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Old June 19th 12, 09:03 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Tim Mara
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Posts: 375
Default Texas Tragedy Info?

I've see the Lark being flown with the tail dolly on before
had one of our club members (a commercial pilot) do this with passengers on
board
He would have never even known this "Daaa"if I hadn't been there to greet
him when it returned........
tim



wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, June 19, 2012 1:26:51 PM UTC-4, BobW wrote:
On 6/19/2012 11:06 AM, soartech wrote:
On Jun 19, 11:35 am, Nigel wrote:
If the tail dolly was left on the angle of attack on the ground run
would
be less so it wouldnt lift off till a higher speed had been reached.
Could
this have had any control effects on tow?
If the toddler was sitting on his mothers lap his feet would be
straight
out in an ideal place to interfere with the stick. Bad bad idea.


Are the wing runners trained to check for extra big orange things
hanging off the glider
before takeoff? I know it is not their fault, but at the critical
launch the pilot is helpless to
see this mistake.


Making zero speculation as to root cause(s) of this tragedy, and
considering
only the presence of the tail dolly at the start of aerotow, it's clear to
any
informed soaring participant that this item was missed by at least one
person
(PIC), and presumably two (wing runner).

I was "lucky enough" to witness a dolly-on takeoff prior to my solo
(Phoebus
A; PIC's initial flight in it; it ended well), and the more experienced
people
around at the time gave me a thorough exposure to all the myriad errors
made
along the way to such a launch. The lessons were obvious...once they'd
been
pointed out to me.

I've also begun one takeoff roll with my tail dolly attached (haste;
inexperienced wing-runner), realized ~when tuggie applied power I couldn't
remember having checked for tail dolly removal, listened (no joy one way
or
the other), tried a tentative rudder input (inconclusive), pulled the plug
(listening to that little voice in my skull). There it was, on the
fuselage,
in all its international orange glory. (What an idiot!)

Point being - others having already touched upon likely
CG/directional-stability issues associated with its presence - that every
reader who's hearing little voices in his/her head about the presence of
the
tail dolly in this terribly sad instance ought to be actively listening to
that voice against the future day it may (will?) need to be acted upon.
Clearly, beginning a takeoff roll with the taildolly attached is an
avoidable
mistake...even if in a very few designs it may be self-correcting (e.g.
G-102).

Bob W

A real risk also, and I say this without speculation in this case, is for
some really helpful person to start screaming right away on the radio
about the tail dolly. In a situation like this, it is FAR better to let
the pilot get high enough to terminate the tow reasonably, than panic him
into a low premature dangerous release. This also permits him to organize
his landing allowing for the almost inevitable spin around the wheel groud
loop.

UH