Canopy causes cockpit fire

Just an optical tidbit guys....


The amount of light reflected from such surfaces is usually only gonna be 5 to
10 percent...not much....and not enough to cause a problem

HOWEVER, if a light "ray" intercepts a surface at a VERY shallow angle, you can
get VERY high percentage rate reflections...80/90 percent or more....ie the
light ray is "grazing" the surface....focus THAT much light on a small area and
you can very definitly cause problems...as a matter of fact thats how space
telescopes focus xrays (think about it...how else would you focus xrays

Try it with a piece of glass or plastic or a canopy or a car windshield...

Put the old eyeball close to the surface , looking almost parallel the surface
and you will see stuff in the distance reflected VERY brightly.....almost as if
the surface was a mirror...

So, Im pretty sure that both the shape of the inside of the canopy and the fact
the sun is "grazing" some area of the inside surface is whats causing the
problem....

take care

Blll