Plane crashes into a house at Chelsea, in Melbourne's south-east

[poteroo]

May have been a tip up canopy?

I think it was. My experience is that it's easier to not engage the LHS lock correctly on tip up canopies because they need to be clicked firmly into 'lock'. Slider canopies are easier to spot in the 'unlocked' position because it's directly overhead. My understanding is that the tip up canopy will rise quite alarmingly if unlatched in cruise, whereas the slider is pushed aft - creating draft and pressure waves but is less likely to tear off. It seems more likely that loose contents would exit suddenly from an unsecured tipup than in a slider - but that's just opinion. Doesn't account for the oil though. Perhaps the oil preceeded the canopy disengagement? Was the canopy accidentally opened or intentionally so as to see 'around' the oil on the windscreen? A lot of questions.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

The canopy was located at the crash site.

 

 

[acro]

apparently over 45 knots its extremely hard to open the canopy

 

 

[RV6JOY]

From experience, if an RV6 lift up canopy is left unlocked on take off it only lifts a few inches at the back. You can't then lock it without landing though you can partly close and lock it with the rear canopy lock if it has a slot in the roll bar for this purpose. It causes no control difficulty with the canopy partly open.

 

Know of a slider being left unlocked on takeoff, this caused no difficulty other than they had to land to lock it.

 

Have done many flights in a Jodel D11 with a canopy very similar to an RV slider. We always opened the canopy full before landing to increase drag and stop float on landing. ( no flaps)

 

On a Thorp T18 it is impossible to open the canopy above 80 knots, need two hands below that. Done it often. T18 slider is different to an RV though.

 

"If "an RV slider will open itself when at high speed if left unlocked and the accident aircraft had a shelf covering the baggage area as some have and the items ejected were on this shelf, that may account for their departure.

 

If the canopy slid back suddenly it would most likely hit the pilots head which could account for the sudden descent and accident. Most people have to duck to open the canopy. B