This page has been put together in the interest of accident prevention in
all phases of our sport, and isnot strictly limited to
incidents associated with the flight phase. People learn through experience.
Since it's impossible to experience everything, the hope is to encourage a
dialog amongst pilots, crew and observers to learn from the experience of
others. This is a collection of "Lessons Learned", voluntarily contributed by
1-26 pilots and crew. For a complete list of all aviation related accidents,
visit the NTSB website.
Being a CFIG and SSAI (Soaring
Society of America Instructor), I've also been asked by the 1-26 Association
membership to add some commentary of my own at the end of each of these. This
is more of a reminder of what every glider pilot should already know than
anything else. The Soaring Safety Foundation
is dedicated to reducing the number of accidents in our sport. I'll use this
forum to help pass on any recommendations and or new procedures made by the
SSF.
When we look at most accident reports, we see that it most often an error in judgement
that has caused the accident. In fact, the pilot usually flew the plane quite
well into a situation with tragic results. The bottom line being that our
decision making process and the judement patterns we use are just as important
as the mechanical skills we use to fly the aircraft.
If you, or someone you know has had an incident that we can all learn from,
please contact the Webmaster.
With the permission of those involved, I will gladly post it here to help make
the 1-26 community a safer place.
The following accident occurred at the 2000 1-26 Regional Competition at Caesar
Creek, OH over Labor day. The pilot, Bill
Bently's commentary of the incident follows below.
This is to explain, in part, why there is only one wing on SN470.
The 1-26 Regional Competition at Caesar Creek, OH over Labor day started on the
hottest, most humid day of their summer. While assembling #470 Saturday
morning, the perspiration ran off my hat, between my glasses and the orange
clip-on sunglasses, making my world look like a scene from "The Abyss". Once
out on the lush green runway and away from the blocking trees, a light breeze
made it merely hot.
Being the last to get ready, I was at the front of the grid, so as soon as our
"sniffer" (Bill Vickland) found enough lift to start the task, was off to try
and stay airborne at least until all 9 of the 1-26s got launched. The
conditions were pronounced "weak", so our task was to fly 17 miles west to the
airport at Middletown,OH (between Cincinnati and Dayton), then back past Caesar
Creek to another airport 10 miles East, then home. While waiting for the start
gate to open, I got to look at the bottoms of the other brightly painted yellow
gliders above me in the weak thermals. They weren't really all yellow, but just
looked that way through my orange sunglasses.
Once through the start gate and out on course, the dark bottoms of the clouds
marked weak lift for working my way to the west at about 2500 feet AGL with the
other 1-26s. Approaching Middletown, my route was across a city where all the
streets were tree lined and no open spaces showed, not even a ball diamond or
large swimming pool.
Taking a route south of town which had clouds offering lift with open spaces on
the ground seemed the long, but healthiest choice. This was beginning to feel
like a chess game. The south side of town was bordered by a giant steel mill
with an expansive slag heap which looked landable. I could visualize myself
landing there and rolling into the mouth of a blast furnace.
Further to the south was a prison with a farm inside the large fence, but THAT
trick had already been played by one of our group last year at Elmira.
A little later, while thermalling in rain, I spotted an industrial complex with
a long wide entry road that came off a divided highway; perfect for the
retrieve! When the lift died, I returned to this road and did a 270 degree left
pattern and landed.
After touchdown, I had a long way down a gentile hill to the major road, so
decided to hold the nose up and taxi as close to the intersection as possible.
After rolling a hundred yards or so, I turned to roll over the rounded curb
onto a grass border to park without having to drag the glider.
As I was about to cross the curb at an angle, I heard a sound like a 12 gauge
shotgun going off behind my seat. After stopping, I thought "My God, there must
be a steel post in the road that I didn't see".
Upon exiting the cockpit, I saw a large yellow fire hydrant behind the right
wing. This thing would make a St.Bernard think twice before lifting his leg.
The underside of the right wing had a 2 inch wide strip of metal ripped out
from leading edge to aileron.
How could I miss something like a large yellow hydrant, I wondered, until I
noticed that the tall dried grass by the next field looked yellow through my
orange sunglasses. Sitting in the cockpit while coasting down the road put the
yellow hydrant in front of the "yellow" grass, rendering it invisible to my
weak old eye.
Lesson learned:
-
When you land in a strange site, no matter how long or smooth, stop as soon as
possible and look things over. Our host for the contest, Pat De Naples,
told me of landing in a field and seeing a gate ahead. He held the nose up and
rolled toward the gate until he saw the ditch. He said the retrieve crew easily
found him because they could see the tail of his 1-26 sticking out of the field
at a 45 degree angle.
-
I will never fly over a town that paints their fire hydrants yellow while
wearing orange tinted sunglasses.
-
When going for a telephone, write down every detail (street names,
numbers, landmarks) and don't count on the "locals" helping you. The only
people home in the development near my landing site just got off the last
sampan from Saigon, and I couldn't understand more than 3 words they said.
Bill Bently
This is another example of why roads shouldn't be used for a runway if at all
possible. A large field is preferable and offers many more options to the
pilot. However, in this case, it sounds as though the road was Bill's best
option. The problem occured after touch down, when rather than stopping, the
decision was made to taxi the aircraft down the road. A few minutes of ground
handling could have prevented what will most likely turn out to be an expensive
repair. Luckily, no one was injured in this incident and the ship sounds
repairable.
My thanks to Bill for sharing this with the membership.
Members of our Email List are encouraged to
comment on this incident.
The following accident occurred at 1335, September 10, 2000. The flight
originated in Bishop, CA and terminated near to Big Pine CA. The conditions
were CAVU South wind 10-15 mph. The pilot, George
Powell is an experienced glider pilot and a retired Naval
Aviator with approxomately 2700 hours in gliders and 2000 hours in powered
aircraft. George's commentary of the incident follows below.
|
Just as I was about to land on a perfectly straight and landable road leading
to the Big Pine, California cemetery, a pickup truck suddenly pulled out onto
the road in front of me and stopped. There wasn’t enough road left to land in
back of the truck without hitting it, or in front of the truck without hitting
the cemetery gate which was closed.
I diverted ninety degrees to starboard, hoping to land on a short road which
led to a recycling center. Unfortunately, by the time I completed a wingover
and lined up, there wasn’t enough road remaining in front of me to land safely.
Had I landed on what was left of the road, I would have shot like a missile
through a narrow gate into the recycling center, ripped off both wings, and
smashed into a steel dumpster.
A 12 foot high wire mesh fence surrounded the recycling center and was coming
up fast... Having run out of ideas, I pulled up sharply, narrowly missed the
fence, stalled, hit the ground with the right wing, slammed nose first into the
ground, and slid backwards to a sudden stop.
My injuries were a broken right foot (fractured talus), minor cuts and a
severely bruised ego. Hawkeye’s nose was crushed all the way to the rudder
pedals. The right wing was completely severed at the spoiler box. The two
sections of wing were being held together only by the aileron push rod.
God Bless the Schweizer brothers for designing a strong steel cage around the
cockpit. I don’t think I would have survived that impact in a glass bird.
Lesson learned:
-
Roads were built for use by vehicles, not aircraft. If there are
landable fields available (which there were earlier in the flight), and you
have to choose between a field and a road, land in the open field. This is
especially true near civilization where vehicles may unexpectedly appear. Don't
worry about the ease or difficulty of the retrieve. You and your crew can work
out those details later. (If necessary, after the retrieve buy them steak and
Dom Perignon instead of the usual hot dogs and beer :-).
-
Use lots of cushions and make sure your seat belt and shoulder harnesses are
cinched up tight before every landing. Fortunately, I was sitting on
two 4” thick foam cushions and had a third cushion stuck between my parachute
and the seat back. I believe that the thick cushions and snug harnesses saved
me from sustaining serious back injuries.
If anyone out there has an extra right wing for a 1-26A lying about, please let
me know.
Happy Landings!
George
|
George gives plenty of good advice. Roads should never be your first option for
an off field landing if there are landable fields nearby. There are many
hazards associated with landing on roads. Roads are typically lined with many
stationary obstacles, ranging from power lines to mailboxes and fences
(everybody knows about road signs). However most of us don't think about those
moveable obstacles.
When we fly at our home airport, part of every landing checklist (The use of
appropriate checklists are required by the FAA in every glider rating Practical
Test Standard and encouraged by the SSF.
Do you have one? Do you use it?) is to look out for traffic and obstacles. We
get used to seeing gliders and tow planes in the pattern as well as on the
ground. However, in the heat of the moment, landing in an unfamiliar area,
these items take on even greater importance since, when you get low, your
options become severely limited. Be extra vigilant in scanning for any
obstructions. If you're flying in a contest, it's entirely possible that some
other glider pilot maybe in the area looking for a good place to land as well
(after all, you got low didn't you?). Use every queue you can and help each
other out.
My thanks to George for sharing this with the membership.
Members of our Email List are encouraged to
comment on this incident.
The following accident occurred while trailering to the 2000 1-26 Championships.
The pilot, Bob Hurni is an experienced
glider pilot and has attended many 1-26 Championships. Bob's commentary of the
incident follows below.
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