On Aug 18, 9:52*pm, flgliderpilot wrote:
Out of curiosity, I searched but found no similar thread...

So what was your first glider, how did you find it, how long did you
fly it, did you keep it or quickly out grow it? *Would love to hear
your stories...

SZD-30 Pirat, in a syndicate with three others.

1978, ill-fated aircraft I'm afraid. It was imported from Poland
after three factory test flights logged. The first owner rigged it
and tied it out overnight. It wound up as a write-off during a storm
in the night. Alan Hume, craftsman and BGA senior inspector, spent
four and a half years of spare time restoring it to as new condition.
We bought it as the result on an ad in S&G I think. I had three
flights, another partner had two I believe, another never flew it.
The fourth partner performed a rather spectacular crash on his flight
on a gusty day. Curl over the hill top resulted in some strong sink
as he was heading down wind. He turned toward the runway and put the
nose down only to vanish into the valley. A few seconds later he re-
appeared going up at a steep angle (and as later recalled 95kts) in an
attempt to fly over the telephone cable that followed the road and was
at field elevation. Pulling so hard resulted in a high speed stall
and the right wing caught the telephone cable and the glider
cartwheeled while climbing (and looping) vertically. After a 360
degree rotation and looped over the top of the climb and descended in
a stalled, 20-30 degrees nose down attitude and disappeared into the
valley. Everyone ran down the hill. I stopped by the hangar and
picked up the first aid box. The pilot was in shock, conscious, but
unable to recall the day of the week. Sprained ankle, three cracked
vertebrae, dislocated shoulder and a concussion. At last contact 4-5
years ago he remained active as a BGA CFI and owned half a Stemme.
The glider wasn't rebuilt. I moved into an SHK syndicate for the next
three years.

Frank Whiteley