PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Glider pilots: How often do you train your rope breaks?
Old 7th Aug 2012, 10:35
  #17 (permalink)  
Crash one
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Scotland
Age: 84
Posts: 1,434
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crash one
Something lacking in the design department here. If they survive & become work hardened they are no longer the "weak" link they are supposed to be. How could one be re-calibrated to the next strength up? Prob impossible without breaking it to find out.
If weak links are designed like this then they are worthless, dangerous, chance of ripping the tow hook out of the glider. I would suggest some thought be put into them.
I believe they are just a short length of steel plate of varying thickness to suit the weight required. Bad idea.


Don't be ridiculous. There are hundreds of thousands of winch launches every year in Britain alone, I've never heard of a tow hook being ripped out of a glider. I know sweet FA about metallurgy but I'm sure that the manufacturers have taken such things into account.
I don't think I'm being ridiculous, OK so the hook might not get ripped out but the cable can break somehere else, or the glider could over speed & not feel the effect.
If the thing work hardens, & being an engineer I know that happens, then the thing is not the same as it was designed to be. Whatever the consequenses are.
So DID the designers take that into account?
Maybe gliders a stronger than they should be,. Either way I say again if something work hardens it is a piece of useless crap.
This is the same as replacing a fuse wirh a nail
Crash one is offline