Nose Catch Head's Up For Falcon Pilots...

[Danny Brotto]

I had an interesting experience that I'd like to report that will be of interest to Wills Wing Falcon pilots. Others with front flying wire nose catches similar to the Flacon will also be interested in this.

The front flying wires on the Falcon are connected to the nose plate assembly by securing a keyed tang into a receiving post. This tang slides back onto the post and is safetied by turning a "T" bracket 90 degrees to insure that the tang won't work it's way off of the post. The "T" bracket itself is held in place by friction.

I set up and flew my Falcon 1 at Smithsburg a couple of weeks ago. I performed a preflight and flew 5 times. On the last flight walking the glider from the LZ to the breakdown area, the wind caught the trailing edge of the glider flipping the nose into the dirt. The wind was brisk and rocked the glider wings with the nose in the dirt as I worked to bring the tail back down. Eventually I regained control of the glider and made it to the breakdown area.

As I began the breakdown I was surprised to see the "T" bracket that safeties the flying wire tang turned completely away from the safety position. I know that I checked the correct positioning of the bracket during preflight. It's unlikely that it became turned during normal flight ops. I suspect that the bracket became unsafetied while the nose plate was in the soft dirt being rotated by the buffeting wing.

I would recommend Falcon and other pilots with similar nose catch systems to check the safety position of the "T" bracket after any contact of the ground by the nose bracket area.

Danny Brotto

[silverwings]

Thanks for posting that. When students let the glider get blown over it is good to know that it should be checked.