Flyfunston • View topic - Accident Report 10 Sep. '05

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Accident Report 10 Sep. '05

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:02 pm

by aviatorjames

I'm not sure what constitutes the need for an accident report, but I bent a downtube on landing today.

I launched into moderate wind and slightly turbulent conditions and climbed into very strong, smooth lift and flew to Westlake where I played around for about 20 minutes. The wind was picking up and turning more northery.

Descending through about 800'msl the air became pretty rough as I expected. I set up on final and was getting tossed around a bit, but manageable. After getting through the gradient, I was pretty lined up when a strong lateral gust yawed me to the right. My right wing was now slow and low and, trying to prevent a groundloop to the right, I gave a quick jerk of a control input in & left.

The base bar hit fairly soft except that I was now slipping to the left and my body hit the left downtube.

The following glider, also a topless, ended up on it's back during landing with no apparent damage.

The next following glider groundlooped and whacked, but again with no apparent damage.

The last flexy was Tim who made it look pretty easy!!

I'm glad no one got hurt.

Jim

Gracias

Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:54 pm

by Daniel Pifko

Thanks for the report, Jim.

Can you identify what was the principal cause of the incident? What would you have done differently to avoid injury or damage?

Daniel

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:27 am

by aviatorjames

I think it was just strong, gusty winds. Nobody was injured.
It was the third flight with a new harness, in which I'm still adjusting, but I didn't feel like the harness was causal.

jim

Don't be too hard on yourself...

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:37 pm

by crvalley

Jim and Dan,

I watched most of the landings that afternoon as did others. I think what would have helped most of the pilots who had some trouble would have been to simply pull in for more speed and have a more aggressive final approach. I saw people still trying to "float in" like we often do at Funston when conditions are less wild. With conditions so turbulent and rotor-like in the LZ, we need more speed to allow better control of the glider in those conditions...I remember saying to myself "pull-in...pull-in" on many of the landings I witnessed later that day...

A couple of the launches were pretty interesting to watch, too...YIKES!

My hats off to whoever was flying the Millenium that day...that was a text book landing!

~Chris

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:19 pm

by Steve Rodrigues

I agree with Chris that many pilots need more speed on final. You almost can't have too much, up to the point that supports a PIO.

Chris, did you notice a common problem with the launches, or care to point out what not to do, or need to do better?

Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:09 pm

by aviatorjames

I guess I launched before it got gnarly, because it was not that bad for the first twenty minutes or so.

I do appreciate the critiques!

Hopefully everyone that flew, or just watched, will walk away with another nugget of experience.

jim