PPRuNe Forums - Would you fly below this cloud?

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The ASI is in kph.

Prop swinger, mea culpa. I didn't even think of metric units, even though I had seen the other photo showing the Portuguese Chipmunk!

I agree - about 100 kts IAS, which if the turn coordinator is working, implies a bank angle of about 18 degrees. So I still think it must be not working. It's been a while since I've seen one, but don't they show "wings level" when off?

mary,

The Dunstable accident report is at http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/dft_avsafety_pdf_500699.pdf

It makes very sobering reading:

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From that moment, the instructor later stated that his memory was not particularly clear. He remembered hearing a 'very loud bang' and then 'feeling very draughty'; he also believed that he may have momentarily lost consciousness. On recovering, he felt dazed and remembered slowly becoming aware that 'something was seriously amiss' and that this was 'a real emergency requiring unpleasant and decisive action'. He was able to shout to his student in the front cockpit two or three times to undo his straps and abandon the glider but, owing to some impairment of his hearing, the student was unable to hear him clearly. The student had already decided to abandon the glider and, after he had departed,the instructor followed but was surprised when he realised that he had not had to jettison his cockpit canopy. It was estimated that both parachutes had successfully inflated by 1,800 feet agl.

A while ago, I stumbled on this site, created by Graeme Cooper, who was the passenger: https://sites.google.com/site/thebig...theskiesagain/

The accident happened during a flight to celebrate his 30th birthday. He went back to Dunstable and flew with the same instructor, Peter Goldstraw, to celebrate his 40th! There's a PDF link and a link to TV and Radio Interviews. Lovely understated comments from Peter in one of the radio interviews about the 10th anniversary flight:

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We picked up where we left off.

It was nice to show him that I can actually land a glider, instead of leaving it in mid-air.