Re: what happens with P51D canopy as pilot bails out?
 

incredible true experience yesterday!

thanks for the information and links;

at the exact moment the pilot was bailing out at Duxford I was trying to find some plexiglas little parts of a P51D canopy in the forest some hundred meters before the Mustang crash site I'm working about;

Do you believe the canopy plexiglas would "explode" in hundreds of little parts as hitting big trees and the ground, or does it "normaly" stay in one or some big fragments - some of them still attached on the metal frame?

No idea at all about the resistance of such a plexiglas part as falling from about 50 or 20 meters high at about 150 mph!

Second hypothese would let few chances of finding something today, first one would be hopefull for a more successfull "fragments hunt"!

thanks for your kind help!

Re: what happens with P51D canopy as pilot bails out?
 

Here's a better view of what happens to a P-51 coup-top.

http://www.flyingfilm.co.uk/archives/58

Re: what happens with P51D canopy as pilot bails out?
 

This does not give the timing, but if you listen he followed the procedure except for the shoulder straps, (which were warned about in the written bailout procedure.) He bailed because his coolant line was cut by a rifle bullet, so he must have been low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWTuguearw0


Regarding the Duxford cash, note that after the pilot bails, he still has to fall a bit before the chute can open. In the crash you are investigating, it would seem the pilot was way too low for the chute to deploy, even if he could have gotten out.

Re: what happens with P51D canopy as pilot bails out?
 

great documents! very interesting for me!

I now have to look on the ground in the forest along an about 100m bright and 1000 meters long band with the hope of being a little lucky!

But its stays possible that the canopy was jetissoned 5 minutes earlyer...

A good place for seraching mushrooms surely this summer!

Maybe something will be found...little plexiglas parts would be enough!

thanks for your very kind help!

Mathias