each to whatever you want at the USB connector and
call it the "fill in your last name proprietary cabling standard".

- John