What to do if the canopy opens during flight ?

Hi,
In the video at www.fulldeflection.com , Kirby Chambliss has his
canopy fly open during flight.
He was very cool about it. I think he made all the right choices.

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

Imagine if Svetlana Kapanina, or Patty Wagstaff had their canopies
open. There'd be hair everywhere.

Superdoof.

"Superdoof" wrote in message
...

The answer to your question is to put everything else out of your mind that
does not involve flying the aircraft. Fly the plane! With one notable
exception that comes quickly to mind (Katana), your plane will fly just fine
with the canopy open (or gone).

Actually, canopies are dangerous things. They tend to be very expensive, and
tend to not be "idiot proof". That is, if the pilot fails to check the security
of the canopy before flight, it might fly open on takeoff, a really bad time for
a pilot to be distracted! I keep a file of glider canopy accidents. Some
involve fatalities.



--
Vaughn


Nothing personal, but if you are posting through Google Groups I may not receive
your message. Google refuses to control the flood of spam messages originating
in their system, so on any given day I may or may not have Google blocked. Try
a real NNTP server & news reader program and you will never go back. All you
need is access to an NNTP server (AKA "news server") and a news reader program.
You probably already have a news reader program in your computer (Hint: Outlook
Express). Assuming that your Usenet needs are modest, use
http://news.aioe.org/ for free and/or http://www.teranews.com/ for a one-time
$3.95 setup fee.


Will poofread for food.

On Aug 15, 4:40*pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.


What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

First you open the window, then you grab the door by the window frame,
push out hard against the relative wind, then slam it close. You don't
even need to slow down, unless you are a wimp or something.

On Aug 16, 11:21*am, buttman wrote:
On Aug 15, 4:40*pm, Superdoof wrote:



I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

First you open the window, then you grab the door by the window frame,
push out hard against the relative wind, then slam it close. You don't
even need to slow down, unless you are a wimp or something.

You need to either get the door catch fixed or do your pre take off
checks properly.

Cheers

buttman wrote in news:09c6c89f-3978-48a9-805a-
:

On Aug 15, 4:40*pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.


What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

IOW you don't know how to secure the door in your airplane and you don't
know how to squawk an airplane to a mechanic.



Bertie

On Aug 15, 5:24*pm, More_Flaps wrote:
On Aug 16, 11:21*am, buttman wrote:



On Aug 15, 4:40*pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

First you open the window, then you grab the door by the window frame,
push out hard against the relative wind, then slam it close. You don't
even need to slow down, unless you are a wimp or something.

You need to either get the door catch fixed or do your pre take off
checks properly.

Cheers

I was exagerating on the amount of instances the door has popped open.
More like 50 or 100 instances.

The C152 door latch was very poorly designed. Its not like Piper/
Beechcraft latches or even a 172 latch. There is no locking mechanism.
The way they work is theres a little bolt thing that sticks out from
the door that gets wedged between these gears in the door frame. As
those planes age the latch gets weaker and weaker to where you have to
slam them every time, and even then, it'll still pop open.

On Aug 16, 11:32 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
buttman wrote in news:09c6c89f-3978-48a9-805a-
:

On Aug 15, 4:40 pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

IOW you don't know how to secure the door in your airplane and you don't
know how to squawk an airplane to a mechanic.


:-)
The door opening on a C150-152 is no worry.
You have an 85 knot air stream that's going to hold it from opening
any further.
Aircraft with sliding canopies can be flown with the canopy ajar and
even fully open..

george wrote in
:

On Aug 16, 11:32 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
buttman wrote in news:09c6c89f-3978-48a9-805a-
:

On Aug 15, 4:40 pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna
152. My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the
door just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it
would be safe to leave open.

What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping
open.

IOW you don't know how to secure the door in your airplane and you
don't know how to squawk an airplane to a mechanic.


:-)
The door opening on a C150-152 is no worry.
You have an 85 knot air stream that's going to hold it from opening
any further.
Aircraft with sliding canopies can be flown with the canopy ajar and
even fully open..



Some can. I did have th ecanopy on a Blanik open in flight. KIt made
quite a mess when it crashed agains the side of the fuselage. The
remnants came crashing back and the glide angle was severely affected by
the big hole in the airplane.

Bertie

In article
,
Superdoof wrote:

Hi,
In the video at www.fulldeflection.com , Kirby Chambliss has his
canopy fly open during flight.
He was very cool about it. I think he made all the right choices.

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

Imagine if Svetlana Kapanina, or Patty Wagstaff had their canopies
open. There'd be hair everywhere.

Superdoof.

It depends on the airplane. Bonanzas,Comanche, Cherokees, etc. can fly
safely, at reduced speed, until landing. The big mistake a lot of
Bonanza pilots have made is exactly the procedure outlined above. They
stalled, the airplane snapped and they went in.

Best procedure is to slow down to best glide speed, either leave the
door alone or have a passenger (if available) hold the back side of the
door to keep it from fluttering, and land at the nearest airport.

The plane will fly quite nicely (and safely) under these conditions.

Some experimentals may experience disruption of the airflow over the
tail and may be in a heap o' hurt if the canopy opens in flight; others
have no problem.

--
Remove _'s from email address to talk to me.

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:32:34 -0700 (PDT), buttman
wrote:

On Aug 15, 5:24*pm, More_Flaps wrote:
On Aug 16, 11:21*am, buttman wrote:



On Aug 15, 4:40*pm, Superdoof wrote:

I've had a door open a few times during flight too, on a Cessna 152.
My instructor showed me how to close it in-flight.

You slow down to nearly stall speed, which means you can open the door
just wide enough to slam it well enough to close. Although it would be
safe to leave open.

What? You don't even need to do that. I have about 800 hours in a
C152, which means I've about 800 instances of the door popping open.

First you open the window, then you grab the door by the window frame,
push out hard against the relative wind, then slam it close. You don't
even need to slow down, unless you are a wimp or something.

You need to either get the door catch fixed or do your pre take off
checks properly.

Cheers

I was exagerating on the amount of instances the door has popped open.
More like 50 or 100 instances.

The C152 door latch was very poorly designed. Its not like Piper/
Beechcraft latches or even a 172 latch. There is no locking mechanism.
The way they work is theres a little bolt thing that sticks out from
the door that gets wedged between these gears in the door frame. As
those planes age the latch gets weaker and weaker to where you have to
slam them every time, and even then, it'll still pop open.

it has stuff all to do with the door latch.
that aircraft has a vent problem. air inlets working but air outlets
blocked.
Stealth Pilot