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Winch Launch Fatality



 
 
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Old June 26th 09, 08:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Derek Copeland[_2_]
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Posts: 146
Default Winch Launch Fatality

For Christs sake Bill! Lasham is the largest and most professional gliding
club in the UK and we do about 10,000 winch launches per year, 9,999 of
which go without incident. We do know what we are doing. We either point
the glide directly at the main winch, or just slightly upwind of it in a
crosswind to reduce any initial yaw due to weather cocking.

The K13 incident was caused by a gust, and the glider was landed without
damage or injury. A similar wing drop during an aerotow would be
considered quite unremarkable. The correct thing to do is to pull off if a
wing drops during a winch launch.

Derek Copeland

At 03:42 26 June 2009, bildan wrote:
On Jun 24, 7:00=A0pm, Don Johnstone wrote:
What is particularly interesting in both the video and the photographs

is
the direction the glider is pointing relative to the cable. In the

video
the glider can be seen to yaw as the cable tightens and then further

yaw
as the it starts to move.
In the photographs it is clear that the glider is pointing to the

right
o=
f
the direction of the cable AND stangely is pointed in the same

direction
=
as
the K13 parked behind it, a co-incidence perhaps. In both cases it

would
appear possible that the glider was not lined up with the cable prior

to
launch so that as soon as the cable moved yaw was induced. With a CofG
hook the glider will be more unstable about the yaw axis than was the

cas=
e
with the more forward release on older gliders. Perhaps that might

explai=
n
why this appears to be a "new" phenomenon.


Nope, they lined it up at an angle to the wire then all the other
stuff compounded the problem. There are other videos from Lasham with
the gliders improperly staged which show a similar wobbly takeoff. If
the gilder isn't pointing at the winch, the takeoff will be
'interesting'. Unfortunately, some people in the US are showing the
k-13 photo sequence as proof that winches are too dangerous to use.
This actually forced me to add a paragraph in my winch training
syllabus cautioning pilots to aim gliders at the winch - which any kid
launching a balsa glider with a rubber band would understand without
being told.

To be fair, there very well could have been a wind event that we, in a
dustier climate, would call a "dust devil" which couldn't be seen in
lush green England. We would see it coming and stand down until the
thing passed - then launch and go chase it for the lift it marks.

 




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