Canopy opening in flight

On Monday, August 27, 2018 at 6:06:44 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 11:05:16 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
On Sunday, August 26, 2018 at 4:35:35 AM UTC-7, Tom wrote:
Anyone know of an occurrence of a forward hinged canopy that opening in flight? Any possibility of this happening if the forward hinged canopy was unlocked on a flight?

Thanks Tom

Definitely. DG canopies have a single locking pin which can't be closed in flight once unlocked. I have had this happen to me. Another local pilot had it happen in a DG400; a wind gust blew the canopy open and twisted sideways, bending the mechanism. You can't depend upon wind pressures keeping it closed.

Tom

I'm embarrassed to admit that I did open the canopy on my ASW24 many years ago to free a pinched pee tube. There were no problems at all, just a slight and steady push to the closed position. I guess I lifted the canopy by about 4-6" in the back. I must have used one hand to hold the canopy and the other to pull on the tube. You guessed it: nobody was flying the glider.
Herb

More than once when flying a Grob 103 from back seat with owner or another line pilot they would open the front canopy a few inches to ventilate the hot air out. I was told I could do that and how, but not my glider and I like flying there, so I will not try that. I found in a piper seneca the door pops open an inch or two but can't close it in flight. In an MD500 helicopter, you would have to come to a hover for someone to get a door closed which is why I CLOSED all the doors on the 500 EVERY TIME , even when a gruff high pilot told me he was competent enough to close his own door, he wasn't. Important point here, fly the aircraft. I also witnessed a mishap when the door came open on a Beach Baron (pops open a few inches and stays there) but this "pilot" declared and emergency and then came back and landed hard enough to do real damage to the landing gear and close both runways, right on the intersection. I was surprised as panicked as he was that he did not leave a smoking hole.