Canopy opening in flight

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

No issues in the LS6, at least during tow. Mine has a tendency to mis-locate the locking pins if I rush a takeoff (yeah, blame the glider.. ;^), and it's no big deal to slow down after release and lock the canopy correctly. As a precaution I only unlock and relock one release at a time, but I doubt even that precaution is necessary.

Grob-103 canopy latches are evil. Had a rear one start to open on me during the takeoff during a ride (I was flying from the back with the pax in front) and managed to grab it before it opened more than an inch or two, but single handed on tow could not latch it or force it closed. Had the pax release at a safe altitude and flew a no-spoiler approach, then closed it on rollout to use the brakes to stop. In retrospect I could have tried slipping at low speed to close it inflight, but I don't plan on having to do it again (but of course, you just can't trust gliders...)

Kirk

I saw a 1-34 pilot who got a bit rushed during take-off. The canopy flew open and broke but stay attached. The pilot lost his hat and glasses but landed without incident. Like Mark M, I took off with my Pegasus canopy unlatched and heard some rattling. I'm not sure how I screwed that up. The glider was new to me and I think the closed position was opposite of the club's Grob Twin or L23? Most of my previous flights were in an ASW 15 with a completely different latching system. Latching the Peg canopy once off tow was simple. Lesson learned.