Escaping glider on the ground with stuck canopy?

https://www.amazon.com/Lifehammer-Or...00HVO0LVG?th=1

A 12ga works well too. :-)

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 4:30:27 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
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)?

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 4:30:27 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
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)?

I would suggest remembering that almost all canopy systems have 2 retention sections. One supports and pivots, the other retains closed.
Releasing both may well provide a degree of freedom to get the canopy off beyond just releasing the side or rear latches.
Rule of thumb- canopies only break when you don't want the too.
FWIW
UH

Yeah, and I'll bet that tool was a LOT cheaper than the military canopy
breaker, too!Â* And don't forget, the glider could be upside down and
attempting to pry the canopy open wouldn't help.

On 5/10/2019 5:58 PM, Steve Koerner wrote:
I should have done a better job of Googling. I just found a youtube of a pretty small escape hammer (as Dan suggests) that does a fine job on an RV7 canopy:

https://youtu.be/fRvQxGl4kt4




--
Dan, 5J

Dan
Over the years I flew with Glider Bob in his Stemme I asked him if we landed out if we would land gear up or gear down. Gear down in a Stemme landing off field I was always concerned about flipping forward on the nose and going over upside down.
That would suck, bad.
I witnessed Don Bell landing at Parowan years ago in a Stemme and he went off into the dirt and ended up on the nose, I often wondered what it would take for the nose to dig in and flip over on its back.

Nick,

The Stemme's gear is pretty stable and the weight on the tail is high
(at least on mine), something like 135 lb IIRC.Â* While I know the Stemme
can be put on its nose, it seems to me unlikely it could flip on its
back.Â* I'm still happy to have that heavy steel tool to break the
canopy.Â* It's designed to break the thick plexiglass in a fighter.



On 5/11/2019 9:28 AM, Nick Kennedy wrote:
Dan
Over the years I flew with Glider Bob in his Stemme I asked him if we landed out if we would land gear up or gear down. Gear down in a Stemme landing off field I was always concerned about flipping forward on the nose and going over upside down.
That would suck, bad.
I witnessed Don Bell landing at Parowan years ago in a Stemme and he went off into the dirt and ended up on the nose, I often wondered what it would take for the nose to dig in and flip over on its back.

--
Dan, 5J

The tool is cheap, the required documentation is humongous. Part of the "$200 hammer" or a "$300 toilet seat".
I know some of this from UL vs. non-UL registered/approved wire. The product is basically the same.....the testing, documentation and data retention/traceability is where the price goes up.

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

On Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 11:07:03 AM UTC-4, Eric Greenwell wrote:
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

I recall at least one case of a glider being stopped by a fence and canopy being held closed by the fence(wire fence).
If the glider is inverted the latching mechanism likely is not the biggest problem.
UH

An Arcus M flipped over the nose a few years ago, engine out but not running. Went into a plowed field perpendicular to the undulations of the ground; the nose stuck in the soft terrain.

Much more frequent is the flip over due to hitting an obstacle with a wingtip. The subsequent and violent yaw will make the opposite wing produce lots more lift, and the glider may complete an half roll. It happened at least four times in my country during the last 15 years. Luckily nobody was hurt except bruises or a broken nose.

In all these cases, the pilots needed quick external help to abandon the cockpit.

Aldo Cernezzi
www.voloavela.it

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 4:30:27 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
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)?

How about this poor guy? He was trapped in the cockpit for a long time before they used a SawZall to get him out. The replacement cost for that canopy was estimated to be in excess of $182,000.
http://www.f-16.net/f-22-news-article1768.html

Uli
'AS'