Cle Elum crash on NTSB

On Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:55:24 -0700, JohnDeRosa wrote:

It would appear that "Spin Clip 2" is a candidate for what might have
occured at Cle Elum.

"Spin Clip 1" is a cockpit view which is especially chilling.

Both show what we are exhaustively trained against: assuming that you're
OK once you've pushed over to a normal gliding attitude. You're not of
course, because you'll be too slow and, unless you reacted IMMEDIATELY
and got the stick far enough forward for a zero G push-over you'll be
below stall speed, from where any turn will spin immediately.

The rule of thumb[*] is to push over until your dive attitude is as steep
as you were going up and then hold the attitude without attempting to
turn until you've reached the landing approach speed you'd chosen for the
day. Then, and only then you decide whether you've space to land ahead or
whether you need to turn.
[*] unless, of course, its a low break where you'd become a lawn dart if
you used the above technique. Off a winch you'll always have plenty of
specs ahead, so a shallower recovery attitude is OK once you're
combortable above stall speed and anyway you won't need to turn.


Sadly, I think Steve Leonard has probably called this about right. IMO
whether the rope broke or not isn't relevant, but the fact that no
witnesses reported an immediate push-over into a speed recovery attitude
is.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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