On 7/11/2012 2:58 PM, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but the NTSB now has a preliminary
synopsis of this accident:

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/br...18X10736&key=1

One interesting aspect of the accident that I think is worthy of
discussion is this statement:

: As the tow plane and glider accelerated down the runway several
: witnesses noticed that the tail dolly remained attached to the
glider.
: The witnesses immediately advised the glider operations dispatcher,
: who in turn made the radio call “abort, abort, abort”.

Feel free to disagree, but I think that a better approach might have
been to tell the pilot exactly what is known:

"Uh, Lark One Two Three, be advised we have a report your tail dolly
is still on."

That gives the pilot the information they might not have, and leaves
the response to their initiative.

Please note that I am not criticizing. I wasn't there, and I don't
have all the facts. But I do think that this is something that is
worthy of discussion and reflection.

I agree: a) it's worthy of discussion & reflection; b) providing "information"
as distinct from "pure commands" is almost surely "more likely useful" to a
pilot (assuming any message is heard/processed).

FWIW, I remember being distinctly surprised the first time I was in ground
vicinity to "an emergency situation" when someone grabbed a radio and (in a
high alarm tone of voice) radioed something or other about the situation. It
wasn't at all clear to me this was a good thing, for two obvious reasons: 1)
there was no imminent emergency/the glider was in controlled flight and
getting farther away from the ground every second; 2) the radio alarm - while
sensibly intentioned - was (to me) more alarming than the situation it was
intended to mitigate (& thus had potential to be a radio equivalent of Joe
Pilot misinterpreting a low-level rudder waggle from a tuggie). I no longer
even remember WHAT the situation was...but I DO remember my alarm at the
nature (not the intent) of the radio call. Happily, all ended well...

IMO/experience, there are few glider "emergencies" (whether launch or landing)
requiring "instant action" from Joe Pilot in order to avert disaster, and few
of those would likely even be visible to a casual ground observer. (The Clem
Bowman situation is the only one which comes immediately to mind, in fact.
What might be others?)


Also, I'm not saying that there isn't ever a situation where an abort
call is the thing to do. A good example of that would be the Clem
Bowman accident at Minden. In that case, the horizontal tailplane fell
off the aircraft right as the towplane was throttling up. In fact,
several people did make radio calls to that effect. Unfortunately, the
calls interfered with each other, and the result was an intelligible
squeal.

A tangential discussion is whether you should even make an advisory
call. I've talked to pilots who have said that they wouldn't even
advise someone that their gear was still retracted on final approach.
The thinking seems to be that the disruption caused by attending to
the gear late in the approach made things more dangerous than the gear-
up landing that would surely otherwise result. Personally, I think I
would generally choose to make that radio call, but would try to do it
in as neutral and informative fashion as possible.

Thanks, Bob K.


"Know one's audience," probably applies insofar as the desirability (or not)
of making an advisory call. That, and timing. I suspect few pilots would be
able to process and safely act upon an advisory call their gear is up if the
call arrives as the flare is entered, regardless of experience. (And yes, I
know it's been successfully done...) Personally, letting Joe PIC deal with the
consequences of an oversight is likely to be my choice, when I consider the
human reality of the time it takes for a ground observer (me!) to become aware
Joe PIC may be about to forget something desirable (e.g. extending the landing
gear), reaching a radio in a timely fashion, formulating a useful
message/delivering same, in sufficient time for Joe PIC to rectify the
situation safely. Each step requires time...

Bob - YMMV - W.