OPEN CANOPY

Ed, know that the canopies have been known to depart So I did not often fly in the wide open, only back a few inches in flight. 5644F had good air flow that way. If you go back on Topic there has been a lot on this...

It takes 2 hands to latch my canopy. 65 Alon. When I have a passenger who wants to fly topless I’ll leave it rolled back. After flying for a while with it back at nearly 100 mph I’ll roll it fwd and leave it unlatched.

Completely unlatched it will stay there without issue, but it has a tendency to bind up one of the latches. After landing it takes a minute to un-bugger the latch to roll the canopy back.

If I’m flying solo I’ll just unlatch one side. The other side tends to have a 1 1/2” gap that greatly increases cabin circulation.

I have had one of the latches come undone in solo flight.  I had to abandon the controls to use both hands.  One to push the canopy fwd, the other to secure the latch. 

Can you/do you open and/or close your canopy in flight? Any problems I should be aware of while flying with canopy open? How do you lock the canopy in the partially open position? Thanks for any input.

Ed