On Monday, July 21, 2014 12:02:25 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sunday, July 20, 2014 8:53:12 PM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:



Does anyone know what failures are possible (or that have happened or are known) with other manufactures wing water systems?





My very first contest flight in an LS-3 - at Ionia.



I was climbing in a thermal - as I recall it was right after going through the start gate. I heard they "glug, glug, glug" sound. Looking over my right shoulder I saw a waterfall cascading off the right wing spar. I had failed to burn the wing bag adequately and the pressure had pushed the bag off the fitting. It dumped 10 or more gallons into the cockpit. Realizing that the left wing was still full I pulled the dump. I flew the task in a bathtub that eventually drained through the 1/2" fuselage drain hole. There was never a handing problem, but my parachute was soaked.

FWIW, I think the case can be made that more glider types have had failures resulting in asymmetric loading than have not. For example, my LS8 inner tanks developed an un-intended crossfeed to the outer tanks via a failed vent tube. It showed up for me on takeoff at a ridge site. An under-trained wing runner didn't realize that "I have water" shouldn't translate to having to hold up a wing with 20lbs of force. As soon as he let go - instant groundloop. Luckily, no other gliders or people were staged near the runway.

In this case, there was a Technical Note shortly thereafter to seal up the vent tube permanently.