Options for disabled glider pilot

Allan -

If you own the glider and can make modifications, you could benefit from
some modern technology. As you probably know, modern military aircraft use
buttons, etc. , on the control stick to perform many functions. A rocker
switch on the stick could control your spoilers through a solenoid. Another
could control the trim, if necessary. Others could control additional
functions (gear?). Since these activities do not occur frequently they will
not impose excessive loads on your battery.

Ed Grens





Allan Smits wrote:

I've just gotten bitten by the glider bug, but as a right arm amputee, I
am not sure of how to proceed given the challenges of flight control
operation, primarily dealing with simultaneous flight stick and spoilers
on final approach. Are there any other disabled glider pilots out there
with similar challenges that might provide help and advice?

Thanks, Allan

"E. A. Grens" wrote:

Allan -

If you own the glider and can make modifications, you could benefit from
some modern technology. As you probably know, modern military aircraft use
buttons, etc. , on the control stick to perform many functions. A rocker
switch on the stick could control your spoilers through a solenoid. Another
could control the trim, if necessary. Others could control additional
functions (gear?). Since these activities do not occur frequently they will
not impose excessive loads on your battery.


I would not like to fly a glider where some control depends on the power of
a battery to operate. Battery failures are the most common incident in the
gliders in my club. Of course early preventive replacement may lower the rate,
but in case of a defective new battery with an abnormal short lifetime, you
can detect it prior to its failure to keep its charge.

If I had to design from scratch some control disposition for people with only
one hand, I thing I would like to have the three basic controls (ailerons,
rudder, elevator) actuated by the hand, leaving the feet for trim and spoilers.
E.g. the hand could actuate the kind of yoke you find on most light power planes,
mounted on top of a stick with the 2 usual degrees of freedom. Tilting the
yoke left or right would act on the ailerons, moving the stick left or right
would act on the rudder, moving the stick back and forward would act on the
elevator. Another possible disposition coming in my mind is a rotating handle
like those found on motorbikes at the end of a standard stick, but in this
case I can't chose which among handle rotation and stick left/right should
operate rudder and ailerons. The most natural would be ailerons as usual by
stick left/right and rudder by handle rotation, but you would probably not
have a sufficient force to operate the rudder by direct mechanical transmission
in this way. The tow hook release should also be operated by a button on the
yoke or the stick.