Glider midair over Gransden Lodge
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Glider midair over Gransden Lodge
and nobody on PPRuNe noticed? Sunday, May 18 was a grand flying day.
Gliders in thermals everywhere. The good news is that all three pilots were wearing parachutes....though only one was needed, the other glider, though damaged, was still flyable and landed safely. And contrary to rumour, the glider that was destroyed by impact was not equipped with a Ballistic Recovery Chute, only a totally terrified but still compos mentis pilot, who managed to get out and pull the silver handle on his personal chute, landing in somebody's garden. His first thought on greeting the locals was to enquire if the other craft and pilots were OK. They were.
Personal parachutes can be purchased for £500 to £800, and should be repacked at least once a year.....
Gliders in thermals everywhere. The good news is that all three pilots were wearing parachutes....though only one was needed, the other glider, though damaged, was still flyable and landed safely. And contrary to rumour, the glider that was destroyed by impact was not equipped with a Ballistic Recovery Chute, only a totally terrified but still compos mentis pilot, who managed to get out and pull the silver handle on his personal chute, landing in somebody's garden. His first thought on greeting the locals was to enquire if the other craft and pilots were OK. They were.
Personal parachutes can be purchased for £500 to £800, and should be repacked at least once a year.....
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Gransden Midair
I recieved a very interesting e mail from ther BGA regarding this incident.
[I]T[I]o: Owners of Aircraft on the BGA Register BGA No: xxxx
Parachuting After a Mid-Air Collision
Most glider pilots wear a parachute. A recent collision between two gliders resulted in one pilot successfully using a parachute and another landing safely with a damaged tail-plane. There are a number of points that all glider pilots may want to consider.
1. The decision to get out
• If the glider is uncontrollable, it is likely the decision will have been made for you!
• If the glider has been hit in the tail, you may decide to get out even if the glider remains controllable in the immediate aftermath of the collision; the aerodynamic loads may cause a damaged tail to detach
• Wing main spars are very strong; if your wing is damaged and the glider remains controllable you may decide to stay with the glider and land
2. Getting out
• Not easy from a stationary glider on the ground. It will be much more difficult if the broken glider is generating increased G.
• Do you know how to get out in this particular glider? Where is the canopy jettison control? Which way does it move? Should you operate the normal canopy release at the same time as the emergency release, or in a particular sequence?
• Are you mentally prepared for taking the correct actions after a collision, on every flight?
• Have you ever practised getting out in an emergency, on the ground? If not, please practice. You need helpers to look after the canopy, and a mattress alongside the cockpit. How long did it take? Have one of your helpers time you with a stopwatch. Practice again, and do it faster. Note that in a real situation, you may need to push the canopy clear.
• Why might practice save your life? Statistics demonstrate that a similar number of pilots are killed in glider mid-air collisions as survive through use of a parachute. Preparation is likely to increase your chance of survival.
3. Parachuting
• Guidance for glider pilots has been published online, for example at DG Flugzeugbau: Emergency Bailout - Are You Prepared?
BGA Safety Committee
May 14
[I]T[I]o: Owners of Aircraft on the BGA Register BGA No: xxxx
Parachuting After a Mid-Air Collision
Most glider pilots wear a parachute. A recent collision between two gliders resulted in one pilot successfully using a parachute and another landing safely with a damaged tail-plane. There are a number of points that all glider pilots may want to consider.
1. The decision to get out
• If the glider is uncontrollable, it is likely the decision will have been made for you!
• If the glider has been hit in the tail, you may decide to get out even if the glider remains controllable in the immediate aftermath of the collision; the aerodynamic loads may cause a damaged tail to detach
• Wing main spars are very strong; if your wing is damaged and the glider remains controllable you may decide to stay with the glider and land
2. Getting out
• Not easy from a stationary glider on the ground. It will be much more difficult if the broken glider is generating increased G.
• Do you know how to get out in this particular glider? Where is the canopy jettison control? Which way does it move? Should you operate the normal canopy release at the same time as the emergency release, or in a particular sequence?
• Are you mentally prepared for taking the correct actions after a collision, on every flight?
• Have you ever practised getting out in an emergency, on the ground? If not, please practice. You need helpers to look after the canopy, and a mattress alongside the cockpit. How long did it take? Have one of your helpers time you with a stopwatch. Practice again, and do it faster. Note that in a real situation, you may need to push the canopy clear.
• Why might practice save your life? Statistics demonstrate that a similar number of pilots are killed in glider mid-air collisions as survive through use of a parachute. Preparation is likely to increase your chance of survival.
3. Parachuting
• Guidance for glider pilots has been published online, for example at DG Flugzeugbau: Emergency Bailout - Are You Prepared?
BGA Safety Committee
May 14
Here's the news item..
DRAMATIC PICTURES: Pilot forced to abandon plane after mid-air glider crash over Little Gransden | Cambridge News | Latest News Headlines From Cambridge City & Cambridgeshire | National News | Cambridge News
Open the slideshow for some interesting pics.
DRAMATIC PICTURES: Pilot forced to abandon plane after mid-air glider crash over Little Gransden | Cambridge News | Latest News Headlines From Cambridge City & Cambridgeshire | National News | Cambridge News
Open the slideshow for some interesting pics.
Glider mid-air
I posted this on the thread on Flyer:
I was poodling around the area when I got to the point of being visual with 4 gliders. I decided that this was my definition of a "crowded sky" and promptly went back to Little Gransden.
Safe and sound and back on the ground chatting to one of the other denizens of Little Gransden we noticed the emergency helicopter hovering over towards the Gransden Lodge area.
I'd already heard the ambulance go past and we assumed that it was an RTA as there had been a lot of horse and cyclist activity on what can be a fast road. Glad everybody concerned was OK.
As people pointed out on the original post, 4 gliders does not a "crowded sky" make especially for glider pilots in a thermal! However, I felt that, as the gliders were at the four points of the compass and my head was swivelling around like a Stuka pilot over Kent in 1940 and there were more being launched from Gransden Lodge, it was time to get back to LG and put the bird away. I was only up for an hour's worth of chandelles, stalls and steep turns and it was getting close to tea and medals time anyway!!
I was poodling around the area when I got to the point of being visual with 4 gliders. I decided that this was my definition of a "crowded sky" and promptly went back to Little Gransden.
Safe and sound and back on the ground chatting to one of the other denizens of Little Gransden we noticed the emergency helicopter hovering over towards the Gransden Lodge area.
I'd already heard the ambulance go past and we assumed that it was an RTA as there had been a lot of horse and cyclist activity on what can be a fast road. Glad everybody concerned was OK.
As people pointed out on the original post, 4 gliders does not a "crowded sky" make especially for glider pilots in a thermal! However, I felt that, as the gliders were at the four points of the compass and my head was swivelling around like a Stuka pilot over Kent in 1940 and there were more being launched from Gransden Lodge, it was time to get back to LG and put the bird away. I was only up for an hour's worth of chandelles, stalls and steep turns and it was getting close to tea and medals time anyway!!
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Wise move, LowNSlow! trouble is most power planes are "poorly fenestrated" compared to gliders, which (except for the old warhorse K7) have excellent viz all round, but not that great if somebody is coming up from below and behind you, which is what the RAF tutor did to the glider in the report now revived on this forum.....the glider pilot could hear the engine, getting louder, but couldn't see it - he had been flying straight and slightly descending, between two thermals, when he was clobbered and had to hit the silk....
Poorly Fenestrated is what they told us at a safety meeting at Upper Heyford to explain why an F4 might not see you circling overhead....
Poorly Fenestrated is what they told us at a safety meeting at Upper Heyford to explain why an F4 might not see you circling overhead....
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Second hand parachutes
Yes they are available in UK at appox £500-£600 and have been for many years from Essex Aviation. They source approx 40-50 every year and sell as many to aerobatic pilots as they do to glider pilots. All repacked and certified by UK Parachutes at Beccles one of the biggest parachute operations in the UK
Contact Richard Boyton, Essex Aviation [email protected]
GAZSD
Contact Richard Boyton, Essex Aviation [email protected]
GAZSD
Last edited by GAZSD; 2nd Jun 2014 at 12:56. Reason: additional info re re-packing
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cats_five
If it had only been used as a cushion I think it might be ok, but was it left in the damp, chucked on the floor, not re-packed for ages, stored in direct sunlight ?
Now balance this with the critical need to function faultlessly the first time you use it.
The problem is there is ( Fortunately) not enough statistical information about the failure rate of this equipment during emergency use so I think I would rather spend the money on a new parachute rather than try to save a few quid by getting one that the Germans won't use.
Now balance this with the critical need to function faultlessly the first time you use it.
The problem is there is ( Fortunately) not enough statistical information about the failure rate of this equipment during emergency use so I think I would rather spend the money on a new parachute rather than try to save a few quid by getting one that the Germans won't use.
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Re "on condition" in the UK. After many years of having my parachute (for gliding) repacked without problems I sent it to a different packer this year who promptly said that it had been time expired for about 5 years.
So who to believe?
I've had a quote of about £800 to have a new canopy fitted as the harness and pack are immaculate. Think I'd prefer that to buying a secondhand unit of unknown provenance.
So who to believe?
I've had a quote of about £800 to have a new canopy fitted as the harness and pack are immaculate. Think I'd prefer that to buying a secondhand unit of unknown provenance.
Slightly off thread, but in the early '70s a late colleague became the first glider pilot in Australia to use his parachute.
He'd been a bomber pilot in WW II, and flown aerial photography in Indonesia after the war, but had never had anything more serious than a wheels-up landing. When his wing separated (later found to be caused by aileron flutter) he had no difficulty in deciding to bail out, and believed that, with the aid of adrenalin, he did it much more quickly than he could have on the ground.
Once his chute opened, he was afraid of being hit by pieces of glider that were now falling faster than he was. Shortly before landing, he remembered to spit out his false teeth!
Edited to add that he was only wearing his 'chute because it was required by the competition rules.
He'd been a bomber pilot in WW II, and flown aerial photography in Indonesia after the war, but had never had anything more serious than a wheels-up landing. When his wing separated (later found to be caused by aileron flutter) he had no difficulty in deciding to bail out, and believed that, with the aid of adrenalin, he did it much more quickly than he could have on the ground.
Once his chute opened, he was afraid of being hit by pieces of glider that were now falling faster than he was. Shortly before landing, he remembered to spit out his false teeth!
Edited to add that he was only wearing his 'chute because it was required by the competition rules.
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Parachute Life
German chutes 15 years? Because of their rules, from the time of silk canopies, cotton stitching, whereas in UK and in US it is on condition, the packer/rigger (assuming you know the difference) is signing it off as fit for purpose until next re-pack
And limitation of some UK chutes? Product liability insurance, no more, no less, and we operate here on a "fit for purpose" basis.
And those German chutes, some min deployment height 100 mtrs others 60 mtrs, and time 1.5 secs...any more questions
And limitation of some UK chutes? Product liability insurance, no more, no less, and we operate here on a "fit for purpose" basis.
And those German chutes, some min deployment height 100 mtrs others 60 mtrs, and time 1.5 secs...any more questions
Last edited by GAZSD; 2nd Jun 2014 at 12:57.
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Well, y'all, I've only done one parachute descent....wouldn't exactly call it a jump.
At the Hereford club, about 1985.... under a circular chute that was opened automatically when they pushed me out the door of a perfectly serviceable airplane.
And we wore a pack on the chest, which was the emergency chute....the instructor told us it was actually full of old socks....
But when I looked up at the canopy, I wondered if I would need to pull out the old socks, because the strings were twisted.....lets see, first we had to cut off the primary chute, and then....and then....and then....the strings untwisted, so I didn't have to do anything except impact terraine and fall over backwards.
They asked me if I would like to do another and I said no thank you very much, its a lot of kerfluffle for less than two minutes in the air!
But at least I know it should work OK....
At the Hereford club, about 1985.... under a circular chute that was opened automatically when they pushed me out the door of a perfectly serviceable airplane.
And we wore a pack on the chest, which was the emergency chute....the instructor told us it was actually full of old socks....
But when I looked up at the canopy, I wondered if I would need to pull out the old socks, because the strings were twisted.....lets see, first we had to cut off the primary chute, and then....and then....and then....the strings untwisted, so I didn't have to do anything except impact terraine and fall over backwards.
They asked me if I would like to do another and I said no thank you very much, its a lot of kerfluffle for less than two minutes in the air!
But at least I know it should work OK....
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I often wonder why regular GA pilots don't wear a parachute while glider pilots do... It can't be just the fact that gliders fly close together in a thermal.
It seems like a good emergency safety measure in case of very critical failure. No simple engine failure but control cable breaking, wing detachment, prop blade flying loose and vibration causes the whole firewall forward to break away, etc. Bad maintenance, bad design, bad luck (big bird strike) or whatever can cause such critical failure making controlled landing impossible. Chutes get more and more common in the LSA world for the whole plane. Why not wear them as pilots of regular GA?
It seems like a good emergency safety measure in case of very critical failure. No simple engine failure but control cable breaking, wing detachment, prop blade flying loose and vibration causes the whole firewall forward to break away, etc. Bad maintenance, bad design, bad luck (big bird strike) or whatever can cause such critical failure making controlled landing impossible. Chutes get more and more common in the LSA world for the whole plane. Why not wear them as pilots of regular GA?
What I always wonder is why you don't see more CAPS systems in aerobatic aircraft.