DO YOUR CONTOL CHECKS!

In my experience, many people do not cover all the critical elements of doing a
crontrol check. I recently gave a presentation on positive control checks,
critical assembly checks, preflight checks and other checks. If you're
interested, here it is:

http://www.mymedtrans.com/personal.htm

You might find elements here that might help you.


Jim Vincent
CFIG
N483SZ
illspam

Gee,

Since my(our) premiums pay for these claims, when
does the insurance company not have to pay?

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Gee,

Since my(our) premiums pay for these claims, when
does the insurance company not have to pay?

Most of us buy insurance to protect us from accidents, including ones we
contribute to, and the policies I've bought (generally from the SSA
insurer) do this.

The insurance company lays out the things they will not pay for in the
policy; generally, this would include things like fraud, a non-covered
pilot flying the glider, non-payment of the premium, deliberate damage
by the policy holder, and probably things like acts of war and perhaps
radioactive contamination, but it's been a while since I studied my policy.

--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

"ken ward" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Bruce Hoult wrote:

In article ,
Stewart Kissel wrote:

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief2.asp?...0417&ntsbno=CH
I04CA090&akey=1

That looks more like: "if the manufacturer issues an AD [1], you'd
probably better do it, whether you legally have to or not".

-- Bruce

[1] in this case, installing a locking device onto L'Hotellier
connectors.

I'm really happy the pilot escaped death. This has been fatal in other
accidents.

1. So, assuming there was insurance, would this accident be covered? Or
would the insurer say:

a) you didn't put it together correctly; bad dog, no coverage
b) you didn't comply with the AD; bad dog, no coverage
c) both

2. Will the pilot then say, hey, what about my annual condition
inspection? How come the annual was signed off if the ship didn't
comply with an AD?

3. Then what happens when the mechanic says, gosh, the service I
contract with for AD updates didn't show this AD, so I didn't know to
look for it and would have not signed it off it had I known?

Inquiring minds want to know!

My understanding is that generally speaking the assumption is that all
accidents are preventable. Insurance is protection against negligence, not
acts of God, therefore someone's insurance is likely in effect and will be
sorted out once the cause is determined or blame assigned and this could
happen in the courts among insurance carriers. Of course, once found
negligent, you, as any part of the equation, may have trouble securing
future coverage at reasonable rates. However, if your glider is damaged,
then repaired, your current policy should remain in effect through it's
term. If it's destroyed, then you'll need a new policy for the replacement
glider.

Frank Whiteley

Bullwinkle wrote:

The absolute most amazing thing: He walked the -20 back to the launch point,
Inspected it for damage (found none), hooked up the elevator, and promptly
took off. I'd have been shaking for a week after a near miss like that, not
have taken off within 15 minutes.

I can't believe it! No one asked him to sit down a bit and think about
what he made? The towpilot also could be killed so I think this action
should be investigated a bit more than this...

/Janos

At 21:06 04 April 2004, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 11:40:06 +1200, Bruce Hoult
wrote:

In article ,
Stewart Kissel wrote:

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief2.asp?...00417&ntsbno=C
H
I04CA090&akey=1

That looks more like: 'if the manufacturer issues an
AD [1], you'd
probably better do it, whether you legally have to
or not'.

-- Bruce

[1] in this case, installing a locking device onto
L'Hotellier
connectors.

This is the subject of a BGA AD in 1993 for the ASW-20,
so I don't see
where you get the 'manufacturer AD' bit from, even
though it does
appear in ASW-20 TN-17 on extending the service life
beyond 3000
hours.

As the AD in question refers to the requirement for
a locking pin in
the Hotellier, I'm a bit gobsmacked that these couplings
could ever
have been used without a locking pin or shroud: there's
no way you
could inspect the check hole after assembly (other
than poking
something through it) on wing control circuits in the
ASW-20 and other
gliders. Admittedly you can see the check hole for
the elevator, but
that's the only one that is easy to check by inspection
on a '20.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :


Martin,

You can see some of the check holes through the hatch
relatively easily (the airbrake ones as I recall).
I was always under the impression that the requirement
for the pin was because the spring loaded wedge could
get gunged up with old greasy crud to the point where
the spring would not push the wedge (or the spring
could break through fatigue and the wedge could work
loose). I always felt safest if, having fitted the
pin, I pushed the wedge up against the pin and gently
tried to pull the L'Hotelier off the ball (as a check
against the cup/wedge being worn enough to detach).

On Sun, 04 Apr 2004 15:46:35 -0600, Bullwinkle
wrote:

I saw this exact thing happen at Stennis field, Bay St Louis, MS, in the
early 80's. The pilot was the best at the field, at least he was the only
one who flew in competitions. He and his wife both flew ASW-20's.

He assembled one day, began his aerotow, nose went up like he was on a
winch/auto tow, and he released at perhaps 40 or 50 feet.

His wife's back was turned, as she gathered dolly, etc that needed to be
stowed. She missed the whole thing. I was sure I was watching a low level
stall/spin happening before my eyes.

Then the nose came down, then back up again, then down again, and at the
bottom of one of these oscillations his wheel touched down, he dumped the
flaps and he got on the brakes and stayed down. Stopped a couple of feet
from the airport fence.

Turns out his elevator hadn't been hooked up, or had popped off between
assembly and tow. He claimed that he had been able to control pitch with the
flaps, but I (personal opinion, no data to back this up) think he just got
incredibly lucky.

That shows he had read and remembered what's in the POH, which
explicitly says that an ASW-20 can be controlled to in pitch by the
flaps if the elevator control circuit jams and that this control
should be enough to make egress easier or even avoidable.

The best news: no damage to aircraft or pilot.

I'm happy to hear that.


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

On 5 Apr 2004 08:35:48 GMT, Andrew Warbrick
wrote:

You can see some of the check holes through the hatch
relatively easily (the airbrake ones as I recall).

Those are the only ones that offer a side view: the flaps and aileron
connections show their topsides to the hatch - hence my comment, as
you'd really need a light and mirror to do the visual check.

I was always under the impression that the requirement
for the pin was because the spring loaded wedge could
get gunged up with old greasy crud to the point where
the spring would not push the wedge (or the spring
could break through fatigue and the wedge could work
loose). I always felt safest if, having fitted the
pin, I pushed the wedge up against the pin and gently
tried to pull the L'Hotelier off the ball (as a check
against the cup/wedge being worn enough to detach).

My '20 has spring locking shrouds (I never can remember their correct
name) on all Hotelliers except the elevator, which has a pin. Like
you, I do a rattle test on the Hotelliers after assembly and before
doing positives: checking for wear is a good point, but I use the test
mainly as a check that all the springs are holding things in place.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

In article , Jim Vincent
writes
In my experience, many people do not cover all the critical elements of doing a
crontrol check.
Or spelling checks, come to that.
--
Mike Lindsay

On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 10:06:28 +0200, Janos Bauer
wrote:


I can't believe it! No one asked him to sit down a bit and think about
what he made? The towpilot also could be killed so I think this action
should be investigated a bit more than this...

I guess he got the message...


Bye
Andreas