OK guys,
I was out flying Patty today in the nice Southern California weather, when something very disturbing happened. I was in the middle of putting her into an inverted flat spin, got her on her back when something pretty large fell off the plane. At first I didn't know what to do at first.... fudge my pants, or recover from the spin. Ok, got the plane upright and flying normally. Controls seemd fine si I brought her back to the field. The part was still slowly making its way down to terra firma. After I got the plane on the ground and my heart started again, I saw that my Patty was now a convertible. It was obvious that my pilot did not like my violent entry and decided to eject herself and the canopy. :sunsmiley This is a very lucky story because the canopy did not hit any part of the airframe. This is also the second canopy that I have heard of coming off.

SETUP: I reinforced the canopy rails with extra thin plywood and removed the wood screws. I used 2-56 hex head bolts and blind nuts to secure the canopy. Both bolts were tightened and loc-tite was used. Canopy departed 3 minutes into the second flight.

RECOMMENDATIONS: After fastening the canopy screws down, put some tape over the screwheads to prevent them from vibrating out.