Glider accident while filming commercial in 2011. NTSB Report updated

On Saturday, June 29, 2013 8:22:46 AM UTC-6, Nigel Pocock wrote:
Excessive initial ecceleration can cause problems with certain types. I

have experienced it with 2 types.

PW5 with stick fully forward at the start of the launch. Hard acceleration

caused the glider to rotate from the nose wheel to the tail wheel and

rocket into the air. I only managed to regain control at about 50ft.

The other one is the K8. Light glider, high wing. Similar problem.



If slow acceleration is a safety problem what about the ground run and take

off with aerotow using belly hooks, and autotows?

Here's a PW-5 winch launch done right. Note the 1 second ground roll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IseFvZXK7Dw

Here's a K8 also with a one second ground roll.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ict8W0Q5ZpA

Both of these launches were at accelerations greater than 1G. Neither showed an "uncommanded" pitch up. So, neither the gliders nor the acceleration are a problem.

Thanks for the info Andreas.

Not that the reporting is that diligent in either case when far from home.
And BGA Numbers include any that occurred to a BGA member, anywhere, in
any registration.

Bruce

On 2013/06/29 2:23 PM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 09:56:50 +0200, BruceGreeff
wrote:

Indeed.

As an example - the BGA statistics include any accident or incident
reported by a member anywhere in the world. So their numbers include
locations in Spain and South Africa.

The German numbers do not.

I express no opinion on which is a better approach. Merely that the one
is organisational statistics and the other is geographic.

HI Bruce,

German accident statistics include any accident/incident that happened
on a German airfield, in Germany, or in which a German registered
aircraft was involved, worldwide.


Cheers
Andreas


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771

Thanks Andreas

Most informative. The resale value driver is obviously a consideration
when exporting a glider.

It then appears there is a high difference in historical reported
accident rate.
Current rates don't seem to be that different. IT is nice to see that
the BGA safe winching initiative has made such a difference.

Do you know how these numbers compare with the worldwide stats that John
Roake collected?

I am sure there are a number of contributory factors - including the
size/layout of airfield, demographics and composition of fleet which
also contribute.

In South Africa it has been 14 years since we had a fatal winch
accident. No idea how many launches involved.

Bruce

On 2013/06/26 3:40 AM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:41:36 +0200, BruceGreeff
wrote:

From the little I have been able to ascertain.



--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771