For those that receive same the latest issue there
article page 48 written by Peter Dasey but incident/accident took
place guess 30+years ago by the glider types involved. It
involves an almost mid air collision between Pawnee and AstirCS
but did involve Astir being entangled by the tow rope. Gather the
accident was never reported until now!!!. The glider pilot
interestingly reports he now makes a point of "wobbling around a
bit in circuit so I am a little more noticeable, even thought it
may look untidy" I myself have never thought of that. I must
admit when learning glider towing Gus Mauch suggested not
to descend over the nose but continually do usually (not always) a
slow left hand turn into airspace you can see. That is
flying predictably.
In gliding today we seem reluctant to give out much
information on recent gliding accidents incase of litigation.
Makes me now think perhaps we could get a "Macarther Job" type
writer to go through our old (say 25 years ago) gliding accident
reports which I am sure GFA still have on file and write up
stories for say our "new gliding magazine". To me I see the
same style of accidents continuing to happen but very few in
glider pilots ever really hear about previous accidents.
Actually glider repairers could give us a wonderful summary of
accidents they see in for repairs. Perhaps we need photocopies
of the accident report pages of Sailplane and Gliding over any 5
year period and these become required reading before say a pilot
does his B or C test requirements. It would read similar to
Australian accident reports and can remember years ago Dave
Pietsch recommending the S&G accident reports as reading.
Accidents trends I see are
(i) Pilots often experienced forgetting to lower wheel and
trying to lower wheel when say 1-2 metres above ground and
results in $50000 +/-$30000 repairs. These type usually occur
about 2 years and usually follow a distraction. A repairer has
seen it so much that when giving a briefing on new glider
reminds them to again check wheel is down as they turn final and
if they forget it after this turn then LAND WITH WHEEL UP.
(ii) Pilots not releasing early when they loose control of a
glider at early stages of aerotow maybe problem caused by
longish grass or cross wind. These are often minor damage but
every now and then a pilot stays on far too long and with extra
energy damage is high. The serious almost write off occurs
about each 15 years. Simple solution is hand very near or just
touching release handle and pull is early if in doubt. Just
takes 5 minutes to tow back but takes 6 months to repair!!
(iii) The old one of usually leaving the base leg turn far
too late and then landing short of airfield seems to happen
several times each year. When I learnt as a student my old
instructor Wally Stott would say "on a windy day if you do not
go beyond the end fence then you will always make it back to
airfield" Airfield end fences can be a problem and 30 years ago
after a Bergfalke hit (or just clipped) the south end fence at
Keepit. I got the bull bar on old ute and drove it into each
fence post until I could hear it braking and it was ready to
fail! I now wish I had done the whole fence and may have
prevented many years later fatal accident!!!. Consider a chain
saw or angle grinder to weaken the post to 20% of its strength
or install electric fence maybe. As Norm Sanders (old Senator
in Canberra, TV reporter, uni lecturer) says "do not ask for
permission but ask for forgiveness after the event".
(iv) Gliders hitting gable markers. Most clubs have got rid
of them in the gliding areas. After our third hitting of a
marker locally Norm Sanders spent the next 4 days replacing all
the gable markers down one side of field with flat markers - he
did it without a word to council and nothing has been said. One
of our hitting a marker cost $26000 in repairs as marker did not
fail but acted as a pole vaulting stick. As Norm found the CASA
default marker is a flat marker - Gable markers come from UK,
flat markers are from USA.
(v) Usually not an accident but incident is a hornet's mud
partly blocking the pitot which often gets missed in DI. I
remind all as you climb up ASI with go near say 80kts (even 100)
but on decent will go between 0 and 20 kts. Simple solution is
fly attitude and recently I flew the whole day with this minor
problem.
I could list more (ground towing gliders, low level straight
head emergencies, back injuries - which mostly can be solved by
Confor foam which is mandatory in NZ gliders and helps Tamworth
BAE Systems meet the new FAR23 of 19G in CT4s) but you may stop
reading. I just hope some of these accidents above may occur
less in future.
Perhaps others have seen other accident trends which others
may be unaware of. Think almost no accidents are airworthiness
related which is positive.
Ian McPhee
0428847642
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