Summer canope on Calidus

[aerobatic]

After 30 hours of dual training with my CFO, I was feeling comfortable to go solo on my brand new Calidus. I was busy the last 2 weeks piling up solo time and a few cross country trips and I'm almost ready for my flight test after my first 25 hours inspection.

The last two days was hot enough to put the summer canope on the Calidus. As you can see in those few pictures, the opening are large enough to keep the gyro cool enough even at stop and, at flight, only the back seat passenger will feel the difference.

Those wide opening will be terrific to shoot pictures and movies from the back seat. No more parasite reflexions.

More pictures to come when David, my CFO, will be back wednesday.

Maher

[Irishpilot]

I have been curious to see what the summer canopy looks like...very nice. The regular canopy does get a tad warm in the summer just prior to take-offs and on landing (and if you are flying low and it is hot!). What does the wind do to the back seat passenger? Looks like it would be great for doing photography as well.

Mike

[Snowgum]

Sorry for taking up all of David's time! You can have him back next week! :p :sorry:

The canopy looks great, and so do the photos. I need to get one of those little cameras. It was great to see you again. Good luck with your flight test! I'm hoping to do mine before I leave. Fingers crossed!! :hail:

[All_In]

That is a nice looking machine!!!

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Looks forward to hearing about your flying adventures.

[aerobatic]

After more than 10 hours flying with the summer canopy, here some observations :

1- No apparent particular behavior in flight performance compare to the full canopy. I still can fly a little below 180 km/h at the same fuel burn.

2- The rear passenger get clearly more wind and need a light jacket at high speed and high altitude. Intercom must be tight enough on the head. When I plan to go cross-country at high speed, I suggest my passenger to wear the leather helmet I put when I flew my open cockpit biplane. there is a leather wrap that goes around the mike with a small hole on the mouth side that prevent the wind to activate the mike. On the ground, with the leather wrap, the passenger must speak very loudly to activate the comm.

3- At 170 km/h and above the wind noise is so strong that the ANR of my Seinheiser S1 isn't effective anymore. Switching it on and off doesn't show any improvment. Must try another brand to see if it will work better than the S1.

4- There is a bungee that stretch to prevent to canopy to open too far that goes through a metal triangle. When the canopy is closed and the Calidus fly fast, that metal triangle can oscillate and rattle strongly against the inner fiber frame. To prevent the paint from chipping, I needed to put tape and foam against the parts that contact.

5- The summer canopy is a blessing with the hot weather we're having these days in Quebec (more than 30 Celsius with high relative humidity)