A careful read of the Minden accident report will reveal what two very
experinced pilots did. The owner P1 was a famous glider pilot, and P2 was a
WW II trained Naval Aviator, also famous. Eyewitness reports (in the NTSB
report) stated that the rotation had stopped, the glider nosed down, then
the wings bent up to about 45 deg, then failed. The spoilers were found
actuated. The wings broke just outboard of the spoiler. The report refers to
an interconnction between the flaps and the spoiler, full spoiler also
produces full flap. The report also states time for the glider to accelerate
to Vne and Vd, indicating quite rapid acceration.

Further in the report it is indicated that the N4DM was certified by JAR
with exceptions for stall/spin behavior.

The implication is that the pilot(s) stopped the yaw, the glider dropped
it's nose and started accelerating as expected, and then at or above Vd,
spoilers were actuated, and the wings broke. Neither pilot got out.

The Spanish accident reports notes that the spoilers were found in the
locked position.

So, in summary, one pilot pulled the stick and broke the aircraft, and one
pilot pulled the spoilers and broke the aircraft. Faced with going through
Vd and breaking the aircraft, or trying to recover and breaking the
aircraft--maybe the best chioce is to jump while it's still intact?

--
Hartley Falbaum



"Robert William" wrote in message
...
At 02:06 24 June 2005, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 16:34:41 -0500, Bob Johnson
wrote:

Frankly spoken, pulling the stick back hard enough
to break off the
wings shows that the pilot was lacking the most basic
skills to fly
that bird.


well, possibly, but having got to the position where
you could either go through Vd or pull back what would
YOU do?