Groundloop accident at the Senior Contest

On Thursday, 18 March 2021 at 03:33:27 UTC, Eric Greenwell wrote:
I routinely start my ASH26E in negative flap, but there is no need change to positive flaps
until 20-25 knots IAS. So, until then, I keep my hand near (not on) the release. That's if I'm
being towed; if it's a self-launch, I keep my hand behind the spoiler handle.
wrote on 3/17/2021 7:18 PM:

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

While I appreciate the danger of open spoilers, when self-launching I generally keep my left hand on the throttle except when changing from negative to positive flap. If something goes wrong, the first thing you want to do is pull the throttle.

On the danger of open spoilers, I will admit that, in spite of having previously read the warning in your brilliant Guide to SLS Ops, on my second flight in the ASH 26E I started with the spoilers not locked. The brilliant take-off performance resulted in a satisfactory take-off, just after which I heard on the radio 'Mark spoilers open'. It was a clever call to use my name which got through to me - I banged the spoilers shut.

Mark Burton