The season has barely started, and pilots in the eastern USA have wrecked three gliders already.
- Pick a good field over a convenient field.
- If you're being followed in the pattern, land long.
- Avoid howling crosswinds.
We like to talk about "lessons learned" from other people's misfortune, but it would be more accurate to call them "lessons repeated." Nothing is being learned here. It happens every year at this time. The same accidents with the same causes; only the names have changed.
We are all rusty. We are all eager. We all welcome the dynamic Spring weather. Don't be a bozo.
2 comments:
Add to the above:
"If your plan isn't working, make a new plan"
An important component of the foregoing is to realize the plan "isn't working" soon enough to take constructive action.
We watched a beautiful 53:1 glider turned into a wreck because the pilot tried to make a full pattern starting downwind at low speed and about 200'. Several alternatives suggested themselves to those of us on the ground, including simply landing straight in, down wind (< 5 kts, no other traffic at the time). The pilot flew over at least ten really good landing places in the last ten miles of his final glide, including three airports.
-T8
T8: You seem to have a habit of being in the vicinity when these things happen. Remind me not to fly with you.
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