Some good news

Am Montag, 2. November 2015 03:57:31 UTC+1 schrieb Christopher Giacomo:
Thanks for all the responses. My ship has been pulled down from the mountain (excellent helicopter work flying it by the tail), and is off to salvage through USAIG.

For all documents, photos, and my personal thoughts/evaluation, please see
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...0QtVWI1V3pVYWM

Chris

Thanks for posting this. Although the event had ruined your day, there is a lot of benefit for others by learning and reflecting through your story.

Bert
Ventus cM TW

These discussions drive me nuts. A Stratus costs under $1000. Almost everyone has an ipad. A foreflight subscription is pretty cheap. A few hours on a simulator will teach you the basics of flying on an AHRS. Why on earth would anyone even contemplate killing themselves flying in wave without buying these inexpensive, phenomenally cheap tools?

iPads are not easy to use in glider cockpit, especially not in an emergency situation. However if you have panel space, I highly recommend The TruTrak pictorial turn and bank. Works very well and already saved me in a similar situation.

Ramy

For many people, those things are pretty cost prohibitive, and as Ramy pointed out, an Ipad doesn't fit too well in a cockpit. I was actually in the initial stages of designing a low-cost AHRS for "get-down" situations, but ran out of time to put one in. Not that glider pilots don't encounter $1000 costs, but i'm not sure "phenomenally cheap" is the term those of us not flying 6-figure glass would use to describe the current AHRS market.

If you are not pushing the bounds of safety and are properly adjusting for the conditions in flight, there really shouldn't be a need for an AHRS. Yes, i could have used one on this flight, but at that point i was already 2 bad decisions deep. More equipment will not breed better decision making, it breeds more data, and in many cases lazy pilots who have another crutch. Saying people should buy more equipment is akin to blaming your botched off-field landings on not having a higher performance glider.

The TruTrak Turn and bank works very well and cost $500. Add an instant on switch to address any battery concerns.
http://www.trutrakap.com/product/pictorial-turn-bank/

Ramy

There are products that are real instruments instead of ipad toys and still portable & easily installed. Flying T&B only requires training, why not put Dynon D2 to panel?

I'd agree with any of these. The point is, it's insane to fly in wave or conditions where clouds could form without some sort of artificial horizon. Btw an added advantage of the right foreflight subscription is that it will also give you terrain and clearance. Death seems like a poor bargain vs a couple of thousand, that could be a shared asset at a club or rented at a commercial operation.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... Spot on! Very insightful.

I have a TruTrak turn indicator in my panel and turn it on whenever
conditions even hint that, should I screw up, I might need it. I also
have many hours of partial panel flying under the hood (couple of bored
lieutenants burning JP-4), and I still don't feel comfortable with only
the TruTrak. I don't find the slip ball to be sensitive enough in my
glider. Call me chicken, but I plan to have dinner at home every night.

On 11/2/2015 8:22 PM, Christopher Giacomo wrote:
For many people, those things are pretty cost prohibitive, and as Ramy pointed out, an Ipad doesn't fit too well in a cockpit. I was actually in the initial stages of designing a low-cost AHRS for "get-down" situations, but ran out of time to put one in. Not that glider pilots don't encounter $1000 costs, but i'm not sure "phenomenally cheap" is the term those of us not flying 6-figure glass would use to describe the current AHRS market.

If you are not pushing the bounds of safety and are properly adjusting for the conditions in flight, there really shouldn't be a need for an AHRS. Yes, i could have used one on this flight, but at that point i was already 2 bad decisions deep. More equipment will not breed better decision making, it breeds more data, and in many cases lazy pilots who have another crutch. Saying people should buy more equipment is akin to blaming your botched off-field landings on not having a higher performance glider.

--
Dan, 5J

snip

A few hours on a simulator will teach you the basics of flying on an AHRS.

/snip

Really? If all it takes is a couple of hours of practice, then why not
get an instrument rating? Already have one? Did you get it in a few
hours? It's much easier flying a computer that's sitting on a desk or
even a simulator sitting on hydraulic jacks, than it is bouncing around
in clouds that sometimes get very dark and noisy and icy and sometimes
the flash blinds you. But take your iPad and have at it... Oh yeah,
and review that FAA video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7t4IR-3mSo
one more time. And tell the gent who broke his glider during a wave
flight earlier this year that he should have taken an iPad. His years
of military flight experience weren't nearly as good as that nifty device.

PS - If you don't have HTML, here's that link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7t4IR-3mSo
--
Dan, 5J