Another accident report

[Flying Lobster]

Having read about several pilot's recent accidents while trying to land in midday turbulent conditions--I experienced a very bad situation today myself while trying to land at Fairfield--our "local" aerotow field.

The forcast was for moderate thermals being capped off by a low inversion and light SSW at 5 mph or less. Two pilots towed up before me and were in the process of returning to land when I decided to go--having ground crewed for their launches. My tow was fairly uneventful--but we transitioned through thermals strong enough that the tug pitched up and down pretty dramatically, but I was able to keep things pretty controlled and felt that it was an average strength day. A later look at my Compeo, though, had me surprised at just how strong some of the cores were.

OK, I'll skip the flight details and get to the juicy part that everyone wants to read--while setting up my approach all the wind indicators were showing a south flow. The airstrip runs east-west, and slopes off on either side, so the most reasonable option seemed to be approach to the west and split the difference low down to swing out into the wind after a short final. I use this technique with success very often at HR when its west cross. Just as I started to initiate the slight turn to the south, I was slammed by a violent gust/thermal from the west which not only pitched the glider up by 30 ft or so, but also rolled it into a left bank so that I was now in a quartering tail wind on the sinking back end of the gust/thermal.

The bar is stuffed and I pull over for all I was worth to the right, but the glider didn't seem to respond to my turn input (that was probably just a perception thing, it just seemed that way because I was in a tailwind component)--I was flying fast towards the ground. The feeling was about the same as when you encouter a strong thermal at altitude which initially rolls you away beacuse only part of the wing is in strong lift. Being fully proned, with the ground whizzing by at 30 to 40 mph very close to my face (and I fly without wheels) it became quickly apparent that the physics and geometry of the situation did not favor an inexpensive, pain-free outcome. Just before the control bar contacted the ground I used my patented control bar heave-ho technique and threw the control bar out for all I was worth--and amazingly the glider slowed down enough so that when the left corner bracket dug in the downtube took the force and bent , but no part of my body contacted anything--and the glider itself didn't ground loop or even nose over. I simply stood up and walked the glider off--though I was embarassed and well aware that I narrowly escaped a serious crash.

I'm not going to bother with the cathartic pilot-error prostrations or advise what to do to avoid this--I'll leave that to the more enlightened readership. But I think I was able to make some interesting conclusions about the conditions I was flying in.

Before I left late in the day I heard one pilot remark how nice it was to fly in such lite conditions, and I thought about what I had just experienced. I have come to the conclusion that, in a way, flying in light winds on unstable days can in fact be very dangerous. In my experience, any forecast of 5 to 7 mph or less simply means light and variable. And light and variable simply means that the odds are fairly good that the winds--and gusts or thermals--can come from any direction at any time. And by implication this means that the odds are pretty good that you might not get a consistent wind direction indication through the last phases of your approach--no matter how careful you are. Stronger winds generally tend to street up thermals and lift lines.

marc

[TQ]

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-----Original Message-----
From: Flying Lobster [mailto:in_a_cloud@hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 10:05 p.m.
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Another accident report
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Did the first two pilots soar or did they have sleds?
What time of day did this happen?
What time were pilots able to stick?

Depending on your answers, I may have something to add.
Having read about several pilot's recent accidents while trying to land in midday turbulent conditions--I experienced a very bad situation today myself while trying to land at Fairfield--our "local" aerotow field.
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marc
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[Flying Lobster]

first two pilots soared for moderate times--30/45 mins. time was roughly 2:00 pm--but it had been switchy with "rogue" thermals for much of the day. Top of lift seemed to be around 3K. I never experienced anything that I thought was exceptionally strong (except on final)--though other pilots claimed getting pegged at 1600.

Watched one pilot land who also ran into a thermal/gust. He simply went straight up, hovered, and came straight down, perhaps even drifting slightly backwards, but kept level and nose up and touched down nicely. Big difference was he was facing west.

LOve to hear your thoughts.

marc

[TQ]

My first thoughts were these events happened just before the inversion completely eroded, but since you said other pilots had soaring flights and your incident was early afternoon, my hypothesis doesn/t apply.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Flying Lobster [mailto:in_a_cloud@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 03:20 p.m.
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: Another accident report
<![if !supportEmptyParas]>?<![endif]>
first two pilots soared for moderate times--30/45 mins. time was roughly 2:00 pm--but it had been switchy with "rogue" thermals for much of the day. Top of lift seemed to be around 3K. I never experienced anything that I thought was exceptionally strong (except on final)--though other pilots claimed getting pegged at 1600.

Watched one pilot land who also ran into a thermal/gust. He simply went straight up, hovered, and came straight down, perhaps even drifting slightly backwards, but kept level and nose up and touched down nicely. Big difference was he was facing west.

LOve to hear your thoughts.

marc <![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]> <![endif]>


got art?
http://www.marcfink.com/
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http://www.downeastairsports.com/
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