Posted Saturday, December 12, 2009 @ 08:47 AM
Hi Guys,
The British call them DV (Direct Vision) windws. I don’t know what Americans or Australians call them, but I’m referring to the small window in the left of your canopy.
I know that window’s where most of the cracks start, and I had been going to order my next canopy without it, but the passage of time and a little insight has changed my mind.
As well as its usual purpose of being somewhere convenient to get your hand inside to lock or unlock the canopy, that window has two vital purposes which, although not often used, could be life-savers.
If, after a long, cold flight, your canopy mists up or ices up, you can fly a curved approach, keeping the runway in sight until the last minute when, with a little peripheral vision, you can gauge your height through it to flare and land.
I have done so, although not with mist or ice on my canopy, but with a thick film of black oil obscuring all forward vision after the pressure gauge line blew. By the way, my oil was not black from over-long use, but from the molybdenum disulphide I use for inverted lubrication – see my post elsewhere.
If you don’t believe you can use that tiny window in this way, try it, just as you practice all emergency procedures.
More importatnly, when you crash, as you surely will one day if you fly a lot, your rescuers can easily get the canopy open through that window – at least they can if it’s open and properly placarded.
Here are a couple of photos of a flying club frind of mine who did not have such a window in his canopy. Although rescuers (members of local EAA chapters) were on the scene mmediately, they could not get into the cockpit to get him out while the fire spread. He was badly burned.
For that reason, I now make a habit of ensuring my DV window is always open for take-off and landing. A few seconds saved during my rescue might save an awful lot of pain later. Yes, the radio suffers background noise from the exhausts outside, but I think that’s a small price to pay for a quick rescue.
Think about it.
Yours, Bob
