Cle Elum crash on NTSB

On Oct 29, 12:22*pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
Both show what we are exhaustively trained against: assuming that you're
OK once you've pushed over to a normal gliding attitude. You're not of
course, because you'll be too slow and, unless you reacted IMMEDIATELY
and got the stick far enough forward for a zero G push-over you'll be
below stall speed, from where any turn will spin immediately.

The rule of thumb[*] is to push over until your dive attitude is as steep
as you were going up and then hold the attitude without attempting to
turn until you've reached the landing approach speed you'd chosen for the
day. Then, and only then you decide whether you've space to land ahead or
whether you need to turn.

Yes, I agree with this, except there's no need to push. Simply keeping
the stick roughly in the middle will allow the nose to fall through as
the speed drops, without any danger of stalling, and with the wing
operating at an efficient (low drag) angle of attack.

Easing the stick forward enough to get zero G is OK too, but
unnecessary. Negative G is likely to be counterproductive and actually
cause more drag and therefore bleed off more energy than a small
amount of positive G.


[*] unless, of course, its a low break where you'd become a lawn dart if
you used the above technique. Off a winch you'll always have plenty of
specs ahead, so a shallower recovery attitude is OK once you're
comfortable above stall speed and anyway you won't need to turn.

I don't agree.

Assuming you maintain a low drag angle of attack, you'll arrive back
at the release height with the same speed you had on the way up. We
know you made the pull up into the climb from just above ground level,
with an adequate safely margin from stalling, and with lower speed
than you had in the climb. There's no reason at all that you can't
safely pull out of the dive, starting from the cable break height,
even if the cable broke just as you were entering full climb.