On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:09:28 -0700, John Ammeter
wrote:

My guess, with admittedly, little actual information to back it up is
that the canopy opened and Bill and Janice's clothes which were loose in
back of the seats began to fly out of the airplane. As the articles
flew about the cockpit and out of the plane something flew over Bill's
head and covered his eyes... with no vision, Bill was unable to maintain
level flight.

Depends on how the airflow's going in the cabin. The canopy hinges aren't flush
with the forward cowl; as the canopy rises, a gap appears under the front edge.
Seems like the airflow from up front would block something in the aft storage
from moving far enough forward to wrap itself around the pilot's head. Though
if a chart or something had been on the glare shield, that could have come aft
and blocked his vision.

Note, too, that the witnesses said the plane remained at a low altitude. I
think a pilot's natural reaction when reacting to an emergency would be to gain
some height. He didn't, which might indicate that he thought it would be
necessary to bring the plane around and land it to fix the canopy problem.

The other possibility, of course, is a John Denver sort of accident; that he
became so focused on the canopy problem that he lost situational awareness.
There is at least one indication that he was rushed that day...note that he took
off with a 10-20 knot gusting tailwind. Did he rush the checklist and fail to
lock the canopy? When it opened, did he put too much attention to trying to
close it and avoid wasting time returning to the airport? Bill *did* have a bit
of a temper.

Mulling it over, though, I'm starting to doubt the "lost clothing indicates
canopy open" theory. Remember, not only would it take suction to raise clothing
lying lose in the baggage bay, it takes a source of air behind the items to
"push" towards the gap. Put your mouth over a pop bottle and suck, and nothing
will come up. Use a straw, and air flows in to push the liquid up the straw.
Where was the source of air pushing the items from the baggage bay?

Also, if you open the sunroof of a car at highway speeds, you get a lot of noise
but your hat remains firmly on your head...seems odd that the suction in the
Lancair would have been so bad that items lying loose in the baggage bay were
physically lifted several feet.

Finally, for that matter...who piles loose clothing in a baggage bay? I'm
presuming they'd stayed at the cabin and had driven down to the airport. Seems
unlikely that they'd just piled clothes loose in the car, then transferred the
pile to the airplane. Could have been just whatever coats they'd worn that
morning, of course.

I'm starting to wonder if we're looking at a more serious failure, here. My
guess would focus more on a baggage door failure...except I don't think the
plane *had* a baggage door.

Fortunately, his wife survived and will hopefully be able to describe the
sequence of events.

Ron Wanttaja