Re: Surviving a mid-air canopectomy
Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 2:03 am
chief4192 wrote:other pilots who have also experienced this situation are not available for comment
From reading the forum over the years, I'm pretty sure several pilots have survived. It seems high AoA and difficulty climbing is common. I'm really curious about your observations of a high IAS; not sure anyone else has mentioned that, but I think there is at least one video that might show it. Did you feel like you didn't have enough pitch authority to get the nose down, or do you think you were just being misled by the high IAS? It seems the advice to others in this situation would be to try to keep the sight-picture of the landing area well above the glareshield. I believe others have also ended up short of the runway or beyond the runway in cases where the canopy departed on takeoff.
Did the wind impact your ability to see or focus, or did the windshield protect you?
It seems pinning the canopy should be one of the most critical parts of the checklist. My pin is tied to the canopy handle and I never close the canopy without also pinning it, but it only takes one mistake. I didn't install the spring mechanism Sonex shows in the plans and I sometimes wonder if omitting that is a mistake.