RV-7 Pop-up canopy

Hello Everybody,

Has anybody had a pop-up canopy accidentally open in flight? I would appreciate comments, feed back, etc.

Thanks

Check the archives. It happens but the canopy stays mostly closed because of the airflow.

Greg

I've never heard of one accidentally opening in flight. It would take both the canopy latch and safety handle latch to come open. It is however quite easy to have the canopy open on the takeoff roll because both latches are are open. The canopy will remained closed with just the safety handle latch closed and not be noticeable until you detect a slight noise increase from the very small gap between the canopy and fuselage.

Open Canopy

Dear Steve,

Thank you kindly for your reply. The person I was talking to yesterday at my hangar had that happened in flight and stated the canopy open in flight quite a bit on his RV-6.

I am building an RV-7 with the pop-up style canopy and his description of the incident got my attention.

Again, thanks for all and any comments on this potential safety issue.

Walt

Best thing to do if you find you left your canopy unlatched is to leave it alone and let it float. Keep your speed down and return and land then latch it.

I could imagine the opportunity for an accident could increase if someone starts trying to close one while on climb out which some say is hard to impossible due to the lift on the canopy.

Good advice Brian. Don't monkey with anything close to the ground.

However, if the top latch is closed but the side latch is open AND at a safe altitude you can try closing the side latch. I found mine can be closed at about 60kts.

Just don't forget job #1........Fly the airplane!

I found that I had forgotten my side (main) latches once when I was half-way across a body of water that I didn't want to land in. The top latch was holding, but I slowed and my passenger and I leaned our elbows on the inside corners of the canopy and were able to pull it down far enough to get the latch engaged. I didn't record how slow I got, but I don't think I was down to 60 kts. As I recall, we did a climb/dive cycle to unload the canopy, leaned on the inside, and hit the latch. Remainder of flight was uneventful.

rv7flyer said:

Dear Steve,

Thank you kindly for your reply.

Walt

Click to expand...

You're welcome.

I have to admit that I have also had to close my tip up canopy twice in flight after leaving the side latch unlocked. Once reaching a safe altitude, one needs only to slow to an airspeed you would typically use to practice slow flight (approximately 65kts) then pull down on the top latch handle and lock the side handle. If you have an autopilot it can be done easily, but it is not difficult to do without an autopilot.