Houston crash today

On Tuesday, July 15, 2014 6:48:26 AM UTC-4, Eric Munk wrote:
If a glider does not spin (like an unmodded ASK-21), it will not be

involved in a spin-related accident. Unfortunately pilots do spin.

Sometimes even if they don't want too. And most aircraft they fly after

their training on ASK-21's do too.

Any glider will do the part of the spin that will kill you, even if it does not enter a sustained spin.
Some are simply more tolerant to pilot error.
UH

Sorry to continue OT, but Kevin, is there a study of Puchacz accidents (comparing to other types) which takes into account what percentage of Puchacz (vs. other types) flights are to perform spin recovery training? If you know the source I would be grateful. To not to clutter the thread, you may e-mail me
"piotr dot szafranski at gmail dot com"

On Tuesday, July 15, 2014 12:22:38 PM UTC+2, Kevin Christner wrote:
Why do you think it's NOT safe to spin a Puchacz?



As of January 2004 Cindy B. had identified 23 fatal spins or over 1/8 of the fleet. A high proportion of these were fatal and several involved 2 CFIGs at the controls. A few searches will yield a couple more since then.

I can't say I know of a study. You could have a point. But when very experienced pilots are being killed on a regular basis it begs the questions 1) is this a safe glider for spin training and 2) should we be doing such training at all.

I have not seen a report of such a high percentage of incidents in any other glider, such as an L-13, which had many multiples of the number of Puchaczs in service.

On Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:09:21 AM UTC+1, wrote:
On Monday, July 14, 2014 5:10:15 PM UTC-7, Ramy wrote:

The other one the same day at Truckee was not a fatality thank god. Pilot is recovering well.



That was at least the third crash of a JS1-C this year, the first was a fatality in South Africa back in January. The report I saw was sketchy, but highly experienced pilot (glider and otherwise), high winds, and likely stall/spin. I don't know how many have been made, so far, but while it may be a higher than usual accident rate, it could just be sad coincidence.


Where was the third JS1-C accident this year Marc?

There wasn't a high wind at the time of the Bloemfontein JS1-C fatality. I was launched just before the glider involved and there was a moderate headwind. I recorded 9 knots on my SeeYou thermal trace at the same time and close to overhead the accident which occurred while on aerotow at low altitude.

John Galloway