Another glider crash?

One day, a bit dehydrated, maybe not enough O2 I had a very difficult time deciding if the gear in my 24 was up or down. Could not quite read the sticker. I had over 100 hours in this glider and it is obvious, handle forward, gear down, handle back gear up. Nevertheless, I was not sure finally figured it out landed ok. So I have put a green paint dot on the gear down and locked and a red one on gear up position. This was the same fight I landed with a big head ache and forgot to dump water ballast, nor did I fly a faster pattern for the higher wing loading, could have been a real bad day! We all can have a bad day so I have tried to make the cockpit"stupid" friendlier. I also put a stinclied landing checklist on the panel. Stay safe out there and perhaps use this thread to reevaluate anything that can make your flying safer.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 12:15:54 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
So I have put a green paint dot on the gear down and locked and a red one on gear up position.

Wow - a simple, elegant addition. Think I'll do the same.

P3

The green and red dots sound like a good trick. I'll check my supply of
paints.

BTW, in the LS-6 (and probably other LS gliders) the gear is pushed up
and pulled down. I thought that was pretty neat - all levers forward to
go fast, all back to slow down and land.

On 9/22/2015 10:15 AM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
One day, a bit dehydrated, maybe not enough O2 I had a very difficult time deciding if the gear in my 24 was up or down. Could not quite read the sticker. I had over 100 hours in this glider and it is obvious, handle forward, gear down, handle back gear up. Nevertheless, I was not sure finally figured it out landed ok. So I have put a green paint dot on the gear down and locked and a red one on gear up position. This was the same fight I landed with a big head ache and forgot to dump water ballast, nor did I fly a faster pattern for the higher wing loading, could have been a real bad day! We all can have a bad day so I have tried to make the cockpit"stupid" friendlier. I also put a stinclied landing checklist on the panel. Stay safe out there and perhaps use this thread to reevaluate anything that can make your flying safer.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

--
Dan, 5J

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 12:15:54 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
One day, a bit dehydrated, maybe not enough O2 I had a very difficult time deciding if the gear in my 24 was up or down. Could not quite read the sticker. I had over 100 hours in this glider and it is obvious, handle forward, gear down, handle back gear up. Nevertheless, I was not sure finally figured it out landed ok. So I have put a green paint dot on the gear down and locked and a red one on gear up position. This was the same fight I landed with a big head ache and forgot to dump water ballast, nor did I fly a faster pattern for the higher wing loading, could have been a real bad day! We all can have a bad day so I have tried to make the cockpit"stupid" friendlier. I also put a stinclied landing checklist on the panel. Stay safe out there and perhaps use this thread to reevaluate anything that can make your flying safer.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Colour vision is about the first to go when "maybe not enough O2" is a problem; depending on it may not be the best plan. The SSA sheet with the picture of a glider with gear up and down, to me is most obvious (though I have a decal with "UP" and "DOWN" as a secondary reminder.

At 17:36 22 September 2015, Dan Daly wrote:


Colour vision is about the first to go when "maybe not enough O2" is a
prob=
lem; depending on it may not be the best plan. The SSA sheet with the
pictu=
re of a glider with gear up and down, to me is most obvious (though I
have
=
a decal with "UP" and "DOWN" as a secondary reminder.


Green arrow pointing UP and Red arrow pointing DOWN
Colour and shape.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 2:00:14 PM UTC-4, Benedict Smith wrote:
At 17:36 22 September 2015, Dan Daly wrote:


Colour vision is about the first to go when "maybe not enough O2" is a
prob=
lem; depending on it may not be the best plan. The SSA sheet with the
pictu=
re of a glider with gear up and down, to me is most obvious (though I
have
=
a decal with "UP" and "DOWN" as a secondary reminder.


Green arrow pointing UP and Red arrow pointing DOWN
Colour and shape.

I'm confused already and I'm at sealevel and well hydrated.

I did have the little symbol of glider with wheel down and up, while I have perfect distance vision and did not need reading glasses at that time, I could not quite make out which symbol was which. I do like the idea of a colored arrow, I will put that in my glider ( better than the red or green quarter sized paint dot). Also, a poster mentioned "unmistakable". I have experience in all aircraft except balloons, and I can tell you humility is a good quality. I have made the same mistake I have another pilot making, while wondering, how could any pilot make that mistake, question answered. Our sport is not very forgiving, so stack the odds in your favor. I now fly with a finger tip oyxgen meter. Take great pains to stay well hydrated before and during the fight. I go on o2 at 10,000 as I live at sea level. Will this keep me from screwing up? I really try to keep thinking and checking my thought process, but I have learned we can screw up and hopefully muscle memory will not fail us. Stay my fellow pilots!

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 2:57:14 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I did have the little symbol of glider with wheel down and up, while I have perfect distance vision and did not need reading glasses at that time, I could not quite make out which symbol was which.

I have the official symbols as well. But it's not immediately obvious without a pretty careful look which picture shows the wheel down. I really like the idea of supplemental Green/Red arrows.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 2:13:04 PM UTC-5, Papa3 wrote:
On Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 2:57:14 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I did have the little symbol of glider with wheel down and up, while I have perfect distance vision and did not need reading glasses at that time, I could not quite make out which symbol was which.

I have the official symbols as well. But it's not immediately obvious without a pretty careful look which picture shows the wheel down. I really like the idea of supplemental Green/Red arrows.

Label maker: Big font "UP" and "DOWN" in the appropriate place. Easy to read, no thinking "what does green mean?" required.

Like Dan, I like the LS solution better.

As a side note - I raise the gear at 500' agl on tow (nose hook), to prevent forgetting it after release in the rush to find a thermal, etc. I also tow in thermalling flaps (+5), so when I release in lift there is nothing to do but climb...

And my landing checklist is short: Wind (direction for pattern), Water (ballast gone or fly faster), Wheel (down and locked).

Kirk
66

Green vs Red, Up vs Down; both do seem like extremely simple matters to interpret into a correct action of the control. And for most of us they almost always would be. Problems can arise when the landing has issues such that the pilot becomes 99.9% focused on people walking across the runway, strong crosswinds, low altitude or any of a number of other special circumstances or combinations of distractions. The remaining 0.1% mental processing power that's reserved for matters of routine may be less than sufficient to correctly establish where the landing gear control should be set.

A better way, I think, is to provide yourself with checklist instruction requiring no interpretation whatsoever: Ballast Lever Forward; Landing Gear Forward.

This still leaves the crucial problem of getting onto the right control. But, at least, there is no processing required to get the sense correct.