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When I read Fred's report of tail separation, my first thought was
pre-existing damage from a tail dolly that clamped the tail boom too tightly. The hard landing/poor repair scenario works too. Bill Daniels "Gldcomp" wrote in message . com... Like I said, accidents like this are extremely rare. If we look at the history of your old Open Cirrus, it probably had previous damage history. It wouldn't be a surprise if it had previously severed the tailcone in a groundloop during an outlanding. I know a few cases similar to yours, and all could be traced back to a previous damage that was hidden and not well repaired. Still, a rare event, and like I said, it is NOT the reason we wear a parachute. Airplanes break up in flight more often than gliders and power pilots/passengers are not required to wear a parachute. If we respect our flight envelopes, gliders don't break up in flight. They are certified aircraft and are designed to withstand severe forces, as long as we respect their limits. "f.blair" wrote in message news:27Kyc.16387$2i5.5757@attbi_s52... I beg to differ with this last post. In a contest flight south of Littlefield, TX in 1988, the tail section of my Open Cirrus broke just in front of the horizontal stabilizer. At the nose of the glider went down with no response from the stick, I began to unbuckle. As the glider went inverted, I rolled out and successfully reached the ground with the help of my big round parachute. I had encountered some severe turbulence, that in later discussions with Dick Johnson, he decided must have been some type of horizontal, rotor type cloud. I was encountering severe updrafts then severe downdrafts. The whole glider was going up then down, not just the nose. I was basically just holding on waiting for it to stop. Went through about 5-6 cycles of up then down, then it got real quiet and the nose started down and that was when I realized that the control stick did nothing, so I got out. The boom was broken, but the tail was attached by cables and a push rod. I watched it land in the field next to me, a smooth, flat approach. The glider was inverted, but the tail section was upright. The only thing that was not bent during the landing was the T.E. probe that was on the front edge of the vertical stabilizer. Gliders can have structural failures. It is not a good idea to say that 'something' will never happen. Still flying and loving it. Fred Blair Greater Houston Soaring Association Original Post: Forget all the "I think this", "I think that" very common to rec.aviation.soaring. Gliders don't fall appart in flight by themselves like ultralights and other crazy flying machines. Gliders are, after all, certified aircraft. Sure a parachute might also save you in case of structural failure, but the vast majority of bail-outs were motivated by mid-air collisions. I only know of structural failures leading to bail-outs in factory test-flights and in older wooden gliders who had been previously repaired using unknown techniques, and end-up losing their tails, leading to bail-outs. Glider structural failures are extremely rare in real life outside of these cases. Gliders don't break-up in flight unless they hit something. |
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