You folks can also fing lots of canopy latch systems in Tony Bingelis
books.
-----------------------------------------From: "victor taylor via
KRnet"
To: "KRnet"
Cc: "victor taylor"
Sent: Tuesday January 24 2023 9:36:50PM
Subject: Re: KRnet> Canopy Fix
While I mostly agree with Mark and also feel the canopy should be
hinged at the front: if you have one already hinged at the side there
may be hope and a safer method. I just build a Drongonfly canopy latch
that is virtually identical to the Long EZ latch for N47MG. I have a
lot of time in Long EZ’s and haven’t ever heard of a canopy
opening in flight on one that was latched. There is a safety catch
just in case it does come open. If you are still building then for
sure go with the forward hinge but if you already have a flying
airplane and don’t like what you have look at the Long EZ /
Dragonfly type latch.
Victor Taylor
Irvington, AL
> On Jan 24, 2023, at 9:02 PM, Mark Langford wrote:
>
>
> On 1/24/2023 7:34 PM, John Gotschall via KRnet wrote:
>
> Is there a vacuum above a kr canopy in flight that makes it pop up?
> -----------------------
>
> I've talked to two KR pilots in the last few days who both said
they'd forgotten to latch the canopy and it only opened a few inches
in flight. This is with a forward hinged canopy, so yes there's down
pressure on the front, but the lift at the rear is stronger, at least
that's been my experience. I've forgotten to latch one side of the
canopy on two different KRs, and the unlatched side rises a couple of
inches, and other side stays put. This happens on takeoff, so the
speeds are low, and I'm sure it gets worse with more speed. Problem
is, the force is so high that I couldn't pull it shut to latch it, so
I did one circuit at super slow speed and landed to latch it.
>
> Joe Horton told me last night that he has deliberately opened his
canopy in flight (also probably at low speed) when a blown oil seal
blew so much smoke into the cockpit he couldn't see where he was
going, and again, it only rises a few inches.
>
> A side hinged canopy WILL blow off, even on the ground. The first
time I started N891JF without adult supervision, the canopy (which was
shut but not latches) opened so quickly that it broke the limiting
strap. was lucky to catch the cross-brace in time to keep it from
being ripped off the plane, and that was just on startup, not on
run-up! I had to fly it home from Omaha with a C-clamp on that side.
That's what happened to John Schaffer (if I remember correctly), but
I'm not sure why the canopy departed in the first place, as it was
latched and he was flying at 8000' or so, is my recollection. Maybe
he'll chime in on that.
>
> I do recall that Alan Buzza at Perth had his side-hinged canopy
open ion takeoff (don't know if it was unlatched or not) and that it
immediately killed the lift on one side and he crashed near the end of
the runway.
>
> Moral of these stories is don't fly a side-hinged canopy.
Directions on how to fix that are at
>
> http://www.n56ml.com/n891jf/canopyhinge/
/> >
> Don't worry....you don't need a lathe to build your hinge points.
I've got a lot of hours this thing, so it works. I recently hit 200
mph in it (in a three second dive) and wasn't worried about the canopy
at all.
>
> Mark Langford
> m...@n56ml.com
> http://www.n56ml.com [1]
> Huntsville, AL
>
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> https://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet
/>
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------
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