On Sep 6, 6:50*pm, CindyB wrote:
Folks:

You will not yet find this on any accident/incident reports.
There were no fatalities.

*A pilot called me to relay this story.
The SZD-50-3 Puchacsz was bought used from Europe and
imported to the US with ~1900 hours. The glider was given a US
airworthiness inspection, and licensed by an FAA
inspector last week Thursday or so. *It went into legal service
before the weekend.

On Saturday, following only a few flights, the pilot felt some
restriction in rudder movement, and asked the front seat passenger
to adjust the length of rudder stirrups for more freedom of movement.
The passenger complied, and free movement was "restored."

The flight continued in nice lift, and some mild maneuvers
for perhaps twenty five more minutes prior to landing.
As the glider came to a halt, the ground personnel roared up to the
cockpit
and informed the pilot that there was no rudder on the machine.
All parties were amazed.

A search by air for the missing rudder were fruitless.
I have not seen the Puchacsz.
I do not have pictures or links to any photos.
I cannot comment on the mode of departure.
I do not know if the cables or swedges and thimbles are on
the machine, nor if the vertical hinges are in place on
the rear face of the vertical fin.

I do know there was a mandatory service item to replace the
rudder stop elastic nut on the bottom bolt with a castelated nut
and safety key. *I cannot say if this was done, found, gone or
otherwise on the machine in question.

I do know that you should look at the attachments of
controls and moving parts fully and carefully on each
pre-flight inspection. *Things change and move over time.

The pilot in this case asked me to put the information out
to the soaring community, PRIOR to any formal incident
investigation, to prevent any possible similar occurrence.

Cindy Brickner
Southern Californiawww.caracole-soaring.com

Just for your information, before you so blatantly post such rude and
one sided statements, you should know that this pilot in particular
(whose identity is no secret to me) has a track record of severe
damage and abuse to not only this new ship that came from Europe, but
also to many other ships owned by the club as well. He is subject to
suspension from the club.
As a primary witness of that day, I saw that he repeatedly and
severely over-rotated the glider during take-off, and was sure to
smash the tail to the asphalt concrete after every landing. He was
instructed numerous times to fix this behavior. And before hand there
was even a 2 HOUR training session, which should have clearly let any
pilot there know how you should and should not handle this new glider.
He is known in our club for his poor glider handling skills, prior
damage to our Grob-103 (twice), severe tail damage to our Junior, and
at this point his carelessness that has led to his denial of being
such an inadequate pilot in the first place.
He is aspiring to become a glider instructor and to this I must say,
GOOD LUCK!
All the Puchacz AD's were completed by authorized shops in Europe.
There is an FAA investigation in process. We are following all and any
rules, so any statement made to the contrary, is extremely incorrect.
But what I have to say in accordance to this post, is that it was
immature and premature to have posted this at all. Ed S. is no saint
in the soaring community and if that is your perception on the man
after his phone call to "alert" the community and "save the Puchacz's
and their users", I can honestly say that you are all VERY mistaken.
Best Regards, Blue Skies and Happy Soaring to all