With Scott Alair’s successful return to the airport/open canopy Legacy report, I don’t see the need to model and then assume the model is correct.  My assumption is:   Pilot inputs result in the canopy opening wider… PIO… stall… and loss of control. 

As previously suggested; leave the gear down, make a gentle coordinated turn, maintain 120 knots, very gentle pitch input, don’t change the flap setting until stabilized on long flat final (or don’t touch the flaps), and touch down with an extra 10 to 20 knots.  Don’t try to close the canopy, because you can’t.  Years ago, my hangar mate launched and the tilt forward canopy on his RV6A floated to about 8” open.  He weighs about 225 and he could not get it close enough to latch with most of his weight hanging on the aft rear latch handle.  As I recall, he said the canopy opened wide shortly before or after he touched down.

I like the idea of a well engineered auto hood latch system because the odds catch up to all of us.

Steve Colwell  Legacy