I could maybe see a partial refractive lens, also near the front attachments if the sun were fore of the aircraft. I can maybe see a weird partial parabola at the front, near the attachments if the sun were someplace reasonably high and aft. Given that the sun is below the zenith this time of the year, what position was it in in relation to the aircraft? I'm having trouble picturing any area on the canopy that would form enough of a reflective parabola to do the job. Lesson: If you have a canopy that opens like the Diamond DA-42, beware of the Sun's location while open.you might end up with a hole burned in your interior or worst case a fire.ĭennisvoriespe wrote:The canopy was actually behaving as a parabolic reflector.Amazing! I would never have thought the canopy could both reflect and concentrate enough energy to reach those temperatures. The hot spot left the black paint slight dulled with a slight dime size depression in the cover. A slight change of the canopy angle relative to the sun that was slightly behind caused the hot spot and smoke to disappear. More importantly, I saw the white hot area momentarily disappear and immediately realized that the smoking hot spot was not an electrical issue but the focus of solar energy reflecting from the inside of the gracefully curved canopy - perhaps a portion of the white painted canopy top area. I brushed the hot spot with the tip of my left index finger and instantly got a burn. With closer observation, I noticed what appeared to be a smoking white hot half inch diameter area beside the cabin support relief of the carbon fiber instrument cover.
While I grabbed the fire extinguisher from its bracket beside our two year old strapped in her back seat car seat, I commented to my wife that a cockpit fire was the last thing I wanted to have.
As an electrical engineer who does owner assisted annuals, I tried to imagine what part of the electircal system could possibly be shorted and immenently on fire with the master switch off. As I climbed into the cockpit, I noticed an odor much like electrical insulation burning and immediately saw smoke rising from around the left canopy support. A few days ago on a sunny noontime day at Cedar City, Utah, I had the canopy fully open on my Diamond Twin Star while I was completing preflight checks for my flight back to San Diego.
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