I think the high percentage decision here is leave the canopy open, release as soon as it is clearly safe to do so.

In primary training in a 2-33, my instructor had me fly straight and level at 45 - 50 mph and open the canopy. And in a 2-33 you can really open, and close the canopy at 50 mph with no issues. The point of the lesson was "the glider flies just fine with the canopy open", so: no need to panic if it flies open on its own accord, no need to try to do three things with two hands. The point was made by the instructor that if the canopy did blow open on tow, it wasn't going to be nearly so easy to deal with as flying slowly in free flight.

And there's the possibility that things can go *very* badly if you do insist on getting fancy trying to do all this stuff on departure.

This is one of the very saddest stories I know in soaring:

http://tinyurl.com/l8xatk8

I can't even imagine what it would be like to live with that on my conscience.

So... I've already figured this one out. If I somehow fail and the canopy opens on tow, I leave it, release as soon as it is clearly safe to do so.

Evan Ludeman / T8