On Saturday, December 19, 2020 at 5:09:01 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
On Thursday, December 17, 2020 at 8:03:51 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Thank you for the responses.

I could not find anything to support counsel's mendacious claim that the aicraft was towed or flown above any restriction either by the manufacturer or by the FAA. The evidence seems to support your opinion, Tom, that she got into sink and did not correct accordingly. Why was she so far out of trim? 45 degrees in the front seat isn't something you wouldn't notice from the back.
By "trim" I assume that you mean rudder coordination and not nose-down trim. I assume that there is a yaw string for the back seat as the front yaw string would not be visible to the pilot. She was both allowing airspeed to bleed off to dangerously slow levels and not monitoring control coordination. It is puzzling why, after twice saying "This is not good" that she didn't turn back to the airport.

The lawyer is probably not a pilot and may have interpreted the O2 altitude limitation to be an airframe limitation. He has plenty of malfeasances to hold Teton Aviation's feet to the fire, however.

Tom


Look through the photos in item 30 on the docket linked earlier in the thread (still frames from video the passenger was recording in the moments before the crash), it's very strange. Ridge on the left, very close aboard (less than 100 feet is my guess), left bank about 30 degrees, yaw string indicating what appears to be full right rudder. The full video would probably provide additional insight. The last two frames, 9 seconds apart, don't show evidence of a rapid descent... comparing the two views with the ridge line and considering the severe uncoordinated flight condition, I would guess the glider is flying in lift.

More questions than answers.

T8