On Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:00:06 -0700, bildan wrote:

I don't think you made your case. I have seen LOTS of wire/rope breaks,
including weak link breaks, and nothing has ever stayed on the hook -
even with Schweizers.

I've seen several strops dropped when the pilot pulled the release after
a weak link broke. During a practice power fade the cable often stays on
through the push-over, so it follows that this is also likely if the
winch fails for real due to engine trouble or a fuel blockage.

The reason I brought this up is that I have seen many pilots nearly
bungle a recovery while pulling the release. Even with a hand on the
release, there's no guarantee a pilot will pull it - I've seen pilots
take their hand off the release and pull the spoilers. A launch failure
is no time to be multi-tasking.

I've never seen this. An ASW-19 or Pegase on finals with the wheel going
up and down, yes, but brakes opening after a cable break, never.

I want to see this priority list in order of decreasing urgency:

1. Nose way down NOW!
2. Get a safe airspeed ASAP!
3. Decide on the landing option (Straight or circle.)
4. Execute landing option - concentrate on airspeed and coordination.
5. Pull the release - maybe.

Move 5 up to 2 and I'll agree with your sequence. Three reasons:
(a) you're going to wait some seconds for the airspeed to build so
pulling it at this point doesn't delay any other actions.

(b) Your hand is on or very near the release, so just do it.

(c) As I said above, you may be faced with a power fade rather than
a cable break and the cable may still be on. Now, we know that
back-release works for a straight backward pull, but what if
its a high power fade and you get airspeed and turn. Would you
still expect the cable to back release at an angle to the flight
path?


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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