On Tuesday, June 25, 2013 7:40:12 PM UTC-6, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:41:36 +0200, BruceGreeff

wrote:



From the little I have been able to ascertain.



The German system is very de-centralised - and federated.

If there is an accident or incident it is generally dealt with locally.

Apparently - Only serious events make it up the hierarchy to the LBA/DaEC.



I have seen more than one glider where the log book does not record what

in local terms would have been "Moderate" damage and would definitely

have been reported. But again it is not possible to generalise this to

current practice. These gliders are, in general, decades old. So the

reporting standards were different when this happened. From the

difference in national numbers, one can only deduce that the reporting

methods differ.



Any of our European friends able to comment?



Raises a hand



The German system is not de-centralized at all concerning aircraft

certification and accident analysis.

All of this is handled centrally by the German equivalent of the FAA,

the "Luftfahrt Bundesamt" (LBA) and the German Federal Bureau of

Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU).



http://www.bfu-web.de/EN/Home/homepa...8D1EF.live2051





In Germany *any* incident that causes a severe damage to the glider

(severe damage: a damage that compromises an aircraft's

airworthiness), its pilot or third party property is definitely

reported to the LBA.



Minor incidents without damage but deemed noteworthy are also

reported. This is practiced at least since the early 1980's.



The only accidents that are not reported are minor outlanding damages.



http://www.bfu-web.de/DE/Publikation...html?nn=223244







One things needs to be mentioned: There is no relation between a

damage report to the LBA and an entry in the gllider's log book.



For a long time it was accepted practice that a damage report and its

corresponding repair report were not reported in the log book, but

rather in the maintenance history file. Some owners did not feel the

necessity to include these in this file in order to increase the

resale value...







Cheers

Andreas

So, Andreas verifies the 5 accidents the BFU lists for 2011 was all there was in 900,000 winch launches.

http://rdd.me/dstznowe says the UK suffered 12 for 180,000 launches.

How does that stack up?

UK: 1:15,000
Germany 1:180,000

Seems like Germany has a 12:1 lower accident rate.

It's great that the safer winch launching initiative in the UK has improved things but I think you need to find out what the Germans are doing right. I'd start by watching every "windenstart" video on YouTube. Hint: Time the takeoff rolls.