On Friday, June 8, 2012 10:47:31 AM UTC-7, Ramy wrote:
On Friday, June 8, 2012 9:56:30 AM UTC-7, BobW wrote:
Not a good past 2 weeks per FAA prelims...midair (no reported injuries, thank
heaven!) apparently yesterday, & a takeoff groundloop a week ago Monday..

Three "substantially damaged" gliders.

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 101LV Make/Model: CEN Description: CENTRAIR 101
Date: 06/07/2012 Time: 2145

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: Y Missing:
Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
City: SPARKS State: NV Country: US

DESCRIPTION
N943SB COLLIDED MID AIR WITH N101LV UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES. SPARKS, NV

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

- - - - - -
IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 943SB Make/Model: DISC Description: DISCUS BT/BM
Date: 06/07/2012 Time: 2145

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: Y Missing: N
Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
City: SPARKS State: NV Country: US

DESCRIPTION
N943SB COLLIDED MID AIR WITH N101LV UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES. SPARKS, NV

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
- - - - - -
- - - - - -

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 817V Make/Model: EXP Description: SZD-55-1 GLIDER
Date: 05/28/2012 Time: 1800

Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Substantial

LOCATION
City: FARMINGTON State: NC Country: US

DESCRIPTION
AIRCRAFT ON DEPARTURE GROUND LOOPED, FARMINGTON, NC

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
- - - - - -

Both pilots landed safely back at Airsailing after loosing a section of their wing and most of the aileron, according to preliminary reports and photos I've seen. Incredible luck. This was not a contest, just a small gathering. Apparently it did not happen in a gaggle or while thermaling and they never saw each other. So much for those who claim that powerflarms are only needed in contests...

Ramy

Below are the pilot reports with their permission:

From Walter:

"snip After reaching 10,700 feet over Tuly Peak I headed upwind to work the Dog Skins ridge, I was loosing some altitude and went back to the Red Rocks
where several other gliders were also searching for lift. There was
some turbulence but no good thermals to circle which caused most
gliders to manouver around in search of lift. I was keeping track of
the gliders in the area but suddenly at about 6,800 feet I felt a jolt
and a loud noise as another glider I hadn't seen colided with me. The
Cirrus immediately turned the nose down and at first it seemed I had
lost control of the glider. During impact I hit and slighly cut my
left leg against the instrument panel and my Oudie went flying. I
could see a damage on the left wing but being around 2,000 feet over
the ground and heading down with what seemed limited control I didn't
think there was much time to try seeing if I could regain control. I
decided to bail and was surprised I couldn't get the canopy to open
(may have turned out to be my saving grace). I then focused on
controlling the glider the best I could and head to a landing area.
After getting the glider to level flight, I headed back towards the
airport for a straight in landing on runway 21R since the main runway
had a glider getting ready to take off. I made a call on the radio
that I had an emergency and lowered and locked the landing gear. The
landing was normal without incidents but there wasn't much height
left. I had to wait for someone to come help me since I couldn't open
the canopy from the inside as the back hinge had released but not the
front part and it was stuck.

After talking to the other pilot Bill Johns (who used to be a fighter
pilot) from BASA flying a Pegasus and hearing his account of the
event, we hit pretty much head on, with him flying right over my
canopy and his right wing hitting my left wing (I was in a gentle
right bank and he was either flying straight or on a gentle right
bank). He saw me about 1 second before impact and thought he was going
to take my tail off, but fortunately he missed that. My wing was
somewhat damaged but other than loosing 80% of my left aileron and
having parts of the fiber glass torn (see first 2 pictures), it was
still flyable. After landing we noticed that the root of the Cirrus
wing had signs of stress and damage as well. The Pegaus lost about 3-4
feet of his right wing tip and half of his right aileron (see 3rd
picture). He didn't loose control of his glider and headed back to the
airport, landing after me on the dirt next to runway 21L.

If we had been flying thermals in a gaggle or if we were all flying
ridge it would have been simpler since we would be following a
protocol. The instructor Mark said the thing he might have done
differently was to leave the area since there were too many gliders
flying in different patterns (some trying to find thermals, and some
trying to fly the ridge). I understand that trying to see each other
would have required a careful and lucky scanning of the horizon, but
even so, I am not sure how easily we would have been able to see each
other. A FLARM device sounds really good to me right now, as any
indication of a likely collision, even if 3 or so seconds before
impact would have prevented the accident."

From Bill:

"snip All ASI gliders were to be on 122.9, ASI frequency, so there was a lot of chatter to do with airfield activities as well as airborne gliders. I made an initial call that I was climbing over the Red Rocks, then monitored and did not hear reports by other gliders in my area. As it turned out, I wish I had been more proactive in providing and asking for other position reports.

At 2:46PM, as I headed westerly, wings level, at about 7000', another glider suddenly appeared from under my nose on the right side, very close aboard, and complete opposite direction, too close for me to react prior to impact. The impact was charactarized by a loud "bang" and perception of parts flying in my right peripheral vision. The Pegasus was unphased by this, though she lost about 2 feet of right wingtip and the outboard half of the aileron. I experienced no loss of control, and made a shallow turn to the right to look back for the other glider. Ailerons and parts were fluttering in the distance and the Cirrus was well below, but continuing in stable flight to the east. I made a call to Air Sailing informing them of the mid air, that both gliders appeared to be OK and we would be returning for emergency landing. I continued at altitude, following the Cirrus as he made a low, wide circling turn and lined up for 21R. Once he was down, I proceeded over the field at 6500', lowered the gear, checked spoilers and verified again that I had good control at pattern airspeed. I landed 21L uneventfully.

I think short of something like FLARM, the only thing which could have prevented this would have been better situational awareness of which other giders were working in the same area. The conditions unknowingly put us each at the same altitude searching for lift, and nothing is harder to see than another glider head on. The other pilot reported he never saw me before, during or after the incident. Also, I learned after landing that he had lost control and attempted a bailout, had trouble opening his canopy release, so went to plan B and was able to recover the aircraft. We were no more than 1500' above the steep terrain at impact.

Both of us flew the next day and I had my best flight of the camp in the ASK-21 that Friday with Rob Stone. His comment...Bill's head was moving all the time...he sure was looking around!"


My conclusions after reviewing Walter's igc trace:

1 - Although the mid air happened at 2500 feet above the airport, they were only slightly more that 1000 feet above the hills below, probably too low to bailout successfully. the failure of the canopy release may have been indeed his saving grace.
2 - After the impact he dropped quickly and lost 2000 feet in one minute. Luckily the ground was dropping at the direction he was flying! He was only around 500 feet AGL after the first minute.
3 - The dive did not really slowed down much until the landing flare.
4 - The turn and the dive took him straight to the runway. He did not have time or altitude to land anywhere else. He was on the ground 2 min after impact.

None of them had flarm or pcas. Other then the obvious conclusion that flarm could have saved the day, another lesson is to check your canopy emergency release mechanism to make sure it works. Better scanning would have helped only if they knew exactly where to look at the right moment. Better radio communication as we often do in some places may have also helped preventing this accident.

I consider the results a miracle.

Ramy