Ahhh, that fall season is upon us...as hours in the
air decrease, the semi-annual return of the PCC, PW5
and 2-33 threads reappear Other groups have guns,
religion and politics as their old standbys.

Although some might see Mark's post as a troll attempt...I
think he makes some interesting points. IIRC on the
HP site, an analysis was done that 1 in 1,000 hottelier
connections are done incorrectly...not sure how that
data was collected. Attitudes on PCC's seem to be
1.) I have done it safely for years, others should
be able too.
2.) I used to think (1.) until almost killed by disconnect.
3.) It's a crappy design and I ain't going near it.

I am a #3 guy myself.



At 02:42 23 September 2004, Mark James Boyd wrote:

I think the best way to do this isn't mirrors or safety
pins
or PCCs or bits of string or feel or training or flashlights....

I prefer a big ass port (or two) that lets you look
directly at
the entire connection from all sides.

If the designer made an ity-bity port, and you have
to rely
on a PCC because you can't see the dang connection
close up,
then that's just a crappy design. If the fuse is really
so flimsy the port has to be 5 inches wide instead
of 8 or 9 inches,
and it can't be right near the connection, then the
designer needs
to go to the drawing board.

The Pegasus elevator connection is out in the breeze,
and real easy to
visually inspect. If anyone ever failed a PCC of that
elevator
connection, I'd have to recommend they do the connection
inspection
next time with eyes open, perhaps with their bifocals
on, during
daylight hours.

I think the (over)emphasis on a PCC is bunk. The connection

inspection is the key. If I'm ever in a situation

where a PCC discovers something, I'll either not fly
that glider
again (the design doesn't allow good enough direct
connection
inspections) or I'll not fly ANY gliders (since I'm
too stupid
or too hurried to look right at a connection and determine
if it's
connected).

The exception to this is something like the bellcrank
failure that
happened last year to a dive brake during a PCC. No
connection
inspection is going to find that. But one wonders
if the
tens of thousands of PCCs CAUSED the failure itself,
by wearing
out the bellcrank faster...
--

------------+
Mark J. Boyd