Some gliders safer than others?

The Scheibe trainers are enormously strong.
The Bergfalkes have a long travel sprung skid to absorb energy in a hard
landing.

Seen them being stress tested more than once and they have much more
give before damage than a modern glass design.

Conversely and unfortunately the seat design is so poor that - should
you reach the end of travel on the skid there is a virtual guarantee of
spinal injury.

I have seen enough fatal or serious injury wrecks to have no illusions
about how much protection that cockpit will provide. It is a little like
the adage , that if you want people to drive carefully one should
replace the airbag with a sharpened spike...

The best modern cockpits are a lot better than their predecessors, but
it is little comfort.

Bruce

On 2013/10/24 5:29 PM, Evan Ludeman wrote:
On Thursday, October 24, 2013 11:17:44 AM UTC-4, WB wrote:

I fly an early H-301 Libelle (serial #19). It has a significant safety

feature not seen in many other gliders. The fuselage is so thin that it

allows one see out if the canopy fogs over.



Seriously, Libelles would, in no way, be construed as having a "safety

cockpit", however, there have been relatively few fatalities in

Libelles. I think their slightly wobbly, unstable feel encourages pilots

to pay attention to their flying.



An extra helping of humor, on toasted wry. I'm going to chuckle about that all afternoon.

T8


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771