Just airborne from 23 at Wattisham, gear up flaps up and round the corner on departure. Next minute as we hit about 300 knots there was a LOUD knocking from outside the canopy on the left hand side. I nearly died from shock before visions of the old Kenneth Williams sketch came to mind.
Turned out that the heavy rubber seal that was normally fixed to the lower sill of the canopy had come loose and was hanging outside and banging around in the airflow. I must have been looking at something else when the canopy came down. Certainly no drill for that in the FRCs and it really sounded as if it was going to make a hole in the cockpit side. After burning off we put it back down. Of course, none of my mates mentioned it again.........................
Another time during an airtest. As the negative G came on during the inverted flight check, the INAS came out of its housing on the console and drifted towards the canopy closely followed by a cheese sandwich. It was tricky to phrase the write up for the post flight snag
Last edited by Geehovah; 12th Aug 2012 at 07:29.