Winch Launch Fatality

Weird stuff seems to happen in Derek's vicinity.

On Jun 24, 12:45*am, Derek Copeland wrote:
I managed to catch a wing drop on video a couple of years ago and have seen
several others. URL is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls_VIfxOV8U

Also look at:

http://flightbox.net/galleries/wingdrop/wingdrop_1.htm

Last year when instructing I had a student who for some reason, possibly
as a reaction to a rather rapidly accelerated winch launch, pulled the
stick hard back and to the left, putting the wing tip on the ground before
I could take over. I had not had any problems with this student on previous
flights with him.

A wing drop is most likely to occur in a semi cross wind and in turbulent
conditions. In the UK we have had a fatal accident, a serious injury
accident and a very badly damaged glider as a result of wing drops in the
last two years. These all happened to very experienced pilots, one of whom
was a Nationals level competition pilot.

IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!!!

My view is that you should keep your hand on the release knob during a
launch, so that you can release quickly if things go wrong without
fumbling. After a winch launch cable break, the first priority is to get
the nose down and regain flying speed. However the latter will take a few
seconds, during which you can pull the knob. 99% of the time the cable
will back release anyway, but it might not.

We had a sort of reverse incident a couple of years ago, when an early
solo pilot heard a bang, probably caused by a shackle or Tost link pulling
straight, and assumed that he had suffered a cable break. He lowered the
nose to the recovery attitude and then dived UNDER the cable which was
still attached to the glider and in one piece! Fortunately he was able to
land safely straight ahead, but the glider suffered some damage from
hitting the cable and then having it drop on top of the glider. *

Derek Copeland

At 23:42 23 June 2009, Andy wrote:



Maybe not, but it's hard to believe the wing drop simulations are
representative. *What reasonably trained pilots would stuff the wing
into the ground and then continue to hold full aileron into the low
wing? *It would be interesting to see the same scenario simulated with
an external upset causing the wing drop and full recovery aileron
being applied at and after wing tip contact. *Throw in various amounts
of drag on the low wing tip to simulate short grass, long grass, etc
and then introduce pilot release before, at, and after wing tip
contact, and I'd start to believe it was a useful training aid.

Andy