Flight Control Failures

Blanik.....
Any at least spell his name correctly, Andy Gough



At 20:48 02 October 2005, Mike Lindsay wrote:
In article , Mike
the Strike writes
Following the thread on landing with one spoiler, I
wonder what
proportion of landing accidents result from mechanical
failure or
jamming of primary flight controls and spoilers/dive
brakes. I
personally know of a couple of failures - one spoiler
handle sheared
off as the pilot did his pre-landing checks and he
landed safely
off-field and another had a pencil jam in controls,
limiting control
movement, but again landed safely.

With the exception of incorrect assembly, I have to
believe that
asymmetric control failure or jamming must be an extremely
rare cause
of landing accidents compared to the more common reasons
we all know.

Any actual data or good anecdotes?

About 35 years ago a well known pilot was killed when
one of the flying
controls, I think the elevator, was jammed by a spanner
(wrench) which
had been lodged in the glider since it was built.
It seems the aero's he was doing freed this FB, which
was later
identified as being 'of Eastern European origin'. It
had a 'witness
mark' on it which helped the investigators determine
what had happened.
I think the a/c was either a Bocian or a Blanik.

The victim was a former RAF warrant officer who was
my CFI at RAF
Andover in 1948. His name was Andy Goff.
--
Mike Lindsay