Fatal crash Arizona

On 9/13/2016 4:24 PM, Don Johnstone wrote:
At 17:28 13 September 2016, BobW wrote:
Snip...
That said - and since a number of these hooks have been installed
into the
noses of German-built ships originally entering the USA with only
a CG hook
- owners of ships with these hooks SHOULD (and easily can) VERIFY
the
presence/absence of such a compression spring by checking to
see if the
pawl is positively forced against the rotating piece of the cable hook
throughout its rotation range. Positive engagement = spring-present.

Bob W.

I am now confused by the "installed in German" part. Is the release you are
talking about a TOST release?


Sorry for any confusion. A number of "Applebay releases" have been
subsequently installed in (on the fuselage bottom surface, near the front of
the nose of) non-USA-built gliders imported into the USA with only a single,
CG-mounted, release back by the wheel. This second cable attachment point
provided "a nose-hooked aero-towing option." Many - not all - such modified
ships were of German origin.

FWIW, I've been privately informed by a fellow Zuni owner (of S/N 28) that his
ship's release uses a(n easily visible) *tension* spring (not compression, as
on S/N 2) to positively seat the pawl against the rotating/indented cable hook
part...which is what my fallible memory kinda-sorta remembered from my own
(not recently looked at) Zuni (S/N 3).

In either case, any owner of a ship with an "Applebay nose release" can/should
easily confirm the presence of such a spring by verifying the business end of
the pawl is "somehow or other" positively forced against the rotating cable
hook as it operates throughout its range of motion. The truly curious can
disconnect it before operating their releases to get a better feel for what I
sought to describe in an earlier post. Please do reconnect it...or YMMV!

Bob W.