On Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:55:19 PM UTC-7, Papa3 wrote:
There are a bunch of troubling things in this report. I have a lot of ground launch (auto tow) time, but it's a bit dated, so maybe I've forgotten. IIRC, our target speeds were on the order of 50MPH or 55MPH in zero wind, not 70. This was with a Grob and 2-33, but I can't imagine that 70 is right. The flight profile also sounds odd, as if the pilot was hoping to do an extreme pull-up after building up rather than the usual transition from initial climb to the 45 degrees or so of stage 2 climb. Adding up these two, it seems easy to see how the rope may have been overstressed.



Finally, it's hard to tell, but it sounds like this wasn't a failed recovery from an extreme nose up low altitude rope break. From the text, it appears that it may have been a stall-spin after the initial recovery - maybe trying to perform a full 180 from low altitude? At least, that's how I read it.



Anyone else getting the same picture?



P3



On Thursday, June 20, 2013 7:33:12 PM UTC-4, Bill D wrote:

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 3:25:18 PM UTC-6, JohnDeRosa wrote:



Sad event.















The most telling statement seems to be the very last line of the report.