Glider crashes at Bicester, pilot unhurt

[mary meagher]

Landed on Skimmingdish Lane, so the Oxford Mail has it.....with the usual overexcited emergency vehicles in attendance. Anybody know if the ASW 19 was damaged? And was it a Bicester pilot?

[cats_five]

BBC News - Glider crashes and flips on A4421 near Bicester (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8681764.stm)

"The pilot was uninjured and managed to escape but the single seat glider was badly damaged."

...

"Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service sent seven fire engines to the scene."!!!

[forget]

"Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service sent seven fire engines to the scene."!!!

Why the '!!!!!' It's very likely the first 999 caller said 'aircraft crash on the road'. You'd expect a max response.

[JimCrawford]

And, if it had been the tug, and I was the pilot of the tug, I would be very happy indeed to see seven fire engines turn up!
Good show for the emergency services :D

[cats_five]

More from the BBC:


BBC News - Investigation begins into glider crash near Bicester (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8682575.stm)

[Whiternoise]

For all who care, this is the location on Google Maps (Street View)

Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=51.920238,-1.139488&spn=0,0.01929&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.920282,-1.139653&panoid=FUGGZUkDCabDaiLLy-uxzg&cbp=12,219.91,,0,5.1)

Looks like he overshot the runway a bit, Bicester airfield is on the other side of the road.

[cats_five]

An undershoot seems more likely to me, as per Mary's original title.

Bicester is massive in gliding terms. If he was that much too high a circuit to lose height would have been no problem. 250m is plenty to get a glider in assuming a reasonable circuit and no complications like trees on the boundary and so on, and just about every direction as Bicester is more than 750m. Also, I suspect the glider in the hedge is pointing towards the airfield, another pointer to an undershoot rather than an overshoot.

We will know for sure in the fullness of the time when the BGA report appears.

[oversteer]

A marginal final glide and lots of unexpected sink perhaps? Glad pilot was unhurt, shame about the -19 !

[cats_five]

You might be right and yes, shame about the 19. GoogleEarth suggests there might have been some suitable fields to the west... (I can't think how he got where he was if approaching from any other direction)

[mary meagher]

Sorry chaps, my original title seems to have been a mistake. There was, evidently, a problem with two vital levers being very close together on the left side of a 19, or for that matter, a pegase aircraft. Moving the undercarriage lever does not operate the airbrakes.

It is quite important that all solo pilots who will have nobody in the back seat to remind them, that you should look at the handle before you pull it, to make sure you are pulling the right one. When you are being checked out in any single seater new to you, sit in it. Know where everything is. There are major differences, between different types. When it comes to crunch time, especially in field landings when you are under stress, thats when these differences may come to bite you.

I offered a very senior instructor a flight in my Pegase last summer. He sat in it to familiarise himself with the equipment. To my surprise, I noticed that the glider sat somewhat lower than usual, and the instructor was in a state of mortification.....fortunately when he pulled the wrong lever to check the airbrakes, the grass and the ground were soft enough to prevent any damage when the undercarriage retreated into the fuselage.

So easily done. Beware!

[Whiternoise]

From the description:

"The glider avoided hitting evening rush-hour traffic before flipping over across the A4421"

To cross the 4421 you'd have to be flying away from the field (or they have a funny idea of cross). The glider flipped - thus it's probably not pointing in the same direction it landed in.

Plus if you look at this picture, it clearly came from the field:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47850000/jpg/_47850904_dscf0749.jpg

That's Bicester airfield on the other side.

I still say overshoot!

[cats_five]

If Mary's latest post is correct then yes, that's how it could overshoot - though I'm amazed the tail boom doesn't look to be broken.

[gpn01]

@Cats_Fev - check your PM's

[RatherBeFlying]

Well, If the pilot got mixed up between the gear and spoiler levers, it's quite easy for the glider to just keep flying past the end of the runway, especially with ground effect. I've heard of the same of a 1-26 that proceeded down the runway; then across a busy highway -- fortunately able to clear the fences and road traffic:\

Except for a few gliders that only have flaps for drag, Spoilers are part of every glider landing checklist. The drill on downwind is to look at the spoilers coming out of the wings; then keep your hand on that handle until stopped.

[MartinCh]

ratherbeflying et al,

Well, I shall say that making mistake pulling wrong handle is possible, but not noticing 'something not right' about the reaction of aircraft to input, hmm.

Why would anyone only open airbrakes very low to ground in proper-ish circuit, and reach for the wrong one?
'overshoot' theory

Why would anyone not have done the gear down drill in a glider ahead of reaching boundary and then confusing the gear and brakes levers long enough to end up short, not noticing turbulence and quickly closing brakes?
'undershoot' theory

Either one of these or low margin/sink on long final glide, or whatever else, we'll see it later in S&G. Good that this mess-up didn't cost any personal injury.
I've had enough of own mess-ups and mistakes during my training in gliding etc, to double check stuff when doing my first handful of solos, and will continue so.

[RatherBeFlying]

So far I have only done it on the ground confusing tow release with rudder pedal adjust. You find yourself wondering for a considerable time why the pedals aren't moving before you clue in. Worse is releasing close to the ground when intending to adjusting rudder pedals.

The PW-5 has the canopy eject where many two seaters have the tow release. I demonstrated on my first PW-5 flight that you can fly it for some hours when the canopy eject had been previously operated:\ Hint: Try to rotate the canopy horizontally to check the eject has not been actuated.

The Puchaz canopy release is positioned rather too close to the canopy vent and can too easily be bumped when closing the canopy vent.

The Blanik LT-13 and LT-23 have semi-retractible gear. The down positions are reversed between the two types.

There are a number of incidents where people have mixed up the spoilers and flaps on the LT-13.

Moving the gear up and down does change the drag somewhat on a slick ship like the 19; so, it's possible the pilot thought he was getting a spoiler like response when moving the gear.

I am a great fan of the LS gear handle as it is highly obvious plus will likely skin your knuckles if you attempt to use spoilers with the gear up.

It does not matter how many gear down landings you have made -- it's just as easy to land gear up the next time.

Same applies to mistaking another handle for the spoilers.

The best protection is building the habit at certain points in the circuit where you always get the gear and spoilers check done.

[Dan Winterland]

Glider ergonomics tend to be pretty good with standard colour coding for trim, brakes and cable release, but the levers down the left hand side can get confusing. Someone mentioned the ASW19's two levers, but the ASW20 has three - all lined up nicely!

I once watched an Astir at Bicester do an approach - overshooting spectacularly with the wheel going up and down - the pilot wondering why the brakes weren't very effective! Luckily, it landed wheels down (full brake?) but unlocked. When the pilot felt the kick on the lever as the wheel touched, he managed to quickly lock the lever and it didn't settle on it's belly!

[gpn01]

Well, If the pilot got mixed up between the gear and spoiler levers, it's quite easy for the glider to just keep flying past the end of the runway, especially with ground effect. I've heard of the same of a 1-26 that proceeded down the runway; then across a busy highway -- fortunately able to clear the fences and road traffic:\

Except for a few gliders that only have flaps for drag, Spoilers are part of every glider landing checklist. The drill on downwind is to look at the spoilers coming out of the wings; then keep your hand on that handle until stopped.

In the UK at least, mandated downwind checks aren't required (or formally taught). I tend to use WULF when leaving the high key area (Water-Undercarriage-Landing Area decided & clear-Flying speed selected and trimmed for). There's lots of variations on this including some quite comprehensive (and far too long!) ones.

[RatherBeFlying]

In the UK at least, mandated downwind checks aren't required (or formally taught).In Canada, we have SAC standard checklists on stickers for landing and takeoff -- $1.50 per set. Transport Canada is very big on checklists for anything that flies.