Mark James Boyd wrote:

But how many people have accidentally landed with ballast?

Thousands, I'm sure, over the years. I've done it. If you do it
intentionally so you can adjust your landing, it's not a problem, but if
it's unintentional, you can find yourself wondering why you aren't
stopping...

And is
it common in gliders to have a limitation that one can only land without
ballast?

Yes, it is. They can do it, of course, but on some gliders it can raise
the weight 40%, and the landing speed 20%, so it's going to be lot
harder to stop! Another potential problem is a leak on one side means
one wing can be a lot heavier than the other, so it goes down first and
early, often leading to a ground loop.

The structural margins are reduced, but still well within the G loadings
of the usual landing.

Kinda makes a rope break interesting...

Yes, as the turn radius is increased and turn rate lowered, in addition
to the weight and landing speed issues.



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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA