Larry

Been a long time since I flew the '34 so can't remember how the canopy
worked. Know it rolled back and forth in a track. Can't remember if
there was a means of jettisoning the canopy with one lever?? Possibly
Robert who flew bird in Navy can refresh how the canopy worked normal
and in emergency?

If canopy had to be rolled back in track, then after a wing departed
the bird probably pulled both negative and positive G's making it very
difficult to roll the canopy open to get out even if the harness was
very tight to keep one from being thrown around roughly?

Assuming they were not injured when wing broke off and canopy still
operated in track, due to gyrations I'd put the odds of getting out as
1 in 250-500.

Any one getting out of an accident like this would end up "poster boy
for miracles".

In layman's terms "They didn't have a chance".

Big John


On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 14:24:50 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 00:48:56 GMT, EDR wrote in
Message-Id: :

In article , Big John
wrote:

Ground witinesses say wing broke and came off (not mid air).

The big question will be: "Did it have the spar mod per the AD?"

That question seems to have been answered.

Another question that no one seems to be asking is, what prevented the
pilot and student from employing their parachutes as would be
expected?