Drag Chute Deployed ?

Thanks for your thoughts on this accident, Mike. It is always tragic when life
is lost because of inexperience. I guess the lesson that we can learn from this
is; If there is nothing but trees below you, then *put it in the trees* and
don't try to avoid them. I do think it is important for us to analyze our
accidents in a forum like RAS, because if we don't do it, nobody will. Please
tell us what you think caused an accident and what could have prevented it.
That's the only way to get the word out and possibly prevent a similar
accident.
JJ Sinclair

I was present (with a great many other glider pilots) last year at a
competition when an ASW27 crashed into trees final gliding to the airfield.
There was not quite enough energy, and he hit the top of a tall tree on the
boundary, broke through this to finish in a small tree a few yards further
on. The fuselage finished just clear of the ground with the wings badly
damaged. The pilot was I think completely uninjured, certainly he walked
away. It would have been much worse but for that small tree.

This year at that airfield they set the finish line so as to avoid finishing
over the trees.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.

"JJ Sinclair" wrote in message
...

Thanks for your thoughts on this accident, Mike. It is always tragic
when life is lost because of inexperience.

I guess the lesson that we can learn from this is; If there is nothing but
trees below you, then *put it in the trees* and don't try to avoid them.

I do think it is important for us to analyze our accidents in a forum like
RAS, because if we don't do it, nobody will. Please tell us what you
think caused an accident and what could have prevented it. That's the
only way to get the word out and possibly prevent a similar accident.

JJ Sinclair.

Please
tell us what you think caused an accident and what could have prevented it.
That's the only way to get the word out and possibly prevent a similar
accident.
JJ Sinclair

I don't know if the glider in question had a flight recorder, but many do, and
many mysterious accidents could have been fully analyzed if flight recorder
manufactures would have build them in a way that the memory can survive a
crash.
Unfortunately in most cases the flight log is lost simply as a result of the
memory battery comming loose. I heard of quiet a few such cases.
A recent mysterious accident during a contest could have been potentially
resolved if the flight log was available.

Any comments from flight recorder manufactures?

Ramy (TG)

On 28 Aug 2003 22:40:09 GMT, (RamyYanetz) wrote:

Please
tell us what you think caused an accident and what could have prevented it.
That's the only way to get the word out and possibly prevent a similar
accident.
JJ Sinclair

I don't know if the glider in question had a flight recorder, but many do, and
many mysterious accidents could have been fully analyzed if flight recorder
manufactures would have build them in a way that the memory can survive a
crash.
Unfortunately in most cases the flight log is lost simply as a result of the
memory battery comming loose. I heard of quiet a few such cases.
A recent mysterious accident during a contest could have been potentially
resolved if the flight log was available.

Any comments from flight recorder manufactures?

Ramy (TG)


The Volkslogger uses non volatile Flash memory for the flight record
so it should be possible to always get the record.

Mike Borgelt

I guess the lesson that we can learn from this is;
If there is nothing but trees below you, then *put it in the
trees*
and don't try to avoid them.

May be a coincidence but we had two crashes this season, both
into the trees and both pilots survived with virtually no injury.
One had a cut on his head from the canopy and the other one just
bruises. The gliders, a Pegase and a DG-300 were totally damaged.

So obviously crashing into trees can give you an *edge* in such a
situation.

Christian