On 3/28/2011 8:21 AM, Dan Marotta wrote:

Maybe you need to meet some real glider pilots; you know, the kind that
have made mistakes. There are a lot of us - not hard to find!

Oh, good grief! It's a simple glider, not an airliner.

If you can't tell that you have a load of water on board, maybe you
shouldn't be flying with water (or at all!). The control feel is
entirely different.

Yikes! After flying a ballasted glider for 4 or 5 hours, it _feels_
normal (at least for the four gliders I've owned that used water), and
if I'm concentrating on a low save or other intense things, I can forget
it. After the first time, I added it to my checklist (meaning - started
using one); so far, no repeat incidents.

Same for flaps.

Read the above, starting with the Yikes!, but thinking flaps instead of
ballast. I didn't think it was possible to forget setting the flaps, but
it was and still is.

Test the spoilers? Why? You'll know as soon as you try to open them
and can alter your pattern then. If that's too complex, maybe you
shouldn't be flying.

If you try them early in the pattern, that can be the test. If you
sometimes wait until you are on final, that might be too late to deal
with the the problem. I've only had one spoiler incident - frozen closed
- but I've read of others having problems, including stuck open and only
one deploying. The other reason is to activate the gear warning, in case
you forgot that. I've been saved from a gear up landing at least three
times by a spoiler activated gear warning, and I'd rather have the
warning early in the pattern instead of on final.


Check the wind? You mean that you aren't constantly aware of the wind
direction and speed? Drift, crab? Should you really be up there
alone?

I've never had these on my checklist, but I have learned to check the
wind several times during a pattern, after being fooled a couple times.

Check trim? Have you been holding constant pressure on the stick?
Can't you land with trim locked at either extreme? Should you be
flying?

I don't have this one on my checklist, but I'd say the danger is
relaxing and letting the airspeed decrease/increase unintentionally,
most likely while you are distracted by other aircraft in the pattern,
the radio, people wandering around near the runway, etc.

I could go on and on, but to what end?

(snip)

I haven't damaged an aircraft in 38 years of flying. I know, some
day...

OK, you don't need a checklist, but I think I see why you can't imagine
that some of us find them helpful: you don't make mistakes and you don't
get distracted. I make mistakes and I do get distracted. In 36 years of
glider flying, I've managed to avoid big mistakes so a dinged wing tip
on a landing light is the extent of my damage. It's taken plenty of
care, some checklists, revision of procedures, study, and some luck to
do it.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)