I think the best way to do this isn't mirrors or safety pins
or PCCs or bits of string or feel or training or flashlights....
I prefer a big ass port (or two) that lets you look directly at
the entire connection from all sides.
If the designer made an ity-bity port, and you have to rely
on a PCC because you can't see the dang connection close up,
then that's just a crappy design. If the fuse is really
so flimsy the port has to be 5 inches wide instead of 8 or 9 inches,
and it can't be right near the connection, then the designer needs
to go to the drawing board.
The Pegasus elevator connection is out in the breeze, and real easy to
visually inspect. If anyone ever failed a PCC of that elevator
connection, I'd have to recommend they do the connection inspection
next time with eyes open, perhaps with their bifocals on, during
daylight hours.
I think the (over)emphasis on a PCC is bunk. The connection
inspection is the key. If I'm ever in a situation
where a PCC discovers something, I'll either not fly that glider
again (the design doesn't allow good enough direct connection
inspections) or I'll not fly ANY gliders (since I'm too stupid
or too hurried to look right at a connection and determine if it's
connected).
The exception to this is something like the bellcrank failure that
happened last year to a dive brake during a PCC. No connection
inspection is going to find that. But one wonders if the
tens of thousands of PCCs CAUSED the failure itself, by wearing
out the bellcrank faster...
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Mark J. Boyd
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