Just one more footnote to this sad event, I was doing the weighing for the contest and the day before the accident when weighing the ship involved the pilot asked me what the tail and fuselage weights were. I asked him why he wanted them. His response was that he was not sure where his CG was. I informed that the weights I had were not usable as the glider was not set at the appropriate angle for CG calculation. Not sure he understood what I was telling him. I did not give him, or anybody else during the contest, the weights for the main and tail as the only weight that was important to the contest was the total weight.





On Monday, January 13, 2014 9:00:40 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Some things about this accident just don't add up.



What's with unintentional spin entries while thermaling? This pilot reported one earlier in the contest, had apparently had continuing problems with it, and of course it was what led to the accident.



I have about 1,000 hours in my ASW 27. Unintentional spin entries = 0. Unintentional stalls = 0. I keep my CG at 85% back. Even wild horsing around on the controls during normal contest thermaling -- especially at Ephrata where you're thermaling fast and tight -- doesn't produce a spin entry. Was there something mis rigged with this glider, or CG out of whack? We may never know, but many unintentional spin entries is very, very unusual in properly rigged and CG ASW gliders.



What's the business about main pins? What did main pins even remotely have to do with this accident? The complaint references something about main pins rusting and being replaced. WTF? OK, I've seen some surface rust on some main pins, but nothing that remotely comes close to a structural issue. Is there an allegation the pins came out on their own?



Without rehashing things, these seem like two potential maintenance/inspection issues that Schleicher owners ought to be aware of.



John Cochrane