Update on Minden tradegy

(John Firth) wrote in message ...
I too learned to fly clouds, in the UK on Turn and Ball; those old gliders did
at least have speed limiting dve brakes which I never had to use.
When I graduated to the Oly with a German WWII artificail horizon
cloud flying was the proverbial piece of cake. When my AH failed
(low battery) about 12000 ft in Yugo '72, I was glad that I had those hours
Of time using T and B.
I was told that a skilled pilot with a Bohli freely gimballed compass
could adequately cloud fly and Bohlis were banned from World comps.
I did prove to my limited satisfaction that with great care and circumspection
one could maintain a controlled trun using the COOK vertcal bearing compass
but I do not think I would try it now.
In closing, always have a backup, if you go IFR; the offical report of a
sad accident to a single engine transatlantic delivery happened on final
IFR approach to Reyavik , when the pilot reported AH failure! (no T and B)
That is pegging your life to one unkown instrument.
Don't do it.
John Firth
Old, no longer bold pilot.

.... which brings us back to the question of whether or not modern GPS
displays of the sort that Glide Navigator provides would be adequate
on an EMERGENCY basis to provide roll reference. Just to clarify, I
fully agree with all of the posts that intentional flight in IMC
without proper instruments is nuts. I have over the last 20 years
only a few hours of needle/ball/airspeed training and practice, and I
would never rely on it today given how rusty I am. However, it's
basically a moot point in the US, as almost no gliders are equipped
with an AH or even an electric T&B. So, in a pinch, the question on
the table is: Benign Spiral or maintain level flight (if possible)
using available instruments? My guess is that the GPS output is
probably too coarse to provide rapid enough roll information,
especially in turbulence. I think I'll go up with someone in a
two-place and give it a shot. Report to follow...

P3