FOOTLAUNCH

Next club meeting Aug 11^th – this will be a scrub clearing session on Kettlesings, meeting in the car park at 6:30pm followed by free beer!

SAFETY MATTERS

Recovering a DHV1-2 Glider

I flew the Beacon on 13^th July in a light W. Good forecast but the clouds were quite scaggy with a lot of medium and high spread-out. I launched and wound one up straight away with Nigel D. and we drifted over the back at about 1000’ ato. It broke up so I started to glide and got down to 1800’ height just past Malvern when suddenly without any warning the glider stalled completely and dropped back behind – no problem I thought, I’ve had that happen quite a lot in active air on other gliders, sit and wait for it to come forward and start flying. But it didn’t. I didn’t have the brakes pulled down much at all, maybe at head height, but the glider seemed to stay stalled and go into a series of radical collapses, pulling me every which way. Sometimes it was spinning a bit but not radically, then it would seem to pitch all over the place. As it spun a second time I looked to see if there was a cravat but it was completely open overhead but possibly in deep stall. I didn’t want to over-control or anything so basically kept my hands still with the brakes slightly on, waiting for a surge. It seemed to go on and on and I remember thinking this is a 1/2 glider and this shouldn’t be happening. By now I was totally freaked and very frightened, I just couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I went for the reserve and looked down to locate the handle; I saw the ground below and it still looked a long way away. I thought I must be able to get this sorted and started randomly yanking both brakes – not deep pumps, just medium inputs, sort of jabbing them. At some point the glider surged a long way, fell back again, and I can’t remember at that stage when it started flying again but it did. By this time I had no confidence in the glider or the conditions and wanted to land ASAP. I knew I didn’t have the height for a repeat performance and felt very vulnerable. I was at 1800’ above when it first collapsed and lost 600’ in around 30secs. It seemed to go on for a lot longer. I just wondered what I could have done better – go right up on the brakes? Look at the canopy to see what it’s doing? I remember seeing it parachutal but didn’t think to try tweaking As or jab the bar. I really expected it to come out on it’s own. I B lined a demo without any problem, and took big asymetrics with one A riser down. I have had a big asymmetrics and frontals in thermal without any problem at all but that was the first ‘stall’ or whatever. The glider has never been wet, launches and handles superbly so I’m sure it’s not out of trim for any reason. The karabiner setting is 40cm, with no x-bracing.

Subsequently I emailed Bruce Goldsmith and got the following reply:

Dear Tim,

Thanks for the detailed description of your incident.

1) I know exactly why your glider did not recover.  It is because you did not put your hands up and fully release the brakes.

About 10 times now I have seen pilots doing exactly the same as you describe on different wings. They are stalled and spinning down and hold the brakes on a bit or even worse make wrong brake movements.  As soon as they go for their reserve parachute the glider recovers, because they let go of the brakes and the wing gets a chance to fly again. This is one of the most common accidents and is one reason why people do SIV courses.

If you keep the brakes on just a few inches the wing will not recover, it needs hands up. This is also the DHV requirement, so your wing was acting exactly as a DHV1-2 wing.  It is the pilot that was not doing the correct hands up action. If you have shortened the brakes from their original setting this could have made matters worse.

 Bruce

CONGRATULATIONS to Frank and Sammi, expecting a new arrival at the end of the year. Timed precisely to coincide with the non-flying season, and what a great advert for Viagra.

Go4it 2004

Not a fantastic month again, apart from the few windy days when the more daring managed flights >100k.

Bryan Hindle 77.8 62.9  43.2 15.1 14.1 11.9 9.1  8.3        219.2km

Nigel Dewdney 55 18.5 12 5.4 90.9km

Tim Crow 31.0 25.2 22.3 78.5km

Dave J-H 47.2 23.2 70.4km

Frank Trunks 35.7 35.7km

Chris Smith 33.9 33.9km

Graham Shand 26.0 6.2 32.2km

Carolyn Dewdney 9 9.0km

Brian Pilchar 7.0 7.0km

Rules

1.    UK flights only.
2.    No infringement of airspace.
3.    Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on the day.
4.    Flights between 01/12/03 to 30/11/04.
5.    Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance from point to point in Kms as a

check. Flights will be scored to nearest 100m.
6.    Defined flights (BHPA rules) Coordinates for turn points in addition. Double distance
       awarded provided 60% of flight outside ridge lift.
7.    Stone's throw award for smallest flight submitted (or known about) provided
       distance 5km or greater (previously 3 miles).

8. The best newcomer to XC flying (as voted by the committee) will win a voucher worth

£120 for Airways Ltd.

9. The top pilot for the year will be known by the moniker “Skygod” for the next year – so remember, that’s Monica Skygod for the next year.

ADVERTS

Harley Sirocco (medium) 75-95kg. Very good condition, little used. ACPUL 12A rated. £150

At that price ideal for winter flying or for ground handling practice. 01452 500806

Flying Blog – this seems to be falling into disuse, although not much flying (again) anyway.

Sunday July 4 2004
Great flying again at The Shrine. Even PG Ace Roberts was there!!!
954ft above the top without even trying. 70mph recorded flashing past the pimple. Three topless gliders (Frank, Derek, John) heading out to The Worm together.
Mick,Frank,Derek,and John, and Roger Williams (Welsh but from Sweden)on his Finsterwald Fun Fly (packs to two metres). Wall to Wall sunshine. Could see Tony Trigg trying to get off from the North end on his Airwave Klassic (don't think he managed it). About twenty 'New Age' vans spent the weekend on the old war time site on the hill, before they were sent packing by the police.
I flew onto Llanmadoc yet again, but eventually had to land at Tankeylake Moor in reasonably smooth landing air. Others finished at Pitton Cross in rough air, but got down OK.
Regards, John.

Sat July 10th
Fairborne, WNW 15-20
Nick kindly offered to be my chauffeur for the day and Derek provided the shelter from the rain in the way of a new Combat. Nice chaps these flying people all so I could get 1.5hr flying. Not the day I had hoped. Though it would be sunny with showers in land. Instead some sort of 'orrible front came in and spoilt things with light drizzle then dropping wind. Still, nice to get out.
Chris

Sat 24th July
Rhossili, WSW 15+
Had a couple of hours in stong conditions. Took off from pimple in a lull and had a good fly but then things picked up a bit (small white horses) so stayed out in front then down to the raised beach. Landed when I was hungry then took off again from beach for a short while (first time for me!). Landed then couldn't get off again no matter how hard I tried; the wing kept going over to one side. I noticed some sand in the wing but thought no more of it. Packing my wing up to go home I emptied it of sand and couldn't believe that there was probably 2 or 3 KGs in it near one tip!! The scary thing is that I had no idea that so much could get in so quickly and that I failed to notice it. Had I managed to get off then things could have gone horrible very quickly!
Chris

Looks like the British UK record has been broken by Judy Leden on a
Vulcan, I think the previous record was around 90km, I'm sure Fiona can
confirm this, well looks like Judy managed 125km

Date/time: 13/7/2004 at 14:06
Glider: Ozone Vulcan Small (Small) (Hill launch)
Launch: Bradwell Edge (SK 181 805)
Landing: Spilsby (TF 425 679)
Flight duration: 3:40
Flight distance: 125.0

Saturday 24 July 2004
Report by Richard Westgate

Richard Westgate was test flying a Gradient Aspen on 24th July at the XClent winch field near Cheltenham. He landed 4 hours and 45 mins later at Dalham nr Newmarket, 171.2km away!

'The wind was pretty strong on the hills with reports of 25kph at Frocester so I was surprised that when I got to the winch field at midday it seemed ok. Alan Maguire took the first line up and started thermalling away and I was lucky enough to get the second. I winched into a weak climb and after a couple of 360's was already commited, the sky looked very average with a high sheet of cirrus cutting off the sun and broken weak climbs but I decidied to perservere. Even though the sun came out after about half an hour, conditions didn't really improve much, I struggled past Bambury at 50km, climbs seemed to disintergrate above 3000ft but I was able to drift along at 25kph. Next goal was 100km, but I nearly decked it at Salcey Forest just past the M1. A rather risky glide over the forest rewarded me with a low save. Next goal, the winch record at 113km. Finally the conditions ahead started looking good, and I found a climb from a ploughed field in the bend of the Great Ouse which finally took me to base at 5500ft. A street stretched to the horizon and with a ground speed of 80km per hour, the coast at 270km looked possible. But the wind had swung more WNW and the street took me towards Duxford where there was temporary airspace due to the Duxford airshow. I couldn't remember the restrictions so pushed north around Bourne towards Cambridge. The next problem was that a sheet of altocirrus was rapidly catching me up and I couldn't out run it's effects. The last hour was spent under a miserable sky with no sun on the ground. i don't know how I stayed in the air but managed to find 1/2 and 1 ups which maintained me at 2500ft past Cambdige, over Newmarket racecourse for 100 miles and to a landing at the little village of Dalham in Suffolk. A pint in the Afflic Arms and I started the log journey home. National Express got me back to Cheltenham eventually and a taxi from there got me back to the car at 3.40 am!

What a great day out.