Consider that their longeron was directly in line with the horizontal - not so in Lancairs as the horizontal is slight above.  More importantly, the Lancair canopy is not likely to open much more than this pix.  Although PIO could have it flopping around.  This particular pilot lost control and crashed.

 

Others have reported that an unlatched canopy was not a big deal (hmmmmpf).

 

It is possible that the freak accident was the result of either unavoidable loss of control or a sharp pull up which may have changed the airflow over the fuselage to pull the canopy open.

 

Grayhawk

 

See NTSB report for N1177M

 

 

They said that neither of them had their seat belts buckled.  I assume that the canopy was originally closed and that it popped open in flight.  That would have blanked off the air flow over the horizontal stabilizer which would have eliminated the down force that flight surface provides.  The result would have been a possibly violent pitch down which would have floated him out of the cockpit.  There was discussion of trying to bring the aircraft under control.  That was probably attempt to correct the pitch.  One of them was holding on and the other, unfortunately, was not.

 

This accident could happen in a Legacy.  Fasten your seat belts!  They are not that damned uncomfortable!

 

B2

 

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From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Steve Colwell
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2013 1:27 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Freak Accident!

 

My guess is the canopy popped open.  The guy could not reach the handle over his head so he disconnected his seat belt.  He raised up in the seat to grab the handle.  The aircraft pitched down with negative G and out he went…  Just speculating.

 

Steve Colwell  Legacy

 

Re: Freak Accident!

 

I should have said, this should not have happened.  There are checklists and another instructor in the cockpit that should have caught seen the no seat belt.

 

 

 

On Apr 1, 2013, at 4:08 AM, Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net> wrote:

 

http://www.examiner.com/article/body-of-pilot-found-a-tree-line-not-too-far-off-the-road