Saved by a steep slope?

[Bruce Hoult]

The New Zealand press is reporting an unusual crash. They say the glider suffered catastrophic wing failure (most unusual in itself!), fell out of control 1500 ft onto the steep side of a mountain, and the two occupants escaped the crash without serious injury.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100272329/lucky-escape-from-glider-crash-south-of-blenheim

p.s. it drives me crazy when the press report "about 457 metres", an extraordinarily precise number, when clearly someone estimated "1500 feet" to an accuracy of possibly not more than 500 feet. Perhaps if US-based organisations report on this crash they will say "about 1499.34 feet" :-) :-)

[Kiwi User]

On Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:33:58 -0800, Bruce Hoult wrote:

> The New Zealand press is reporting an unusual crash. They say the glider
> suffered catastrophic wing failure (most unusual in itself!), fell out
> of control 1500 ft onto the steep side of a mountain, and the two
> occupants escaped the crash without serious injury.
>
> https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100272329/lucky-escape-from-glider-
crash-south-of-blenheim
>
> p.s. it drives me crazy when the press report "about 457 metres", an
> extraordinarily precise number, when clearly someone estimated "1500
> feet" to an accuracy of possibly not more than 500 feet. Perhaps if
> US-based organisations report on this crash they will say "about 1499.34
> feet" :-) :-)

Any idea what the motor glider was?

It looks a bit like an SF-25 to me, but are there any in NZ?


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie
| dot org

[Ross[_3_]]

There is a Stemme S10 based at Blenheim, and possibly one of the few options around that might have a ballistic parachute.
Just guessing though.

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

Pretty lucky for them, but I can believe the story.
Late 70's, had a HS friend in the military, he was doing a routine parajump and had a streamer. He hit near the top of an earthen dam and rolled down.
Result......broken ankle and a medical discharge. Kinda hard to do your "job" when the landing/running gear is compromised.
If he had hit flat ground, more than likely dead.

Sucks to lose an airframe, great the two of them basically walked away...... it was a, "not your time yet, make every day count" sorta thing.

[[email protected]]

I don't think there ever was a SF-25 with a ballistic recovery parachute, but there is a microlight version, the SF-40 Mini-Falke, which has one. Not really a motor glider any more, though.

Example: https://www.ulforum.de/ultraleicht/flugzeugmarkt/1209_verkaufe-ul-falke-sf-40.html

> Any idea what the motor glider was?
>
> It looks a bit like an SF-25 to me, but are there any in NZ?
> --
> Martin | martin at
> Gregorie | gregorie
> | dot org