Edgar wrote:
The unanswered question is why turn? If the winch cable breaks at 80m
almost by definition there's room to land ahead on a normal airfield,

You may not have realized that the two operative words in that sentence
are "almost" and "normal".

I wrote that rather carefully. You've rather distorted what I said by
skipping what I went on to say about the shape and size of the field.

On my club field turning at 80m would never be necessary because the
runway is mown grass 1000 m long by 100 m wide with the winch at one end
and 200-400m of landing area behind the launch point. Judging from the
trees etc. in the background of the clip that is almost certainly not
the case where the accident happened.

I give the pilot the benefit of doubt and just believe that he had his reasons.

Agreed. If we knew what the field looked like maybe we could all learn
from his sad experience.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |