Interested in soaring safety? Read this

On Dec 16, 7:08 am, jcarlyle wrote:
Pete, what does the mnenomic TWA stand for?

-John

On Dec 16, 3:44 am, 309 wrote:

Keep the mnemonics (USTALL, TWA, GUMP) as safety nets.

TWA = Traffic, Wind, Altimeter (or Altitude)
GUMP = Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop (obviously for Power)
USTALL = Undercarriage, Speed, Trim, Airbrakes, Lookout, Land
see http://www.soaringsafety.org/images/ustall.jpg for a USTALL poster

I find myself using GUMP even in my 1-26...obviously completing that
checklist is very quick...and it prompts me to remember the other
two...which are similarly quick (Trim on a 1-26 is of marginal utility
on approach).

Nevertheless, they get me set up for safe landings...whatever I'm
flying!

-Pete

Thanks, Pete. I use USTALL on every approach set-up, and have heard
GUMPS, although as a non-power pilot I've never used it. But I've
never run across TWA, and I wonder why - it seems very, very important
for any landing! Thanks for educating me, and giving me a checklist
I'll be doing on all future approach set-ups.

-John

On Dec 16, 11:52 am, 309 wrote:
TWA = Traffic, Wind, Altimeter (or Altitude)
GUMP = Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop (obviously for Power)
USTALL = Undercarriage, Speed, Trim, Airbrakes, Lookout, Land
seehttp://www.soaringsafety.org/images/ustall.jpgfor a USTALL poster

Great discussion so far.

A couple points...

In soaring we DO have crew particularly in the staging, take-off, and
tow phase. We sometimes have crew during landing as well if there is
a ground crew with radio. So, crew resource management has great
value in soaring operations and should be utilized.

One of the jobs crew can perform is making sure pilots complete their
checklists; Critical Assembly Checks, Positive Control Checks, and, if
done out-loud, pre take-off checklist. Teach your ground crew not to
hook-up a towline until they hear the pilot complete the checklist.

In-cockpit checklists for glider ops should be done from memory (pre
take-off, landing, off-airport landing) WUFSTALL can be completed
easily in 20 seconds if done from memory and at the approapriate time
during the approach.

CBSIFTCB plus WET (wind, emergency procedures, traffic) takes less
than a half a minute to SAY OUT LOUD and verify or touch each item. I
teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind". Anything more is either
too much, takes too long, or just simply too confusing for the reptile
brain that will be trying to accomplish it during a real emergency.

On the last item, Traffic, make eye contact with the ground crew who
should now be patiently waiting at your wing tip and say TRAFFIC and
look around to remind them to look around for you. This is crew
resource management. It takes no extra time and gets everyone
watching each others back. There is no excuse for taking-off with
canopys unlatched, controls not hooked-up.

Look for other ways in which CRM can be utilized in soaring operations
and share them with others here.

Matt Michael

On 16 Dec, 18:13, wrote:

One of the jobs crew can perform is making sure pilots complete their
checklists; Critical Assembly Checks, Positive Control Checks, and, if
done out-loud, pre take-off checklist. Teach your ground crew not to
hook-up a towline until they hear the pilot complete the checklist.

One club I fly with has a column in the launch log for "positive
control checks completed" and won't launch you until this has been
done (once per day) at the launch point. I think that's a jolly good
idea.

I teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind".

How accurate are your altimeters during a winch launch?

Ian

Good point Ian. This is specific to aero tow launch which I did not
specify. Most are taught to call out 200 ft on aerotow to mark that
critical alt. It is a general benchmark.

My limited experience with ground tow launch which I haven't done in
some years, reminds me that the tow failure response is different.
IIRC it's more along the lines of, Lower the nose, confirm airspeed,
decide where to go (which is often site specific) pull release, and
maneuver to land.


I teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind".

How accurate are your altimeters during a winch launch?

Ian

On Dec 16, 1:41 pm, Ian wrote:
I teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind".

How accurate are your altimeters during a winch launch?

Ian

My recollection of winch training suggests that the trained response
to a cable break is to lower the nose. Once that is done and the
glider moves 32.8 feet (10 meters), the altimeter should be as
accurate as anywhere else in the envelope. And as other posters have
pointed out, that's where the decision time begins.

Good food for thought.

-Pete

On Dec 16, 10:13 am, wrote:
On the last item, Traffic, make eye contact with the ground crew who
should now be patiently waiting at your wing tip and say TRAFFIC and
look around to remind them to look around for you. This is crew
resource management.
Matt Michael

My first Glider Instructor taught me a simple pre-takeoff checklist:
A
B
C
C
C
D

I added another D.

Another instructor implored me to add E

A-Altimeter
B-Belts
C-Canopy
C-Controls
C-Cable (in that order!)
D-Direction of Wind
D-Dive Brakes (spoilers to some)
D-Dummies In The Patter (my way of categorizing "traffic")
E-Emergency Procedures and Plans.

The good Big Iron drivers BRIEF every takeoff (heading, speeds, what
to do in an emergency).

The great Big Iron Test Pilots pre-Brief every takeoff, and who's to
do what when (not if) something goes wrong...even for a normal non-
test takeoff. Taking an unfamiliar FAA Test Pilot with us once, the
captain briefed the FAA pilot "If something goes wrong, YOU fly the
airplane, and I'll deal with the emergency, since I'm more familiar
with the aircraft/systems/etc." We can do this with our ground crews,
too, as Matt has suggested.

Some of us treat our checklists like we treat our parachutes: like a
talisman. If we take care of them, have them and know how to use
them, they will perform the function of a good luck charm, and ward
off emergencies, ramp checks and embarrassing appearances on the five
o'clock news.

-Pete

The problem with "check lists" is that 99% of the time they are used as "do
lists" as in "shopping list".

They are not called "do lists" for a reason. You are supposed to be able to
perform all tasks on the list from memory and then check yourself with the
list. This way, in an emergency when you don't have time to find a list and
read it, you are likely to do the right things.

Used as "do lists" they are just a crutch. Used correctly as check lists,
they do add to safety.

I do my lists from memory and then scan the checklist to make sure I haven't
forgotten anything.

Bill Daniels




"Ramy" wrote in message
...
On Dec 15, 6:14 am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
Ramy wrote:
On Dec 14, 3:20 pm, tommytoyz wrote:
The point is to not assume that you will never forget a vital
function, no matter how good a pilot you think you are.

Or rather, that it is assured that at some point, everyone will forget
something ans so the importance of the checklist and that the ego in
us will always try to convince us the opposite.

I don't think anyone questions the importance of checklists, the
problem is how to enforce yourself to use it, and use it correctly.
There is much higher chance to forget using a checklist, or skip an
item in the checklist, than making any other mistakes. Especially the
landing checklist, any distraction and the first thing to go will
likely be the checklist. Any ideas how to make sure you never skip an
item on the landing checklist?

Dymotape "WUF" (or whatever your acronym of choice is) onto the panel?

Now, if somebody could come up with a good acronym for a dry, unflapped
glider.... ULT (Undercarriage, Lookout, Trim) is about all I can come up
with.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yeah, but my point is, how can you make sure you will follow the
checklist on the panel when something goes wrong or distructs you.
After all, this is when we get in trouble, when something else goes
wrong.

Ramy

On 16 Dec, 15:39, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
The problem with "check lists" is that 99% of the time they are used as "do
lists" as in "shopping list".

Absolutely. I was taught "put the wheel down when you decide to land,
no matter how high" and "check that it's down in the circuit". I am
amazed at the number of people who wait until the last minute or two
of flight to put the wheel down, and I have seen one serious crash as
a result.

Ian