The pilot was performing maintenance on his Sonex Waiex and running the engine at full throttle to verify the exhaust gas temperature was within limits.
He told investigators that after the last adjustment and anticipating another adjustment, he only latched the canopy enough to keep it in place while performing a test run on the ground.
After the test run was performed, the pilot departed the airport in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, without properly securing the canopy.
Shortly after takeoff, the canopy was “ripped off” the airplane.
While returning to the runway, the approach was too low and the airplane hit trees on short final. The airplane landed short of the runway and did “two pancakes,” resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and firewall
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain a proper glidepath during landing. Contributing to the accident was his failure to ensure the canopy locks were properly configured prior to flight.
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This March 2021 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Did somebody say “checklist”? If so, I sure mussed it!