Unintentional fully-developed spins...

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 22:39:28 +0200, Ian Forbes
wrote:

Caracole wrote:

(JJ Sinclair) wrote in message
... SNIPPED A BIT

The brits, on the other hand, went out looking for a 2-seater that
was easy to spin and they found a GOOD one in the Puch. Mike believes
that 15 have spun-
in, world wide and the Brits are investigating their 4th Puch-in.

Hate to tell you this boys and girls,
my list,
confirmed by direct contacts, of spinning Puch impacts is now up to
23 whacks worldwide.
And I am now chasing down a story about a 24th ... which is an 'old'
one, not the January English tragedy. The unveiling of #24 came about
through these threads....

On a production run of about 200 gliders, we only have a few more low
spinning fatalities to go, to remove the fleet from service.
Macabre enough yet?

Many of these wretched losses could have been avoided, had there been
a requirement for a hard deck for recovery that would allow egress and
use of parachutes. I know I won't get the Puchacz retired from
service, but possibly, maybe, by the grace of a higher power,

I might get people to STOP spin training in the Puchacz (at the least)
at low altitudes.

With a prayer,

Cindy B
Caracole Soaring


If it is true, it is pretty damming. It also shows that the Brits record
is not out of proportion with the world fleet - so this is not due to
anything specific in their training.

Ian

Or it means the stupidity and ignorance is pandemic.
Thanks to Cindy for bringing this interesting statistic to light.
Now can we placard the damn things against intentional spins?
Research modifications?
Burn them?
I'm actually a fan of Polish gliders for their nice handling generally
but is there an excuse for this one?

Mike Borgelt