On Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 3:08:04 PM UTC-4, Ramy wrote:
On Wednesday, August 17, 2016 at 6:42:41 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Yes, for sure, someone in the Chicago club should take a look at the wreckage to see if the seat back is broken. If it is, then contact the investigators (NTSB & FAA) and tell them what was found. I was at the field when a G-103 flew into the cliff, short of the runway. All the Federalli was interested in was checking AD's and to see if the ship was in annual. Glider pilots found the cause which was spoiler opened too far because of a worn stop, resulting in spoiler plate jammed on top of wing skin. Also, fill out a malfunction or defect report with your findings and send it to your local Feds and NTSB.
JJ

Absolutely. We should not rely on NTSB to find the root cause of accidents for us and we should not assume that they're not idiots. All they care about is filling the blanks in their accident report forms. The only useful accident reports I've seen were those which received good information either from the pilot involved, or other pilots.
If it will be found that the backrest was the likely cause, this will be yet another case of accident which could have been avoided if the pilot knew about an issue. There should have been an AD. I cant count how many fatalities could have been avoided if the pilots were aware of potential issues with their gliders. So far I found RAS to be the most reliable source of such knowledge. There should be a database for such things.

According to NTSB, this was the first glider fatality this year. Unfortunately, there was another one near Minden the following day:
http://mynews4.com/news/local/glider...-tahoe-airport

Ramy

It would take some care to determine if the seat moved before the accident, or as a result of the accident. Obviously if it is in the "correct" position, one could probably remove as an issue.
Many tow releases are hard to get to, especially in emergencies or maybe a slipped seat. For a number of ships with low center releases, a loop of parachute cord connected to the release, and laid over the left thigh during launch, can be a meaningful safety improvement.
Lastly- Emergency plan. Ya gotta have one. Right at the top of that plan list is "If something starts to go wrong- I will released and tray again". That includes a wing dropping and hitting the ground in many(most?) cases.
FWIW
UH