Looking for canopy openning incidents information
Randy Witlicki
Amos Shapira <am...@gezernet.co.il> wrote:
> My clubs' head instructor asked us (the Internet freaks among the club
> members :) to look for reports about incidents which involved mid-air
> canopy opnenings.
>
> One such incident we heard about happened about a month or two ago
> with a Grob Twin II just like the one we have at our club (and a
> second one expected to arrive soon). But we are interested in any
> such incidents.
Sorry, I don't have any web links or such, but here's some
more opinion :)
From my own flight training:
- When I was taking about my 10th or so aerotow in a 2-33
glider, the instructer, without warning, opened the rear side
window (500 feet, on tow). A logical thing for him to do, because
it was above 90 degress F. that day. I don't know if the intended
effect was for me to think, "no big deal, the side window is open."
- I later took power lessons in a Piper Cherokee (low wing, hot on
summer days, this one had no air conditioner). The instructer
opened a side door right after we dropped below stall speed on
the landing rollout (again another hot day). Again . ""no big deal..."
The point here is that a pilot has to learn that distractions
cannot get in the way of flying the airplane (as somebody said in
the recent thread on the subject: There are three things a pilot
has to do in an emergency: 1) Fly The Airplane 2) Fly The Airplane
3) Fly The Airplane).
"Distractions" are also part of the US FAA training and
examination methodology.
As far as Mid-air canopy openings, I've been behind high-time L-19
tow pilots on hot, calm air days who have stabilized the stick with
their knees and opened both side windows and stuck their arms outside
and flapped them. (This was at altitude, I knew the tow pilot personally,
so there wasn't as risk of me getting out of position, etc.).
I heard another case of of certain sailplane dealer who may have in
his wild and woolly early days may have opened a Blanik canopy while
in the wave, because there were no pee bags on board.
As far as any specific problems with the Grob, I don't know of
any un-latching after it has been properly latched. (I'm one of
those who annoys the line crew by lightly pushed up in the canopy
glass (and smudging it) after triple checking the latch ).
- Randy
-
mary-anne & tom
have occured in the USA. There is a search feature whereby you can search
for accidents only involving gliders. You will then have to read each
accident synopsis to find ones pertaining to open canopies but it shouldn't
take too long.
Note that under regulations here in the USA civilian aircraft
accidents/incidents are only reportable to the NTSB (and therefore included
in the database above) if certain criteria are met....such as death or
serious injury to the pilot/passengers or if substantial damage to the
airplane results. Based on my non-expert reading of the regulations, a
destroyed canopy would be considered substantial damage so unless the
mid-air canopy opening resulted in no damage to the canopy, the airplane, or
the pilot/passenger it would have to be reported to the NTSB.
Regards,
Tom
Amos Shapira wrote in message <87ogprk...@butch.gezernet.co.il>...
>Hello,
Sean
Randy Witlicki <see-signatu...@valley.net.NOSPAM> wrote in article
<73puhk$cso$1...@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>...
(I'm one of those who annoys the line crew by lightly pushed up in the
canopy
glass (and smudging it) after triple checking the latch ).
That's about as annoying as lowering your landing gear before touch
down.<g>
I ALWAYS push up on the canopy to ensure it is latched. Just imagine how
'annoyed' they'd be if you returned 'without' the canopy.
Sean
Bob Leger
> Hello,
>
> My clubs' head instructor asked us (the Internet freaks among the club
> members :) to look for reports about incidents which involved mid-air
> canopy opnenings.
>
> One such incident we heard about happened about a month or two ago
> with a Grob Twin II just like the one we have at our club (and a
> second one expected to arrive soon). But we are interested in any
> such incidents.
>
> Any on-line pointers would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --Amos
>
> --
> --Amos Shapira | "Of course Australia was marked for
> | glory, for its people had been chosen
> am...@gezernet.co.il | by the finest judges in England."
> | -- Anonymous
My club near Toronto, Canada had a conaopy opening incident in about 1991.
It too was a Grob Twin II.
The pilot was going to fly it solo. He opened the rear canopy, locked the
seat
harness, and closed the canopy. He closed the locking mechanism (arm that
moves forward - over the top and down to lock). I watched him do this. He
then
tested it to ensure it wouldn't open.
On take-off, about half way through the tow, the rear canopy opened. It
swung
over on its hinges and banged about. It did not break away.
The pilot released at about 1,000 feet above ground, and immediately joined
the
circuit to land. He did a great job.
The canopy had some crazing that it didn't have before, and a very thin
crack
in its frame, but nothing else. This could have been much more serious.
I have also heard of other Grob Twins having the very same problem, with
rear
canopies in particular. I have never heard of a front one opening.
Good luck!
Mike Lindsay
<am...@gezernet.co.il> writes
>Hello,
>
>My clubs' head instructor asked us (the Internet freaks among the club
>members :) to look for reports about incidents which involved mid-air
>canopy opnenings.
>
>One such incident we heard about happened about a month or two ago
>with a Grob Twin II just like the one we have at our club (and a
>second one expected to arrive soon). But we are interested in any
>such incidents.
>
>Any on-line pointers would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>--Amos
>
Instructor to pupil "When the tug waggles his wings, pull that yellow
knob"
When the wing waggle occured pupil pulled canopy latch.
fortunately instructoe was able to retrieve situation...
--
Mike Lindsay
JVA
few accidents the same year due to canopys opening during take-off.
The recommendation was "A glider flies very well without canopy or with an
open canopy, so if it opens during take-off, don't look at it and keep
piloting "...
Jean
Rich Carr
damage in eight years.
In the first, an interruption in the takeoff checklist led to a
takeoff with the front canopy unlatched. It remained in place until
the aerotow reached about 1000' AGL, when a bump caused the the canopy
to fly open. The rear pilot took the controls while the front pilot
closed and latched the canopy. The only damage was to the canopy
hinges. Although they may have still been serviceable, we replaced
them.
In the second incident, the rear canopy came open at about 200' AGL
after takeoff. This was probably due to a simple checklist failure.
The restraining strap had enough stretch in it to allow the canopy to
shatter on the wing, with some large pieces falling away. The frame
was badly cracked but remained attached.
There have been at least two other incidents (and many have probably
gone unreported) in our club of takeoffs with the canopy unlatched, but
the pilot was alerted by the rattling of the frame or latch and got it
latched before it came open.
We have always used the following guidelines in our operation:
o *Both pilots* (rated or not) are responsible for *both canopies*.
o Always push up on the frame to confirm that the canopy is latched.
o Whenever a canopy is closed, latch it as part of the same motion.
A closed but unlatched canopy is an accident waiting to happen.
o Always return to the beginning of a checklist if the flow is interrupted.
I have always been concerned that the latches in the G103 could easily
be inadvertently unlatched in flight, even if they are properly
latched on takeoff. Perhaps this is an unfounded fear -- has anyone
heard of it happening?
The G103 canopy would be vastly better with a ratcheting latch that at
least partially latches on canopy closure, like virtually every other
car and airplane door latch. This goes for all side-hinged glider
canopies, but the G103 seems particularly susceptible.
- Rich Carr
Pierre Martiquet
It was a TWIN II . They were rather low, but it was ok for landing
everywhere around. In final ( on the airfield), the front passenger ejected
his canopy. The only think he did was to try with his both hands to catch
it. He was the pilot. The Twin crashed. Both pilots were killed.
Sean a écrit dans le message <01be1b70$12a8ebe0$8953f4cc@default>...
Al Bowers
Amos Shapira <am...@gezernet.co.il> writes:
> My clubs' head instructor asked us (the Internet freaks among the club
> members :) to look for reports about incidents which involved mid-air
> canopy opnenings.
An anecdotal story of _NO_ significance to the soaring community,
though of some amusement within the aviation community:
I was involved with the NASA F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV)
for many years. The HARV was a research tool to investigate high
angle of attack aerodynamics and control. The program was laid out in
three stages, the inital stage (when this story took place) was
investigation of the basic F-18 airframe (with extensive research
instrumentation; phase two was with thrust vectoring, and phase three
was with thrust vectoring and forebody controls aka: a nose "rudder").
We had gotten within a couple of flights of completeing phase one.
Bill Dana, the Chief Pilot of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center was
flying the HARV. Bill has a reputation of being a bit ham-fisted
(though undeserved), but things do seem to happen from time to time on
Bill's watch. Two pieces of background information are needed to
fully understand the incident; one is the maneuver, and the other is
the HARV aircraft.
We were doing an airdata calibration point, which requires a large
sweep in angle of attack. The maneuver was to push-over to 0 angle of
attack (alpha) then pull-up to 90 degrees alpha (hey! I said this was
a HIGH alpha research program!) and push back over to 1-G level flight.
The HARV aircraft was Full Scale Development F-18 ship number 6 (that
is a long way to say the 6th hand built prototype). As such, it was
missing svereal "features" that exist on present day F/A-18s (note the
change in designation, that change was _after_ the HARV was built).
Two such changes were the canopy jettison system, and the instrument
panel. the canopy jettison on HARV was built with two external
handles by which an outside observer could actuate the pyrotechnics to
jettison the canopy. These were connected to the instrument panel
jettison handle by cables. On the early FSD F-18s these cables tied
in just underneath the instrument panel. To prevent these cables from
being snagged and jettison the canopy, a cover was supposed to be
installed over them. Instead, later F/A-18s simply did not have the
external jettison capability (current rules say that to get through a
canopy to an incapacitated flight crew you CUT through the canopy with
a chain saw!). As a consequence, not much thought was given to the
first few aircraft that still retained the canopy jettison system.
Back to the flight...
Bill had just pushed over to 0 alpha. This is also zero G. So Bill
floats up out of his seat a bit. And to maintain airspeed during this
very high alpha pull-up, Bill has been slapping the throttles into
maximum afterburner. When the throttles are at max AB, they rest just
under the edge of the instrument panel where the canopy jettison lever
is. Right where the cables connect to the external handles.
Sure enough, Bill's knuckles and his thick gloves just snagged the
cables and jettisoned the canopy. WHOOSH! And it was gone. Just
having spent some time at the US Navy RAG group learning about F-18
systems, I knew that a simply 5 cent check valve was all that
prevented the ejection seat from firing 9which would also result in
loss of the aircraft). The check valve held and Bill stayed in the
HARV.
But as we watched (HARV had a wingtip video of the fuselage forebody,
so we had watched the entire event real-time on the video downlink
feed), we noticed Bill was hunched down in the seat, and he was
staring intently at the instrument panel. A couple of seconds passed,
and Art Tanaka (the Ops Engineer, and mission controller for this
flight) said, "Bill, you lost your canopy" (Art was always good for
staying cool under pressure). Bill, still hunched over, tilts his
head and looks up. Brad Flick (another ops engineer, and always good
for knowing what to do and when) get into the NATOPS manual right away
to find the procedure for loss of canopy. Not finding anything on
this situation, Brad and Art decided that Bill should lower his seat
all the way, and keep his hands on the stick and throttle to prevent
their becoming entrained in the slip stream and not being able to get
them back in (later examination of NATOPS and -1s which incclude loss
of canopy procedures give the exact same actions; lower the seat and
keep your arms inside the cockpit). Bill executed a straight in
approach. And we did get some funny stares from the Air Force as Bill
taxied back in [flying US Navy aircraft from a large US Air Force
complex always gathers a bit more nortoriety than most aircraft do;
though the Navy doesn't know quite to make of us; we have even been
called NAS Edwards (Naval Air Station) instead of NASA].
At the debrief Bill gave additional color commentary to his loss of
canopy. Bill reported he had just gone into afterburner when he had
the loudest engine explosion he had heard in his whole life (having
spent a considerable number of years around jet aircraft, Bill was
rather hard of hearing; so it musta been LOUD!). then when Art came
up on the radio, Bill reported hearing he had lost the canopy as, "The
best news I'd had all day!"
After that, Bill was awarded the "fastest convertible" at Edwards that
day...
I know that doesn't help much. But it still brings a smile to those
of use who remember Bill's career here at Dryden...
Al Bowers ...NASA F-18 HARV Aero: 1987-1996...