SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Did you live?
Ditch or Parachute
- Thread starter Phileep
- Start date
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SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Sorry.
Glider
Captain
Clearly yes but it was scary. I was in a strong lift generated from the ground and a cloud came across. The decision to be made is a) do I stay with the lift and enter the cloud or b) leave the lift and find another lift. I chose to enter the cloud which turned out to be more powerful than I thought. Suddenly it was like trying to fly in a washing machine. Rain was beating onto the glider which does horrible things to the aerodynamics and lift, in fact water was coming into the cockpit between the canopy and the fuselage. What was interesting was that is wasn't raining outside the cloud so I wasn't expecting this, and its the only time I experienced this when gliding.
I had no idea which way was up and water got into most of the instruments so I had no idea what height I was or how fast I was going, The only instrument that was really working was the audio vario which gives you a verbal warning as to how fast you are climbing or diving. So I clung onto the lift which I only knew was there by the audio signal as that meant I was climbing. You can see nothing in those conditions. I gauged the speed by flying in as tight a turn, whilst trying to centre on the lift. The only way to do this was to tighten the turn until the glider started to buffet before the stall, ease the turn until the buffet stopped then tighten again to find the buffet, all the time listening to the tone of the audio vario trying to keep it constant. All the time being thrown against the straps, In those conditions the danger of losing control and exceeding the VNE or Stress limits was too much and by staying close to the stall, I obviously wouldn't go too fast.
I would love to say that I flew out of the cloud but a more honest description would be that it 'spat me out' one moment I was in it and then I wasn't. Only about seven to ten minutes elapsed but it seemed a lot longer than that. Afterwards the barograph showed a peak climb of 1,300 ft/min and there were bruises on my body where I was being thrown against the straps.
It sounds and in many ways was very scary, but to be honest, I really enjoyed it, everything was on the edge. A real adrenalin rush.
FLYBOYJ
"THE GREAT GAZOO"
Scary stuff Glider - I have about 15 hours in sailplanes, all nice VFR conditions. The worse that happened to me was I landed a Grob 103 hard while trying to make a spot landing, very stupid of me. Luckily minimal damage to me and the glider (which I had to repair)
I'm sure you seen this;
I'm sure you seen this;
Glider
Captain
To be honest what the hell were they playing at. Going into cloud when it sounds as if they were losing height when you have the option of staying out of the cloud so at least you can choose your potential landing area. At one point the way he was moving the controls without any real response to the inputs, which indicates he was stalled he was very lucky to get away with it.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Amazing. To have the presence of mind and think your way through it. I find stories like this very impressive.
Perhaps your post should be used as part of a class on sailplane training? You know, the "I wish this came up in class!" class.
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It sounds like the "student" froze on the controls and the instructor was trying to get him to let go.
I was riding wave in a Grob with a ride passenger in front when we went suddenly from powerful lift to powerful sink, and he reacted by grabbing the stick and pulling back hard while kicking the rudder pedals. I couldn't move the controls from where he had them jammed against the stops and couldn't make myself heard over his screaming, so I grabbed my thermos, released my inertia reels and bonked him over the head to make him let go so I could make a spin recovery. Back on the ground he apologized for his behavior, but later sued the soaring club and tried to get the FAA to revoke my licenses. To no avail, fortunately.
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We call it "cumulogranite". Very common here in Vermont.
Glider
Captain
We just call it a stuffed cloud.
Glider
Captain
I think the instructor simply wasn't paying attention and hadn't noticed that the student had drifted to the left of the ridge and further into the cloud. What I cannot understand that there were visual clues, in particular the fact that clearly they were drifting into the cloud, which would imply that he was distracted by something inside the cockpit.
The other clue was the vario. On some of these you can set them up differently. I preferred to have it set up so as long as I was climbing there was a continuous tone and the faster you climb the higher pitched and louder the sound. When I stopped climbing it would start blipping and when losing height the slower the blip, the faster you are losing height. In the video it's blipping almost from the start which would have set my alarms off immediately. To be fair others set them up so that the slow blip equals a slow climb which could be the case here but even so, it should have been enough to get the instructors attention. To be in cloud, over a ridge and starting to level out, isn't a good place to be.
Glider
Captain
We had a Twin Astir (Grob 103) at the Essex and Suffolk Gliding club and I admit I really didn't like it. I felt as if I was having to haul it around the sky as it was very heavy on the controls but was OK in the vertical. Perversely my favourite trainer was the K13 which is a much older design. The K21 was the one that most of the instructors liked to use but for me it was the K13.
GreenKnight121
Senior Airman
- 734
- Mar 16, 2014
I personally knew (past tense, as he has "gone ahead") one... my Mother's older brother Arly (she had 5, the oldest 3 of which served in the Army or Navy in WW2, with #4 enlisting in late 1945, and #5 later).
Shot down in the Pacific Island campaign, rescued by a USN "plane guard" sub.
I can't remember whether they ditched or bailed ("baled" in the UK) out.
Reegor
Airman 1st Class
Fascinating video, The main chute opened with essentially zero altitude loss, and quite a bit of gain. Pilot's speed through the air (from rocket boost) pulled open the chute, and then somehow the chute pivoted UP while the pilot stayed at the same altitude. The shape of the chute is also striking - it has a center peak, not a hole.
Does anyone know if these are test dummies, or real test pilots?
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
The parachute canopy is an "Aeroconical"type, probably from GQ, and has been in use since at least the early 1980's and, as with most "round" canopies, it does have a vent at the apex.
MB mainly use test dummies for the ejection trials, but "live" occupants have been used,
MB mainly use test dummies for the ejection trials, but "live" occupants have been used,
Zero-zero seats (an M-B invention, BTW) have worked this way since at least the 1960s, except BITD they used hemispherical rather conical canopies. I think the bit about the canopy rising while the pilot stays level is a bit of an optical illusion due to camera angle. In the only ejection I've seen (a TF9J at zero altitude and well under 100 knots), the only chute that worked was streaming as the seat and pilot, already separated, were arcing over the top. The pilot was already travelling down-ward as the canopy blossomed. He got one and a half swings in the chute before thumping into the mangroves. He walked out of the swamp as the rescuers arrived. The other pilot, a student, wasn't so lucky. The lanyard that was supposed to initiate parachute deployment after seat separation failed due to a faulty nicopress fitting and he died of cardiac arrest before he hit the mangroves. Autopsy showed no broken bones or serious impact damage, but no circulation at impact, either.
As it happened, the jet didn't run off the end of the runway as expected, instead running off the side into rough coral marle, chewing up the tires, wheels, and hookpoint, but bringing it to a stop safely short of the mangroves.
I was talking to our regulator (CAANZ) about this video last week. There is more behind this story, as there usually is. But, from what I understand, there weren't any further actions taken, which should give some indication.
The instructor pilot in the TF9J incident I mentioned above wasn't so lucky. The base CO made such a fuss that he got himself assigned to the accident board, which was pretty irregular since he was not in the chain of command, the TF9 squadron was not a tenant command, just a TAD detachment, and he was no longer an active aviator, had never been an IP, and never flown the TF9J. He was bent out of shape because this was the third fatality on his watch in the less than a year he'd been CO, and he raked the instructor pilot over the coals for what he considered an unnecessary fatal ejection. The IP reportedly kept his wings, but never had another tactical jet assignment, was passed over for promotion, and got out.
PS: The reason the TF9 squadron was with us was because the bombing range they normally used, up near Eglin, was closed on short notice for some undisclosed reason. Shortly thereafter, the whole world heard of the Son Tay prison raid. Suppose there's a connection?
