Interested in soaring safety? Read this

Good point Ian. This is specific to aero tow launch which I did not
specify. Most are taught to call out 200 ft on aerotow to mark that
critical alt. It is a general benchmark.

My limited experience with ground tow launch which I haven't done in
some years, reminds me that the tow failure response is different.
IIRC it's more along the lines of, Lower the nose, confirm airspeed,
decide where to go (which is often site specific) pull release, and
maneuver to land.


I teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind".

How accurate are your altimeters during a winch launch?

Ian

Ian wrote:

How would you define "best glider pilots" there?

They were better than the other glider pilots I've flown with.


I have flown a few times with a world champion, and he did not
ask for any more than the usual two BGA mnemonics.

Sounds appropriate to me. I don't advocate papering the cockpit with
checklists.


I'm a bit worried by this "if there is a checklist, use it" approach.
Now that I've told you about the NARSTI checklist for winch cable
breaks, will you always use it?

Undoubtedly not. I've not seen a cable launch and don't expect to see
one. I'd certainly use the checklist recommended by my CFI, until I
developed my own.


Please don't get me wrong. I'm not agin' the things - but I am agin'
unquestioning acceptance of anything while flying. Except spin
recovery!

Unquestioning acceptance not spoken here.


Jack

On Dec 17, 2:57 am, J a c k wrote:
Ian wrote:
How would you define "best glider pilots" there?

They were better than the other glider pilots I've flown with.
snip

Defining 'best' as 'better' is not very helpful IMHO. What exactly
made you feel he is better than the other people you've flown with? I
mean without using terms like 'best', 'better' and so on...

On Dec 16, 1:39 am, Ian wrote:
Security blankets are not necessarily a Good Thing. After all, it
seems you may have missed your taped over static ports because they
weren't on your check list ... what's going to be next? Not that I'm
knocking the whole idea, you understand - I have a nice laminated list
of rigging and derigging stuff.

Okay, Ian, I'll fess up: that static port episode was before I
religiously used checklists in anything that weighed less than 4,000
pounds. It became one of those pivotal (thankfully non-fatal and
inexpensive) events that convinced me that it doesn't matter how
simple the aircraft is. As Max Stanley is quoted: "The Piper Cub is
the safest aircraft in the world -- it can just barely kill you."

Religious use of a checklist doesn't necessarily mean plastering the
sides of your cockpit, and spending more time looking at the paper
than the scenery: Reviewing a checklist prior to the flight (even the
night before) can re-etch the memory of how to do it right, and
quickly. And frequently, you go through the motions (using cranial or
muscle memory) and then REVIEW the checklist -- and sometimes catch
the item that was forgotten.

P.S.: The mere act of WRITING a checklist helps you truly understand
the aircraft systems (simple or not), the proper operating procedures
(and perhaps a better "flow" of the steps than the manufacturer
originally suggested). The benefit of this remains -- although less
so -- even if you never use the list again. Look at pilots &
instructors who fly multiple types of aircraft: They use checklists
(sometimes very short ones that are referred to as "cheat sheets") so
they refresh their mind that this aircraft has a best L/D speed of y
and a min sink speed of x (or for power, Vx, Vy, Vglide, VLE, VLO,
Vfe, Vmc, Va, Vne, Vno). The "best" instructors share their cheat
sheets with their students, but implore (or force) their students to
fabricate their own.

P.P.S.: Jack is right: Big Iron Crews do NOT necessarily have more
time. Especially in Flight Test, I have witnessed where pre-briefing
a checklist made the difference between incident (safe return) and
disaster. During most normal operations they do have more time -- in
part thanks to orderly and well arranged checklists!

P.P.P.S: Yes, there's a checklist for thermalling: Somebody's
already in thermal: follow his direction of turn. Nobody else? Try
my luck to the left...

Last note: I haven't seen it quite so much with the major airlines
(except for basic aviation skills), but in the military there are
Emergency Procedures and there are BOLD FACE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES:
All pilots flying a given type are required to memorize Bold Face
procedures!

Okay, final note: If you look in all of the manuals, there is never
any additional procedures or writing after the word EJECT.

-Pete
#309

On Dec 16, 1:41 pm, Ian wrote:
I teach to say "Emergency below 200 ft lower the nose land ahead, above
200 lower the nose, land ahead or behind".

How accurate are your altimeters during a winch launch?

Ian

My recollection of winch training suggests that the trained response
to a cable break is to lower the nose. Once that is done and the
glider moves 32.8 feet (10 meters), the altimeter should be as
accurate as anywhere else in the envelope. And as other posters have
pointed out, that's where the decision time begins.

Good food for thought.

-Pete

On Dec 16, 10:13 am, wrote:
On the last item, Traffic, make eye contact with the ground crew who
should now be patiently waiting at your wing tip and say TRAFFIC and
look around to remind them to look around for you. This is crew
resource management.
Matt Michael

My first Glider Instructor taught me a simple pre-takeoff checklist:
A
B
C
C
C
D

I added another D.

Another instructor implored me to add E

A-Altimeter
B-Belts
C-Canopy
C-Controls
C-Cable (in that order!)
D-Direction of Wind
D-Dive Brakes (spoilers to some)
D-Dummies In The Patter (my way of categorizing "traffic")
E-Emergency Procedures and Plans.

The good Big Iron drivers BRIEF every takeoff (heading, speeds, what
to do in an emergency).

The great Big Iron Test Pilots pre-Brief every takeoff, and who's to
do what when (not if) something goes wrong...even for a normal non-
test takeoff. Taking an unfamiliar FAA Test Pilot with us once, the
captain briefed the FAA pilot "If something goes wrong, YOU fly the
airplane, and I'll deal with the emergency, since I'm more familiar
with the aircraft/systems/etc." We can do this with our ground crews,
too, as Matt has suggested.

Some of us treat our checklists like we treat our parachutes: like a
talisman. If we take care of them, have them and know how to use
them, they will perform the function of a good luck charm, and ward
off emergencies, ramp checks and embarrassing appearances on the five
o'clock news.

-Pete

On 17 Dec, 09:04, 309 wrote:

P.S.: The mere act of WRITING a checklist helps you truly understand
the aircraft systems (simple or not), the proper operating procedures
(and perhaps a better "flow" of the steps than the manufacturer
originally suggested).

I wrote my rigging and derigging instructions on the basis that
someone someday might have to take my glider apart while I was
elsewhere (in hospital? under arrest? dead?). It was quite instructive
to commit to writing all the wrinkles I had developed myself.

The benefit of this remains -- although less
so -- even if you never use the list again. Look at pilots &
instructors who fly multiple types of aircraft: They use checklists
(sometimes very short ones that are referred to as "cheat sheets") so
they refresh their mind that this aircraft has a best L/D speed of y
and a min sink speed of x (or for power, Vx, Vy, Vglide, VLE, VLO,
Vfe, Vmc, Va, Vne, Vno).

I had the pleasure of working with Anne Welch some years ago. When she
was in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second Big
Unpleasantness she wrote many of the single sheet briefing notes
designed to let a (good) pilot do a basic delivery flight in a new
type safely. They make fascinating reading - who operating manuals
stripped to the absolute minimum. Undercarriage up with three pulls on
this lever, down with five pumps on that. Take off vacuum and rpm so,
cruise so, landing so.

All BGA gliders have a placard giving Vne, Vwinch, Vaerotow and
Vroughair, and I make it my policy /always/ to reread that before /
every/ launch. Good grief, I'm a checklist user!

Ian

Now, if somebody could come up with a good acronym for a dry, unflapped
glider.... ULT (Undercarriage, Lookout, Trim) is about all I can come up
with.

I finally settled on WWW (Wind (direction&strength), Water (dumped, or
if not, adjust speed), Wheels (down before touchdown is good...)).
Those are specific to landing, and missing one of them could cause
something to break. Everything else is basic airmanship.

Kirk

On 17 Dec, 17:02, "kirk.stant" wrote:
Now, if somebody could come up with a good acronym for a dry, unflapped
glider.... ULT (Undercarriage, Lookout, Trim) is about all I can come up
with.

I finally settled on WWW (Wind (direction&strength), Water (dumped, or
if not, adjust speed), Wheels (down before touchdown is good...)).
Those are specific to landing, and missing one of them could cause
something to break. Everything else is basic airmanship.

I agree. We really shouldn't need a checklist to tell us to trim or
lookout.

Ian

Ian wrote:

I agree. We really shouldn't need a checklist to tell us to trim or
lookout.

Yes I agree too, Ian. Its just that "U" looks a little stark and
unmemorable to be a decent acronym.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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