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How to install the canopy jettison in plane I didn't build

samgaddis

Member
Though I am definitely going to build an RV someday, I bought my first one and this means I know very little about how these things come together. So I'm hoping someone can explain to me roughly how one would go about installing a canopy jettison mechanism in a 14A. I'd like to have one of those before doing gentleman's aerobatics.

I purchased the remote jettison handle, but the diagram that came with it didn't clarify much. I will certainly be finding an experienced builder or A&P to help with this project, but I'd love to get a better sense for how big a job it is.
 
Do you know if the jettison hardware that came with the kit is installed on your 14? I would expect it is and if the standard handle wasn’t installed then I would expect the hardware was secured in place somehow so it holds the lock pins in place permanently. If the builder didn’t install the pins and internal hardware I would think this would be a big job. If all the hidden hardware is installed then the retro remote release handle shouldn’t be a huge job for an experienced builder.
 
My suggestion is that you get a set of the RV-14 build plans (if you don't already have them). You should have a set for use maintaining the airplane anyway), and then start looking at the canopy mechanism and compare it to what you see on your airplane.

If everything is in place except for the original pull handle that directed aft through the instrument panel, then you should be all set to install the remote kit.
 
Take a look at statistics on Vans RV’s where the canopy was jettisoned and the occupants got out. I think the answer is very close to zero. It’s extremely difficult to get out of a out of control aircraft successfully unless it was designed around that eventuality which Vans aircraft are not. Is the canopy going to hit the tail? Are you going to hit the tail? Is the canopy going to hit you? Will you wear a helmet with the chutes? The two should go together if you are serious as well as getting some parachute jump training.
 
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Canopy Jettison

I put my jettison handle under the panel at the top of the circuit breaker panel. I am labeling it "Maintenance Only" mostly because I think that is the only practical purpose for having it. :cool:
 
I for one will say that anybody that builds the (any) aircraft and doesn't put in the canopy release hardware is missing something somewhere.
I bought an RV-6A without the release and I can tell you it was no picnic to build the supports and install the cable system to get the release done.
''Like'' how you going to ever take the canopy off if you want to build a new panel as I did.
Crawl under the panel to get at the two nuts on the pins????? How easy is that????
In my own opinion I thought "" How could somebody build this thing without the release system""" And just throw away the parts for it. Just plain stupid in my own opinion.
I've had the canopy off a half dozen times in 3 years of ownership.
Do what ever it takes to get a release system in place. Cable or rod it doesn't matter.
My luck is different than yours so have at it. Oh ya have fun!! Art
 
My suggestion is that you get a set of the RV-14 build plans (if you don't already have them). You should have a set for use maintaining the airplane anyway), and then start looking at the canopy mechanism and compare it to what you see on your airplane.

If everything is in place except for the original pull handle that directed aft through the instrument panel, then you should be all set to install the remote kit.

I have the plans and I suspect the answer to whether or not this aircraft was prepared for the canopy is behind this tape. Fingers crossed.
 

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From a practical viewpoint it would be hard to complete the build without installing the jettison mechanism, minus the handle: I had to remove/replace the canopy many times to do various tasks (used a temporary handle zip tied in place). I could see how one might do the all the build work then fix the mechanism in place (so pins can't retract) which should be pretty easy to modify to add the jettison capability back.

During my build I considered not having the handle accessible as I didn't plan to do aerobatics or fly with a parachute, however Scott made the point in another thread that ground egress is a valid use case for the jettison handle - this tipped the balance for me.
 
I have the plans and I suspect the answer to whether or not this aircraft was prepared for the canopy is behind this tape. Fingers crossed.

The hardware may be there with the rod/pull handle omitted due to clearance issues with the AP control head when the canopy is lowered. I had this exact issue except , my solution was to cut the pull handle shorter and make it flush to the sub panel and use as a mx only function.
 
Is the canopy going to hit the tail? Are you going to hit the tail? Is the canopy going to hit you? Will you wear a helmet with the chutes? The two should go together if you are serious as well as getting some parachute jump training.

The original RV-6 did not have the lift struts on the canopy. The canopy "hold-up" was via a strut that was disconnected from the canopy upon closure. I suggest that if you intend to use the jettison feature in flight that you disconnect the lift struts for that flight. This will most likely prevent the canopy from hitting you as it will lift from the front first. You shouldn't care about the canopy hitting the tail, as you will be leaving the aircraft anyway. There is always the possibility of you hitting a part of the aircraft upon exit, but that will always be the case when exiting an "out of control" aircraft.

I flew my RV-6 for over 25 years and removed the canopy twice. NEVER in flight!
 
I have the plans and I suspect the answer to whether or not this aircraft was prepared for the canopy is behind this tape. Fingers crossed.
Might I suggest removing that little piece of tape and looking. When you do, take a picture and post it. There is a connection point for the release mechanism that is directly behind that taped hole.
 
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The original RV-6 did not have the lift struts on the canopy. The canopy "hold-up" was via a strut that was disconnected from the canopy upon closure. I suggest that if you intend to use the jettison feature in flight that you disconnect the lift struts for that flight. This will most likely prevent the canopy from hitting you as it will lift from the front first. You shouldn't care about the canopy hitting the tail, as you will be leaving the aircraft anyway. There is always the possibility of you hitting a part of the aircraft upon exit, but that will always be the case when exiting an "out of control" aircraft.

I flew my RV-6 for over 25 years and removed the canopy twice. NEVER in flight!


The problem with the canopy hitting the tail is it might cause a violent departure making exiting the aircraft very difficult.
 
Mine's connected and here's what it looks like from below. Depending on your body type :) it's fairly easy to look under there without removing seats etc, just sit in the left seat and lean backwards under the right panel with your feet outside the airplane

IMG_1970.jpg
 
PS If you're going to have a jettisonable canopy, make sure it will cleanly disconnect (on its way out) from all the wiring, antennas, whatever attach to it. Some of the wiring and cables may be strong enough to cause it to whip around and cause injury before (if) they break.

On mine, the 2 db9 plugs that feed the canopy equipment are held together by twist ties :)

IMG_2166.jpg
 
Show of hands...

Has anyone actually jettisoned their canopy in a real emergency and lived to tell about it? Just curious.
 
I wanted the jettison handle for a few reasons. One as previously mentioned for maintenance. The other for an off field landing with a nose over. If you end up on your back either in a field or even worse water I think the emergency release will allow the front of the canopy to drop down enough allowing the canopy to slide out from underneath the fuselage.
 
If you have an account at vans aircraft you can sign in at the store page and then click on your name where you get a drop down menu with downloadable plans.

You can also reference the plans at the WIKI (see below)

you are looking for section 35-01 in the fuselage plans

The remote jettison is not required if you have room in your panel for the original jettison handle.

If you are going to install the remote you will need to get up under the forward fuselage. Buying the access panel kit might also help.

As far as not installing it "in case the canopy hits the tail...." I would personally prefer to have it and at least try to save my life vs wishing I had installed it after its too late.

There's also a maintenance notes PDF, and flight info PDF you might find useful in the WIKI
 
I wanted the jettison handle for a few reasons. One as previously mentioned for maintenance. The other for an off field landing with a nose over. If you end up on your back either in a field or even worse water I think the emergency release will allow the front of the canopy to drop down enough allowing the canopy to slide out from underneath the fuselage.

The pivot point of the canopy is under and in front of the sub panel. The back of the canopy must be above the roll bar for the canopy to move back about 3 inches (guess) before the front will lift up..... or in your case drop down.

It's not just a case of pulling the T handle and jump.

1 Release O/H latch
2 seatbelts
3 canopy latch
4 pull T handle

The air stream and struts should push the canopy back and over the roll bar by a few inches as the front slides back enough to allow the hinges to clear the sub panel. The front will lift and is caught in the stream. The back will drop (if the struts hold) and hit the roll bar as it pivots around the struts and pulls away (hopefully) from the struts causing it to flip over the tail.....

5 you jump

At that point, you no longer own the aircraft.

A far better plan may be getting proper training so you don't get to that point, and if you do, you know how to fly out of it.

Never try to do something the airplane was not designed to do.
 
GASMAN I think you are misinformed on the RV 14 canopy release. If you look at the enclosed pictures when the pins are pulled inboard by the release mechanism the canopy hinge will be able to move straight up out of its slot.

From previous articles on tip up canopy accidental inflight openings the aft part of the canopy moves up from the negative pressure above it, think top of a wing. It is very hard if not impossible to close once opened. It is safe to assume that if there were no pin holding the front of the canopy down, the whole canopy would get sucked up by the same physics. Once this happens the big question is will it catch air in the front and tumble rearward or something else. Helmets highly recommended I would say.

The Canopy is held in place to the roll bar by the aft locking pins. This would keep the aft part of the canopy from initially moving up during the jettison process resulting in the front of the canopy being pulled up by negative pressure. The front of the canopy would now catch air and create even more of an upward and aft tumble of the canopy. The Aft locking pins would pull out of the holes as the canopy pivoted up. Between the negative pressure above and the positive pressure created by catching air the canopy should have a pretty good upward vector with an associated aft tumble. I believe this should get it above the tail.

The associated pitch down that folks have reported with tip up canopy inflight opening I believe is a result of the change in aerodynamics from the canopy in effect either pushing the nose down on the hinge or changing airflow over the horizontal tail. This nose down pitch has been reported as pretty strong. This demonstrates the strength of the upward pull on the canopy. Will the airplane pitch down if the whole canopy departs? Not sure but a certain amount of downward pitch moment might help to clear the tail from the aft and upward moving canopy. WWII German pilots used to trim nose down to facilitate bailing out. They would depart the aircraft almost as if in ejection seats ending up above the aircraft. See below.

If one is in a situation where they are having to bail out, chances are its from severe damage or uncontained fire and knowing how to “properly” fly the airplane in unusual attitudes will not help if the airplane is uncontrollable. Same thing if one can't put a fire out. Once uncontrolled having the tail hit or not will probably not add much more to the situation. You would be leaving any way. If one is tumbling it just might change the tumble but keep going. Without the canopy and canopy forward and side frame, a large part of your body in the RV14 is above remaining airplane structure, and you have a high chance of being thrown from a wildly out of control aircraft vs stuck in it.

It appears a lot of folks associate damage to the rudder with uncontrolled pitch down. This would only happen if the horizontal stab or empennage was torn of from said impact. Rudder damage to a small aircraft can result in a flyable airplane. Land able…. Not so sure. But definitely bail out able. I am willing to bet my life on it.

For a cool video on a BUFF with the rudder torn off see bellow.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/news/a27584/b-52-landed-without-a-tail-fin/

So It actually kind of is the case of pulling the T handle and jumping. You state something about releasing the overhead latch. That’s pre RV14. But even with earlier model numbers the overhead latch would just create a beneficial pitch point to get the front of the canopy moving up. Releasing it would create a nose down pitch acerbating a bad situation. I highly recommend NOT doing this. The Canopy latches DO NOT need to be unlocked to jettison the canopy as I believe in pre RV14s they are similar pins that go into the rollbar. I could be corrected on this.

I personally would accomplish a bail out by pulling the T handle and then releasing the seatbelt throw the shoulder harnesses behind and then try to do a jump straight up.

If the aircraft is controllable, I would take time to trim as far nose down as I could safely go to facilitate a jump.

If the up and out option was a no go then rolling down over the trailing edge of the wing would be plan B.

https://youtu.be/0sd6R0aBJkE

Having some kind of retractable reel that is hard connected to the aircraft and clipped to one's rip cord might facilitate parachute opening in case of incapacitation on the way out.

If we could find a RC enthusiast and crowd fund buying a large scale RV 14 model that could be configured to do a canopy jettison ala the real aircraft it would be an interesting test to show actual aerodynamics in action on a jettison. Film it with a slow motion camera and we would have a neat YouTube video. Maybe even make some money for the maker.
 

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A little clarification on remote release and access panels

you are looking for section 35-01 in the fuselage plans

Section 35 in the RV-14(A) KAI covers the original canopy release. A good illustration of the various parts in the assembly is Figure 1 on p. 35-17. The optional remote canopy release kit is the OP-63 kit, which frees up space in the radio stack area of the panel.

The remote jettison is not required if you have room in your panel for the original jettison handle.


If you are going to install the remote you will need to get up under the forward fuselage. Buying the access panel kit might also help.

The access panel kit is a little obscure on the Van's store. Look for the OP-43 Avionics Bay Access Panel Kit.

There are two challenging tasks that I've come across so far when installing the OP-63 kit in a completed fuse: (1) drilling the holes to mount the F-14193 to the F-01493, which I accomplished using a Dremel flexible extension, and (2) removing some material from the F-01493 and the C-01436 to allow the C-01435-L and -R Canopy Release Pushrods to move freely with the pin retraction mechanism reversed, which accommodates a cable pulling from the front (firewall side) instead of a handle pulling from the rear (instrument panel side).

If anyone has any hot tips on how to accomplish Step 1 on page OP 63-06 in a completed RV-14(A) fuse without creating a huge mess, I'd love to hear them.

It seems to me the OP-63 kit could have been designed to avoid Step 1 on page 0P 63-06, removal of material from the F-01493 and the C-01436 in a difficult-to-access space, but it might have required a different design of the WD-618-1 and the F-14193 so the pushrods could have stayed in their original locations. And the production volume on this optional kit is probably quite low. Another nuance is that the original handle design appears to maximize the average torque pulling the handle applies to the WD-619 by pulling the WD-618-1 through a +/- 45 degree (approx.) range. The remote release kit has peak torque (or nearly so) at the beginning of the pull, with the cable perpendicular (or nearly so) to the arm of WD-618-1, diminishing to near zero at the end of the pull, with the cable nearly parallel to the arm of the WD-618-1, based on what I can gather from the drawings.

Update:
I figured out how to solve the problem in the last paragraph above. I bought a new WD-618-1 and WD-619 and drilled them so they rotate in the same direction as the KAI Section 35 design, which obviates the need to remove material from the F-01493 and C-01436. I designed a mirror-image version of the F-14193 that mounts on the opposite side of the F-01493 as compared to the OP 63 design to accommodate the cable pointing aft and left instead of aft and right. I had the part made by SendCutSend, along with a couple of spacers that are required to mount the mirror-image part on the flange side of the F-01493. SendCutSend charged me less than $50 for the three parts.

Flight Chops installed his remote canopy release above his G5 on the left side of the panel, instead of using one of the options in OP-63.

I've seen several pictures of these handles, and nobody seems to be putting the yellow stripes on them that are called for in Step 8 of OP 63-04: "Step 8: Paint the CT A-1770 T-handle with diagonal yellow stripes, signifying it is an emergency use item."
 
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