yankee-flyer
Well Known Member
Pasted in below is my copy of the incident report submitted to my insurance company. Hopefully it will be of some help if anyone has a similar problem. Yes, I am well aware of what I could have/ should have done. I've been through those 2 seconds MANY times. I had the canopy pop open during my second or third PAP flight 5 years ago but that was at cruise conditions and 2500 feet and was a non-event-- other than scaring me at least half to death. I really believe if I'd had another 10 or 15 feet of altitude this might have been the same.
Yes, I plan to install the canopy warning system-- can someone tell me just how that works? It is really necessary to leave the canopy up on the latch handle during long taxies in the summer, and I don't want an alarm scaring my passengers. What I'd REALLY like is a better latch system. preferably one that secures the canopy to the side rail.
Got my fire suit on
Wayne 120241/143WM 351.5 hours/5 years
INCIDENT REPORT
30 October 2015
RV-12 N143WM
On this date I was conducting a local area VFR flight with the intent of burning off fuel in preparation for the annual Condition Inspection I planned to begin the next day. I shot touch and go landings at Greene County Regional, my home airport, Dayton-Wright Brothers airport, and Moraine Airpark (I73) before making a full stop landing at I73. After talking with friends for a while, I began departure from I73 intending to return to I19. Checklist and run-up were normal. Takeoff was made with takeoff trim set and the recommended 1 notch of flaps.
Almost immediately after lift-off the canopy popped open an estimated 8-12 inches? it varied with airspeed. Wind blast knocked my hat off, taking my headset and glasses with it. The aircraft pitched down, there was a loud BANG, and rebounded into the air. I regained control, reduced airspeed to 50-55 knots, and continued to climb. I continued to an open area West of I73 and found that at 1 notch of and 55 knots or less I could pull the canopy back down to get the latch bar under the rollover bar but could not latch it because the sides had spread due to air loads and the canopy pins would not go into their slots. Experimentation showed the airplane was stable and controllable with no apparent problems at 55 KIAS.
Returning back East (I19 is East of I73) I saw a truck drive out to the runway intersection where I?d hit, Circling I73 there was no radio call so I assumed that there was no damage and returned to I19 (10-minute flight at 55 KIAS). Flew a normal pattern (at lower speed) and landed at minimum speed, holding the nose off as long as possible. When the nose dropped it became obvious there was no nosewheel. The prop did not strike the ground and the engine continued to run until shut down. I had no problem remaining on the runway. Inspection showed the nosewheel was gone (recovered later at I73), the fork had folded at the lower bend, and there was about 1/16 inch ground off one prop tip and just slightly more off the other. There were no prop marks on the runway at I19 bet there were at I73. Inspection of the nosewheel fork showed that the welds broke, allowing it to separate from the fork
I have a Master?s in AeroSpace Engineering and spent 37 years as an aircraft design specialist in the Conceptual Design Group ay Wright-Patterson AFB. This is what I believe happened. It is possible that the canopy latch was not completely engaged. It WAS engaged enough to prevent air coming into the cabin (Cool day!) and enough to keep the canopy from rattling during engine runup, mag check, and takeoff run. When the canopy opened, the latch handle sheared the heads off three rivets in the bottom of the roll bar and damaged another. The airplane was trimmed for takeoff and had just lifted off. In those conditions the stabilator is exerting a large downward force to maintain pitch-up angle of attack with the increased wing pitching moment with one notch of flaps. With the canopy up 8-10 inches I believe the airflow over the tail was sufficiently disturbed to reduce the effectiveness of the stabilator and cause the aircraft to pitch down, resulting in nose-first impact with the runway, followed my main gear hitting, then rebounding,at which point I was able to counter the pitch-down force until I was able to almost completely close the canopy.
Yes, I plan to install the canopy warning system-- can someone tell me just how that works? It is really necessary to leave the canopy up on the latch handle during long taxies in the summer, and I don't want an alarm scaring my passengers. What I'd REALLY like is a better latch system. preferably one that secures the canopy to the side rail.
Got my fire suit on
Wayne 120241/143WM 351.5 hours/5 years
INCIDENT REPORT
30 October 2015
RV-12 N143WM
On this date I was conducting a local area VFR flight with the intent of burning off fuel in preparation for the annual Condition Inspection I planned to begin the next day. I shot touch and go landings at Greene County Regional, my home airport, Dayton-Wright Brothers airport, and Moraine Airpark (I73) before making a full stop landing at I73. After talking with friends for a while, I began departure from I73 intending to return to I19. Checklist and run-up were normal. Takeoff was made with takeoff trim set and the recommended 1 notch of flaps.
Almost immediately after lift-off the canopy popped open an estimated 8-12 inches? it varied with airspeed. Wind blast knocked my hat off, taking my headset and glasses with it. The aircraft pitched down, there was a loud BANG, and rebounded into the air. I regained control, reduced airspeed to 50-55 knots, and continued to climb. I continued to an open area West of I73 and found that at 1 notch of and 55 knots or less I could pull the canopy back down to get the latch bar under the rollover bar but could not latch it because the sides had spread due to air loads and the canopy pins would not go into their slots. Experimentation showed the airplane was stable and controllable with no apparent problems at 55 KIAS.
Returning back East (I19 is East of I73) I saw a truck drive out to the runway intersection where I?d hit, Circling I73 there was no radio call so I assumed that there was no damage and returned to I19 (10-minute flight at 55 KIAS). Flew a normal pattern (at lower speed) and landed at minimum speed, holding the nose off as long as possible. When the nose dropped it became obvious there was no nosewheel. The prop did not strike the ground and the engine continued to run until shut down. I had no problem remaining on the runway. Inspection showed the nosewheel was gone (recovered later at I73), the fork had folded at the lower bend, and there was about 1/16 inch ground off one prop tip and just slightly more off the other. There were no prop marks on the runway at I19 bet there were at I73. Inspection of the nosewheel fork showed that the welds broke, allowing it to separate from the fork
I have a Master?s in AeroSpace Engineering and spent 37 years as an aircraft design specialist in the Conceptual Design Group ay Wright-Patterson AFB. This is what I believe happened. It is possible that the canopy latch was not completely engaged. It WAS engaged enough to prevent air coming into the cabin (Cool day!) and enough to keep the canopy from rattling during engine runup, mag check, and takeoff run. When the canopy opened, the latch handle sheared the heads off three rivets in the bottom of the roll bar and damaged another. The airplane was trimmed for takeoff and had just lifted off. In those conditions the stabilator is exerting a large downward force to maintain pitch-up angle of attack with the increased wing pitching moment with one notch of flaps. With the canopy up 8-10 inches I believe the airflow over the tail was sufficiently disturbed to reduce the effectiveness of the stabilator and cause the aircraft to pitch down, resulting in nose-first impact with the runway, followed my main gear hitting, then rebounding,at which point I was able to counter the pitch-down force until I was able to almost completely close the canopy.