On Aug 28, 11:27*pm, "
wrote:

some of us also fly Pawnee towplanes
and have a certain interest in what happened. *

not saying anything about
the possible causes of
an accident
does not help those of us still practising the activity!

First, forgive an input on this tragic event from “the other side of
the pond”, but I am a towplane pilot, too.

I appreciate that in the long term there will be a formal report, but
in the short term it must be possible to say SOMETHING about the
circumstances. If only to (probably) rule out some causes. This
should not be difficult or embarrassing, if done sensibly.

When I was in the military I was involved in quite a few inquiries
into accidents. The RAF system is that the Board of Inquiry has to
make a "48 hour report" of what is known at that time, and whether any
immediate measures could be recommended at that early stage, to lessen
risks to others. Early recommendations might include inspections,
changes of components or to operating procedures, even "grounding" in
extreme cases. The "48 hour report" does not compromise any long-term
findings or recommendations, and the system works well.

Turning to this tragic accident, in very general terms, what happened?

That cannot be "secret", surely?

In particular, what were the approximate flight paths of the towplane
and also of the glider? That will indicate a lot, and rule out some
causes such as structural failure (my club uses a 235hp Pawnee amongst
others, so I have a definite interest!)

A possible cause could be engine failure (full or partial, the latter
often being more difficult to deal with), although landing straight
ahead should not normally have fatal consequences. Did the towplane
turn after releasing the glider? Someone must know.

Also, with any towplane fatal I always wonder whether it was one of
those "tug upsets" caused by the glider getting too high, pulling the
tug tail up to the extent that the tailplane stalls, with consequent
large loss of height to the tug. Many years ago in the UK we had some
of these, and the BGA changed its instruction for aero tow and also
for tug pilots. We have not had a "tug upset" on this side of the
pond for some time, but tug pilots now watch the rear-view mirror much
more carefully for the glider getting high, particularly near the
ground. If so, the hand moves towards the release in case the glider
pilot does not correct, and glider pilots are now taught to sit just
above the towplane slipstream rather than higher, as in the past.

There seems to be a dearth of basic information about what happened in
this tragic case. Since the issue has been raised in this forum, it
would be useful to use the same forum for other towplane pilots to
know more.

Ian Strachan
Lasham Gliding Centre, UK