Fatal Towplane Accident 5-9-20

I thought through the hard stuff, you solve the little details

Cadd drawings of CG-yolk attachment to discourage tail-lifting by kiting glider.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rjcl6hugl...rTU8p2W5a?dl=0

It has been done in Germany during WWII with military gliders. It was called "Hubschlepp". It was tested with a DFS 230 transport glider and a Junkers Ju 87 B-1 as a towplane. The system was very stable, only one of the two pilots had to steer his plane, the other just followed. Climb rate was roughly double that of the normal tow: 5–7 m/s against 2–3 m/s. Service ceiling, autonomy and maximum speed increased also.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugze...epp#Hubschlepp (in German)
See also: Ernst Peter: Der Flugzeugschlepp von den Anfängen bis heute. Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, 1981.

How about banning all sideways/aft opening canopies from gliders? An unlocked canopy is a non-event in my LS6 with it's forward hinged canopy. Grobs? Deathtraps!

Or, just ban all canopies, period. Open cockpits are much more relaxing, and there is one less thing to mess up prior to takeoff.

OR, we could switch to using helicopters to aerotow...just put a CG hook on the TOP of the glider, lift vertically to 3000', and cut'em loose. Yee Haw! With a Chinook you could even daisy-chain several gliders and take up the whole club at once - just make sure you release from the bottom up...

Seriously:

1. Replace ALL Schweizer tow hooks with TOST releases (or equivalent) with the release lever close to the throttle. This is a no-brainer.

2. DO NOT TOLERATE ANY out of position/out of view flying by ANY glider pilot. At a minimum, talk to them after a flight with an "incident"; worse case, hand them the rope as soon as they get out of position (within gliding range of the field, of course, if possible).

Kirk
66

On Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 8:25:22 PM UTC-4, wrote:
Has anyone investigated placing the tow hook directly over(or under) the tow planes center of gravity? This would keep the out of position glider from yanking the tow planes tail out of acceptable limits? The RC tow ships, I have seen, place the tow hook over the towing ships CG.
My 2 cents,
JJ

This is exactly how they do it with Radio control models! I tried towing radio controlled models with a tail hook on a 10' span cub....some success, many crashes....with Hook on top of wing...no problem...and they fly the model gliders really high on the tow plane. Needs some frame around the fin and horizontal stab to prevent rope entanglement....don't think it is safe for "real" towing...



Cookie

Over 40 years ago a good friend of mine was killed while Flying a
Citarbria on areotow at Aboyne, Scotland.

The findings of the enquiry were that the release as on the floor of the
cockpit and could be reached while the inertia seatbelts allowed
movement. In turbulence if the belts locked it was not possible for
some pilots to reach the release. The glider pilot admitted losing sight
of the tug and failed to release.
As the result of that accident it was an airworthiness requirement that
the glider release was mounted near to the throttle. The requirement
that if a glider pilot lost sight of the tug FOR ANY REASON he should
immediately release.
We will not know the exact causes of the current accident for sometime,
speculation can be counter productive, however the two lessons above
are still valid.
I find it crazy that there are still tugs allowed to fly without the
release
in close proximity to the throttle and there are still glider pilots who do

not release when they should. Surely 40 years is enough time to learn a
lesson.

Well, everything's been said but not everyone has said it yet. There is no one answer to this problem, it doesn't matter what "fly the airplane means.." If it's "keep your eyes on the tug and maintain proper position" or "release," what it really means is "do not kill the tow pilot.''

It doesn't matter if you have a reachable release handle, an inverted Schweizer hook, a TOST system or a guillotine, if the glider kites low enough you will be dead or badly injured. A sobering though for tow pilots everywhere.

It doesn't matter if the glider pilot is a 15 year old student or an instructor pilot, if they screw up the tow pilot most likely pays the fine.

In this most recent accident the glider pilot I am told was an instructor. How can we expect a low time student to react properly if an instructor is distracted? Look at the Front Royal accident, an instructor was flying in this situation and clearly above the tow plane. Why did he not release? There was a fatal tow plane accident at the USAF Academy soaring club, the instructor, an Academy student (the best of the best I was constantly told while I was in the USAF) was significantly above the tow plane and did not release.

It doesn't matter if the instructor is a "world aerobatic champion" if he failed to impart information to the student about what to do when one loses sight of the tow plane. Telling someone something and TEACHING someone are two different things.

Is it failure to use a check list or a failure of cockpit discipline? It doesn't matter and it won't matter until all involved in the sport including the SSA, the FAA, the NTSB, commercial operation managers, club presidents, ALL the tow pilots and glider pilots decide that it matters and more importantly take action to reduce the chances of it happening again. Unfortunately NOTHING can be done to completely eliminate these occurrences but we fly anyway.

Accidents in the aviation world will continue because gravity is a constant and human error is impossible to eliminate completely. Good luck my friends.

Walt Connelly
Former Tow Pilot
Now Happy Helicopter Pilot

On Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 9:47:50 AM UTC-7, jfitch wrote:
On Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 8:23:35 PM UTC-7, Ramy wrote:
The glider was a 1-26.

Ramy

Too bad. A 1-26 flies fine without a canopy. I have purposefully opened the canopy of a 2-33, unbuckled and stood up to untangle the yaw string, and though flying slower than on tow it wasn't terribly dramatic. Perhaps if training in 2-33s opening the canopy to experience it should be part of the course. It is the surprise and fear of the unknown which certainly contributes to the loss of concentration.

An artificial horizon and electric guillotine is a complex solution. Is the tow rope at a sufficient angle in these situations to simply position a sharp knife above the rope such that it cuts itself if the angle is too high? Surely that has been thought of and rejected for good reasons?


A common problem most tow plans have is the lack of a good way to see the glider. The mount rearview mirror at some distance from them on the wing struts and various places. Most tow pilots I have taked to say the field of view is very limited and they mostly use them while taking out the slack be fore launch. I todays world we back up cameras on out cars with overlays to help use back up. If we used a camera looking back, the tow pilot could see the glider easily. The screen could have a box the glider must be within. If not cut the rope. Addition software could also be implemented to cut the rope for them.

A second idea is a tension sensor. if there is a sustained high pull on the rope as you get with a kiting event. An alarm could go off or the rope automatically cut. Slack rope jerks are very short in duration and could easily be ignored.

John Scott was a very good friend of mine and I feel very sad for his loss and at the same time a bit upset at the glider pilot for not doing one of the most fundalmental things we teach students. If you can not see the tow plane " release immediately" people loose sight of the towplane long before things go completely bad.

there is addition video taking by the airport cameras that show the entire accident sequence. Some day when the NTSB gives its report, we will get a chance to see this maybe.

The tow rope was found 100 yards beyond the towplane in a small pile indicating it came down vertically. The glider over flew the towplane as it was about to crash or even after and caused the plane to flip over. This trapped the pilot inside where he burnt to death.

Negative G's could have prevented the pilot from reaching the release under his seat in the most dynamic period of energy transfer to the gliders speed and altitude. IT is this on set of this critical time is when the rope need to be cut.

The pull on the Schwiezer tow hook would have been nearly straight down and could have also been jabbed. Years of doing winch launches in a 1-26 and 2-33 say you need to push over to help reduce the release forces to open the release.

Tow pilots do the most dangerous part of getting us into the air many times each day. We in the glider do less. We need to find solutions to prevent another kiting fatality.

Buzz