Aborted takeoff in Glider
 

Aborted outside the perimeter boundary, into trees.

Edit:
In deference to the hospitalised pilot, I've deleted the link to the apparently unauthorised video.

Perhaps he will authorise its use in the future.

I wish him a speedy recovery.


Mjb

airbrake not guarded
 

I have over 2,500 hours in gliders and the cause of this accident is obvious. The airbrakes were not locked and they opened during the takeoff roll. The pilot's left hand was guarding the tow release and not the airbrake handle so the pilot was completely unaware that the airbrakes had opened.

The hand should never be on the tow release during takeoff. Near is ok but, in my opinion, far better to guard the airbrakes.

What happened to "brakes closed and locked - ready for hook up"?

Why did he release? It was still flying and under control.


Andy

It looks like he was given the line by the tug, as he only released after the tension pinged off.

looked like he pulled the release by error TBH.......... silly to keep your hand firmly on it ...........

He hadn't locked his airbrakes and they were sucked open once speed built up so consequently his climb rate was very slow. He was quite correct in guarding the release.

Apparently this accident
Pilot in glider crash narrowly escapes falling into quarry - Leicester Mercury

Take a copy if you want as in like 'now' as from the comments it appears the pilot concerned wants it taken down from FB....though how it got there in the first place is a question indeed.

The BGA/instructors now teach that the hand must be on the release at least until the end of the ground run for all launches.

Does this suck-up occur in other makes?
Not possible/desirable to have it spring loaded? Do gliders only use speed brakes at landing phase so pulling against a spring or aerodynamic tab is not a physical ordeal?

Mjb

If you're talking about the blue handle just above the pilots left hand, it jumps rearward at about the 30 second mark...not checked and locked, or a malfunction in the latch mechanism?
At about 1.10, he says FFS...that's when he should have picked it up, if not earlier when he noticed the glider wasn't performing like it should be.

Either way....ouch!!

"The BGA/instructors now teach that the hand must be on the release at least until the end of the ground run for all launches."

That may be appropriate for a winch launch but not for aerotow in the gliders I have the most time in. ASW-19b over 1500 hours and ASW-28 over 850 hours - I always started aerotow takeoff roll with airbrakes open and closed them when I have good roll control. Not possible to have the left hand on the release and the airbrake handle. Also not possible for flapped gliders which start with negative flap and then change flap setting when speed increases.

Andy

over-center lock
 

"Not possible/desirable to have it spring loaded?"

On most, if not all, gliders the airbrakes have an over-center locking mechanism. The handle moves forward until the brake caps are flush with the wing then additional forward movement of the handle activates the over-center locking mechanism. It is usually not possible for an external observer to see if the brakes are locked only that they are closed.

When unlocked airbrakes suck open depends on the glider type. On the ASW-19b they stay closed until lift off then bang full open. I painted a red bar on my ASW-19b airbrake control rod. The red paint was completely hidden when the brakes were locked.

A properly executed control check requires the airbrakes to be opened fully then closed and locked.

Andy

The Piggott Hook:

https://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/en/library/piggott-hook

Most airbrakes will self-open to full if left unlocked. It high speeds they will open with one hell of a bang unless you apply a great deal of force to prevent this from happening. Most airbrake caps are spring loaded and it is this is what initially opens the brakes, the rest is aerodynamic.

PM

It was a deliberate release, he obviously forgot the check list and didn't lock the brakes, did the tug wave him off?, because he was not climbing ?. If not why release at that height, he hit the trees almost immediately. If the tuggie thought he was so low that he might hit the trees he may have dumped him, with brakes closed he would have made the field to the right.
Should be compulsory viewing for all pilots.

A small whistle or air-driven siren built in to the top of the airbrake blade might make the pilot more aware of them being open.

Two points from my perspective. On the couple of occasions that I've launched with the airbrakes unlocked I've happily noticed pretty quickly and got them shut without disaster. But the underlying reason for taking off with brakes unlocked on both occasions was a delay in launching, and a presumption that I'd already checked the brakes when the launch sequence resumed. That's why I now teach Bloggs to open the canopy when there's a launch delay, because "Canopy" precedes Brakes in the pre-flight checks, and the canopy open is a pretty good clue that you need to do brakes again.
Also, if the tuggy notices that the glider has its brakes open (which he probably will, as he's now dragging a large garden shed into the air) he has a couple of ways to signal this to the glider pilot. One is to signal with rudder reversals, but if you're low and slow, the last thing you want is an asymmetric stall, so they may not feel inclined to do this. Of course the other way is to use radio, assuming the glider pilot has remembered to switch the thing on and is on the same frequency. But in the final analysis tuggy may revert to self-preservation and release at his end, and the glider pilot will now be pushing the rope.

Been there!
 

I was the tuggie for the day. Flying my 150hp Supercub at Shenington.

Had been taking off crosswind on the longer run. They asked me to use the shorter run, directly into wind for the next takeoff, which meant that we HAD TO TAKE OFF ACROSS the runway in use by everybody else.

So we lined up, and had to wait for Everybody Else to takeoff, land, or whatever. And I was getting annoyed.

NEVER GET ANNOYED!

At last it was our turn, the K13 behind me was slow to roll. Was my engine delivering enough power? I glanced at the dials....all OK. Sounded OK. I looked in my rear view mirror - tugs have a rear view mirror so you can keep an eye on the glider.

Sure enough, the airbrakes on the twoseater K13 were wide open!

I was dragging a shed. The earth bank in front was getting too close for comfort. Despite the engine doing its best, my speed got slower.

What is the stalling speed for a combination like that? I reckon we had about 50 mph at very best estimate. So I carried on over the earth bank, only just. And carried on dragging the shed by now about 45 mph, and not happy at all, so at 500 feet I DUMPED THE GLIDER.

By that height they should easily have been able to return to the airfield, but only if they noticed the open brakes and did something about them.

Tuggies very seldom dump a glider. I've only done it 3 times. When I turned around, the K13 had vanished. Where did it go? People were running around on the ground like something urgent had happened.

The instructor and student in the K13 had NOT NOTICED AT ALL the open airbrakes. They simply plonked the glider in the nearest field, and then realised they were still wearing the towrope! No damage, no injury.

A learning experience altogether. I resolved never again to accept towing across runway in general use. I also resolved if I was upset to NOT PROCEED with the tow.

The tug pilot is responsible for the combination. But if the glider has the airbrakes open, most tugs have enough grunt to drag it up anyhow. We were marginal, and towing across an eight foot earthen bank. The only good news it was directly into the wind for the day.

MODS,
I know this pilot. He has not given his consent for the dissemination of this video. His family are distressed by it being posted on Facebook and are taking steps to have it removed. Perhaps it would be wise to discontinue this thread. I understand that his club had asked if they could use the video for training purposes and, being the decent person he is, he agreed. But he did not agree for it to be published or passed around for people to post on social media.

Ouch.... I was desperately willing him to pull the bung - I'm sure he won't do that again! Lucky that he's around to regret sharing the video - a solid reminder for us all not to take things for granted.

Speedy recovery to you, sir.

Had the video not been 'shared' all we would have seen or indeed heard is a bare two line summary of the accident published in 6 months plus it would have disappeared anonymously into the general accident statistics for 2017 published sometime in 2018.

By which time no one will care, everyone will have forgotten and nothing would have been learn't....
Notice how it is not been mentioned at all on UK glider pilot dot net: clearly not a suitable discussion subject.

Rough Ground or Bounce Can Unlock Spoilers
 

On an early flight in a Junior, the first behind a Pawnee, I ballooned on takeoff. The [slightly over] correction bounced me off the ground, but no more oscillations.

Once we were both in the air, I noticed the handling was poor and saw the spoilers had come out - and promptly closed them.

We train devout adherence to the checklist, but we do not train for the rare but humanly inevitable times the spoilers come out or the canopy comes unlatched.

I saw an L-33 written off when the pilot would not let go of the unlatched side opening canopy to use spoilers on short final. He used sideslip to get down and in the moment did not realize that a sideslip against the opening would have held the canopy down hands free.

I saw a Jantar with a shattered canopy make a dodgy circuit to a cross runway when there were perfectly good fields ahead.

With a CG hook, I keep a hand on the release for the entire duration of the launch except when I have to change flaps.

What part of, '...not given his consent for the dissemination of this video' and 'His family are distressed.' do you not understand? The guy is still in hospital.

His club asked if they could use this video for training purposes which the pilot, being the decent person he is agreed to, however he did not agree for it to be published or passed around for people to post on social media (Facebook for Christ's sake!) - Have you see the sh1t storm of nonsense that's been posted on Facebook about this accident? Given time I'm sure he will want it to be used for training purposes, but until then it should be down to his discretion.

I think this thread has some good imput, and training purposes can be served by reading about potential accidents on airtow.

However I think we could do without the video.

Excellent Training Video
 

The first time I viewed the video I did not notice the spoiler handle sneaking back. This can happen to any of us by human error or mechanical forces. The video shows how easy it is not to catch on to an insidious situation.

I would show it to pre solo students and also play a video of a canopy opening on tow.

Lastly I know three instructors who wrote off gliders when solo. Hopefully the accident pilot will some day be in the back seat.

Mary, you appear to miss the point of using real-life videos as training aids. You can read about stuff 'till the cows come home, but seeing an actual video of a real event brings home just how these things can happen,

It's why many industries, and safety-conscious organisations such as Network Rail, spend a lot of money paying specialist companies to produce training videos of 'set up' situations.

Even set-up scenarios have far more impact as learning devices than merely reading about incidents. REAL incidents, like this, are even more valuable as lessons to us all as to just how easily these things can bite us. Seeing the video is many more times more valuable as a leaning aid than merely reading an accident report.

Top marks to the tuggie for coming clean on this. Tug pilots need balls ( even if they are female ) they always hang on and get you to a safe height if they can, the vast majority are glider pilots themselves. But there comes to a point where their own safety gets to the dangerous point I was lucky having only got dumped once at 50 ft, no problem, but several could have gone wrong if the tug had lost power.
Sometimes sh1t happens and mistakes are made, we are trained to be perfect, but in my 30 years of gliding have known 5 fatalities and a lot more human errors that have got away with it without injury. Initially I didn't realise it was a K13 2 seater, if that is correct who was in the back, hopefully not an instructor!!.

There by the grace of God go I

Mary's Meager's post No 19 is misleading
She was NOT the tug pilot on THIS incident
Her post refers to a totally different incident in which she was towing as a tug pilot which was indeed a K13.
I've heard Mary's story of this one before.

The glider in THIS incident was a Puchacz - also a 2 seater. As far as we are aware there was no one in the back - its was being flown solo.

I think Mary was saying she had been in that position on the other end of the rope... it certainly wasnt a k13!
I can see the family's distress but the learning value IS huge.
Gliderpilot.net rarely comments on glider accidents, they appear in s&g with a brief analysis,

to clarify...
 

Deltasierra, gliderkev has got it right. my earlier post did not refer to this accident video, which was apparently a Puchaz being flown solo. Also, my earlier post refers to an event at Shenington. All participants in that incident were women! Nobody hurt, nothing damanged.

But the video that leads off this thread is indeed a good warning in every way.
You can clearly see the airbrake handle moving back on its own. The pilot has been unaware.

I was an instructor before becoming a tuggie; and insisted my students to look around at the wings if something seem wrong. In fact I would demonstrate to them how useful this lookout is while the student and glider are sitting on the ground while I held the wingtip. The beginner should practice this when still flying with an instructor, in my opinion.

Flying an early solo with a video camera is also asking for embarassment.

Leave it on the ground.

Having read the thread the guy was alone in the cockpit, so presumably the camera was his, he placed it and set it running.
At the end he didn't seem incapacitated so how did the video get out and into the public domain? Shouldn't the pilot and/or his family be speaking to Steven Waitekaitis if they want it taken down.

That aside it seems to me an excellent illustration of how things can go wrong when things get busy.

There is something to be said for starting an aerotow with the airbrakes out, retracting them as the tug starts to move you forward. Your hand can then move to the the release.

When I was a tug pilot I dumped about half a dozen people. A couple for airbrakes and the rest for being too far out of position. If possible you drop the airbrakes open people close in on a base leg or in front of an easy field. I was able to do this because the majority of our tugs were 180 HP. With less power you will have less options. But you drop the out of position people just before you really need to and they will have to fend for themselves.

Mary, taking your camera with you may lead to embarrassment but it may also allow a great deal of illumination, proper post flight critique and some big learning moments.

PM

I haven't flown a glider for over 20 years so don't remember much. In the video at about 5 seconds he moves his hand forward under the airbrake lever and you can see it gets moved upwards by a gnats. Is that enough to unlock them?

From reading the FB posts, he's still in hospital 6 weeks on. The gliding club apparently asked if they could use the video internally for training - it escaped from there...

I'd be interested in the bit before the film clip starts.
That would show the preflight checks being done - so we could see where the "brakes closed and locked" bit was missed.
I'll bet it was some form of distraction, interruption, hold up/delay in the launch for some reason or dare I even suggest it that switching on the camera might have the distraction.

I've removed the link from the first post to respect the copyright of the hospitalised pilot.

I wish him a speedy recovery.

Mjb

Good call mick.

I feel sure that he will want the video used for training purposes, perhaps when he's fully recovered.

The pilot appears to be cycling the trim which in the Puchacz is just below the airbrake lever and is operated via a push-rod, for and aft. If, when doing that, the hand should foul the airbrake lever, its not enough to unlock the airbrakes which have a deliberately strong over-centre lock (because its a training glider). If the pilot is used to flying an aircraft who's airbrakes/spoilers do not have a strong over-centre lock, its just conceivable that cycling one could be confused with cycling the other.

The pilot is not early solo in gliders. He also flies power.

Preflight checks - but leave the camera on the ground
 

Sorry, guys, I cannot agree that a solo pilot should be taking photos. Even a fixed camera turned on from the start is a distraction. Our very best air-to-air photographer is nearly always flying with a safety pilot as well.

Returning to the question, when should a tug dump the glider? Talking about my fright with experts, I had to agree I should have hung on longer; we were, after all, still climbing and every hundred feet gained would have given the glider a better chance of returning to the airfield. I was scared, my knees were shaking, I had just run completely out of courage. The last thing that a tug pilot would do at low level and low speed would be the suggested signal of waving the rudder! No way was I going to do that! I hope they have changed that stupid rule!

So still climbing, the glider more or less OK, following a very slow tug.
Hang in there. BUT....if a glider pilot ends up wildly out of position on tow, he is going to be pushing a rope. Especially if he is well above the tug.
If the glider pulls up the tail of the tug too much it can be impossible for the tug to regain flying attitude and airspeed. Before impact. When Spreckley and Rollings were practicing this maneuver they were about 6,000 feet minimum, and managed to frighten themselves badly.

Strange to say, my last post that was deleted on this forum was about glider airbrakes coming open.

On a thread about an airliner taking off with not enough power, I realised it might be judged off-topic, but I thought it was relevant to people having the experience or awareness to perceive something amiss and finding the solution.

Years ago, as some airbrakes opened on the ground run and two of us ran towards a car with a radio, we overheard a conversation that showed we weren't needed. Have you got both mags turned on? Try closing the airbrakes!

This video, even if it's now gone from here, was seen by some of us, and can't be forgotten.

As someone says above, it might have been interesting to see from a bit earlier. Two queries arise with me. Is the movement of the trim a deliberate part of the checks, or duplication of a previous check, or an unwittingly wrong check of what was intended to be the airbrakes? And why continue to hold the release knob until well after the danger of ground loop or inadvertent sudden initial pull-up has gone?

If I'm interrupted during checks, or there's a delay and perhaps it's so hot as to open the canopy again, I do part of the checks again, canopy and brakes again, without worrying if it looks as neurotic or manic as certain tennis players' mannerisms before every single serve.

In some places, the person hooking the rope on will observe or actually ask if the brakes are closed and locked. If they obviously aren't, and it looks like an oversight or it's someone I dont know, I'll say so; they shouldn't be offended if they have to say they like holding them open for a few seconds at the start.

It has been phased out for the pilot to ask all clear above and behind, and give the take up slack and all out commands. Nowadays it is assumed if they are hooked on they are or should be ready to go. But there isn't an excuse to be a bit more casual; it should also mean don't hook them on if they aren't ready.

So perhaps any questions about concentration or routines extend slightly further than only the pilot.

.

Good practice.

As an aerial cameraman and former pilot I can attest that distractions leading to mission creep or outright mishandling is very common, even for 10000 hour pilots.

Whilst the effects of human factors in aviation is well known, my personal experience is that specific training in regard to distraction would be beneficial to new pilots.

So whilst eliminating a distraction such as a camera, from a student flight is one approach, another is to train and practice for distractions.

It would be quite stimulating for instructors to setup preflight and inflight distractions that could include smartphone and cameras as the protagonists.

Mjb

While valid points about distraction have been made, it's just as likely the brakes could have become unlocked post checks. I've flown a few Polish gliders where brakes popped very easily on ground run or climb out. If post t/o workload is high then it can be surprisingly easy to miss the lever moving back!

I hope the pilot recovers fully. We owe him a debt of gratitude for the learning opportunity.