Glider Towplane Mid-air – TP PowerFLARM Inop

This seems to happen every few years, where the tow plane makes a left turn and the glider make a right and they come around and collide. I changed the way we do it here so that the glider only makes a slight right turn, and then keeps his eye on the tow plane, so that at least one of the pair of planes can more easily maintain separation. When both planes make a 360° turn, neither of them can see the other. This kind of accident is the result.

Boggs

When I was towing, I would visually confirm that the glider was off and
then roll steeply and dive.Â* If I hadn't felt the glider get off, I
would fly straight and level for a bit to assure clearance before
beginning a more moderate descent.Â* I also maintained awareness of any
gliders that had not climbed away.

I would blame both of the pilots in this accident but would assign most
of the blame to the tow pilot.Â* Making what amounts to a level turn just
after release is asking for trouble.

On 2/11/2020 8:51 AM, Waveguru wrote:
This seems to happen every few years, where the tow plane makes a left turn and the glider make a right and they come around and collide. I changed the way we do it here so that the glider only makes a slight right turn, and then keeps his eye on the tow plane, so that at least one of the pair of planes can more easily maintain separation. When both planes make a 360° turn, neither of them can see the other. This kind of accident is the result.

Boggs

--
Dan, 5J

There is nothing easy or trivial about jumping out of uncontrollable glider.. You might be lucky with g-forces or not. Glider without tail can loose wings in quick succession, and then you don't have time to do anything anymore, no matter what the altitude is.

True, but that's why my initial question was whether or not an attempt
was made to exit the aircraft, e.g., unlatched canopies or harnesses.Â*
The posted report made no mention of either yet it did mention the
wearing of parachutes.

There was also no mention of losing wings, etc.Â* I believe the report
said that all of the aircraft with the exception of the vertical and
horizontal tail planes was found at the impact site.

On 2/11/2020 12:01 PM, krasw wrote:
There is nothing easy or trivial about jumping out of uncontrollable glider. You might be lucky with g-forces or not. Glider without tail can loose wings in quick succession, and then you don't have time to do anything anymore, no matter what the altitude is.

--
Dan, 5J

TSB Canada confirmed to me that the canopies remained closed.

Given the low drag, it's about 8 seconds to lose the first 1,000' – and about 3 more for the next 1,000.

Question for those who bailed out after losing your tail: How high were you when the tail came off?

On Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 10:53:29 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
When I was towing, I would visually confirm that the glider was off and
then roll steeply and dive.Â* If I hadn't felt the glider get off, I
would fly straight and level for a bit to assure clearance before
beginning a more moderate descent.Â* I also maintained awareness of any
gliders that had not climbed away.

I would blame both of the pilots in this accident but would assign most
of the blame to the tow pilot.Â* Making what amounts to a level turn just
after release is asking for trouble.

On 2/11/2020 8:51 AM, Waveguru wrote:
This seems to happen every few years, where the tow plane makes a left turn and the glider make a right and they come around and collide. I changed the way we do it here so that the glider only makes a slight right turn, and then keeps his eye on the tow plane, so that at least one of the pair of planes can more easily maintain separation. When both planes make a 360° turn, neither of them can see the other. This kind of accident is the result.

Boggs

--
Dan, 5J

You can't hardly blame the glider pilot: they were flying straight ahead and were struck from behind. The tow pilot is clearly the one at fault.

Tom

Further contributing to thread drift...

On 2/11/2020 9:46 PM, 2G wrote:
On Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 10:53:29 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
When I was towing, I would visually confirm that the glider was off and
then roll steeply and dive. If I hadn't felt the glider get off, I would
fly straight and level for a bit to assure clearance before beginning a
more moderate descent. I also maintained awareness of any gliders that
had not climbed away.

I would blame both of the pilots in this accident but would assign most
of the blame to the tow pilot. Making what amounts to a level turn just
after release is asking for trouble.

On 2/11/2020 8:51 AM, Waveguru wrote:
This seems to happen every few years, where the tow plane makes a left
turn and the glider make a right and they come around and collide. I
changed the way we do it here so that the glider only makes a slight
right turn, and then keeps his eye on the tow plane, so that at least
one of the pair of planes can more easily maintain separation. When
both planes make a 360° turn, neither of them can see the other. This
kind of accident is the result.

Boggs

-- Dan, 5J

You can't hardly blame the glider pilot: they were flying straight ahead
and were struck from behind. The tow pilot is clearly the one at fault.

Tom

This sort of mid-air is - to me - excruciatingly: sad; horrifying; and
arguably 100% easily avoidable by every paranoid glider pilot. Color me a
paranoid pilot, who believes in controlling what *this* Joe Paranoid Pilot can
control.

Once I was savvy enough to be primary control-handler (i.e. *before* obtaining
my pilot certificate) I always - and I mean ALWAYS!!! - kept a beady eye on
the tug post-release, until I was 100% certain he could no longer hit me
without Mr. Tuggie actively trying to do so by applying power, climbing back
up, and sneaking into my 6 0'clock position. Perhaps 99% of the time, I'd see
him rolling left and soon-enough beginning the stoop back to the field. Those
few times this didn't happen (e.g. due to a "soft release" or a release not
felt due to turbulence or whatever), I'd halt my right bank and watch him
continue his climb until I either saw him figure out I was off and then
indubitably descend, or, until he was sufficiently high and far enough away
that I could begin my thermal search (necessitating turning my back on Mr
Tuggie, obviously) with sufficient clearance that he couldn't hit me *before*
I'd regained a visual on him.

My reasoning was simple. At the instant of release, my highest known-to-me
collision threat was Mr. Tuggie, so why would I NOT pay him close attention
until our diverging flight paths put him in the same category as all those
other not-yet-seen threats were to me? I actually told my ab-initio instructor
why I'd halted the post-release right bank once, when for some reason or
other, Mr. Tuggie briefly delayed beginning his stoop. He laughed and said
something to the effect, "That's fine by ME!"

Post-release "clearance by rote" is - as this terrible accident strongly
suggests - a seriously flawed methodology.

Bob W.

When releasing in a turn and seeing tow plane to continue the turn, it is totally plausible to NOT consider him collision threat anymore. In this case I can see why and how this happened. I'm pretty sure the awful visibility during turn from high wing Cessna was a factor. Accidents are 100% avoidable only for 100% perfect human beings.

Post-release "clearance by rote" is - as this terrible accident strongly
suggests - a seriously flawed methodology.

I agree. I aways turn right after release, to satisfy the rule, but only maybe 30 degrees before halting the turn, and turning back left as necessary to keep the towplane in sight. The towpilot necessarily loses sight of the glider after release, and should fly directly away from the release point until well below the release altitude.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 11:46:52 PM UTC-5, 2G wrote:

You can't hardly blame the glider pilot: they were flying straight ahead and were struck from behind. The tow pilot is clearly the one at fault.

Tom

There's one thing we know for sure about accident reports: they aren't 100% accurate. I think we ought to hesitate to convict someone we've never met based on evidence that can't be verified.

That said...

The day I tow some doofus that

-chooses to release in a right hand turn
-does a soft release
-clears to my left

and doesn't immediately get on the radio to let me know what's going on and make certain he keeps me in sight until we achieve normal vertical separation... we're going to have some words.

In the glider, I teach (following release & right turn): 1) track the towplane, 2) find the airport, 3) get on with normal flight procedures. Our turns at separation are typically 90 deg left for the towplane and 45 or more right for the glider. OK to thermal once you are certain the towplane is out of the area.

Yes, the tow pilot had better options. 2020 hindsight he Given loss of situational awareness, or the vague awareness that the glider is somewhere out of sight, close and below, then a better thing to do is clear the area.. If you realize you've been victim of a soft release, then I think the thing to do is simply proceed straight ahead for at least 30s while beginning your descent.

That tow pilot has my deep sympathy. No one wants a do-over more than he does.

best,
Evan Ludeman / T8