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Lancair Evolution Windshield fail
Interesting story about losing the windshield on an Evolution at 27,000 feet over Wyoming, at night, and a successful emergency landing. (www.saratogasun.com) المزيد...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Wow. Great outcome from a well trained calm pilot.
I imagine this must be akin to bailing out. Maybe, in some respects, actually worse. Quite the story, with the best possible outcome.
I'm very glad all are safe and they only have an experience to talk about. The pilot did a great job.
From the picture, it looks like a single piece relatively thin windshield. No way I'd be up there with that. A single scratch or nick that might not be visible is all it takes for this to happen. I've had cockpit windows shatter, once the outer pane and once the center pane. It gets your attention, but Slow down, lower the diff, and go get it fixed.
From the picture, it looks like a single piece relatively thin windshield. No way I'd be up there with that. A single scratch or nick that might not be visible is all it takes for this to happen. I've had cockpit windows shatter, once the outer pane and once the center pane. It gets your attention, but Slow down, lower the diff, and go get it fixed.
The thickness of the "glass" is 1/2 inch.
I don't think so unless there are two ¼" panes. If the inner pane cracked and took out the front pane with it.
There is no way that what I see in the picture is thicker than ⅜ inch. No matter what, this pilot did a great job.
There is no way that what I see in the picture is thicker than ⅜ inch. No matter what, this pilot did a great job.
I am the pilot so thank you. It's 1/2" thick.
Thanks Gerry and superb airmanship to arrive back on Earth safely with only an insurance claim and a great story. One of my windshield failures was caused by a tech scoring the pane during an aircraft repaint. New sealant around the pane hid the score marks. It was like the third or fourth flight since the repaint that it let go under about 8.7 psi. It sounded like a rifle shot. Still, I had two more panes between me and the atmosphere. Further investigation showed the same scoring on the other three cockpit windows so all were replaced.
That doesn't sound good at all. I have a feeling that my window was scored at some point in time and I have a particular area of interest that I think we may hopefully find some evidence.
I do stand corrected however. I was told by either my builder or Evolution that the window was 1/2" thick. LP Aero told me however that it was 3/8". I will be more than likely be waiting for a 1/2" thick piece to upgrade to.
I do stand corrected however. I was told by either my builder or Evolution that the window was 1/2" thick. LP Aero told me however that it was 3/8". I will be more than likely be waiting for a 1/2" thick piece to upgrade to.
Looking back at my posts I didn't mean to come across as short with you so I apologize. The thickness of the window isn't the issue IMO. There are some Evo's with 1,600 hours on them. Mine only had 380. When Evolution designed the plane they did pressure tests with multiple vessels. They brought the pressure up to 13.2 psi and never had issues with the windshield.
We believe the cause was some sort of stress riser. Either there was a defect in the material from manufacturing, a scratch put into it during installation (that couldn't be seen because it was under the carbon, or some sort of chemical was used on it to cause an eventual failure (something like acetone).
We believe the cause was some sort of stress riser. Either there was a defect in the material from manufacturing, a scratch put into it during installation (that couldn't be seen because it was under the carbon, or some sort of chemical was used on it to cause an eventual failure (something like acetone).