Winch Launch Fatality

Gosh, two postings in a row when I actually agree with Bill Daniels!

Lasham had a Grob G103 Twin Acro (the cranked wing version) up to a couple
of years ago, when it was sold and replaced with a DG1000T. It had nice
roomy and very comfortable cockpits and generally docile handling, but
with the proviso that it was capable of spinning if flown close to the
stall, unlike the earlier straight winged version which could only be made
to spin for training purposes if you fitted special little canard fins to
the nose (made it look a bit like a hammer head shark). We had one of
those as well prior to the above glider, but it got written off by a very
heavy PIO landing, probably not helped by its rather snatchy airbrakes.

Derek Copeland


At 18:18 22 June 2009, bildan wrote:

The MHG has a Twin III Acro. I've given hundreds of rides in it.
There is nothing special about the front seat that would cause
concern. It's really a nice glider for rides with big comfortable
seats.

Like any glider, if you put a really big person with long legs in the
front seat with the pedals cranked all the way aft you might have a
control interference problem but that's a cockpit preparation issue
that should be detected by moving the controls to their limits as part
of the cockpit checklist if not when seating your passenger.