On Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 8:45:07 AM UTC-7, Nick Kennedy wrote:
A couple of observations from the cheap seats:
It sure looks like to me over the years there have been way too many Shempp Hirth Open class gliders going in; now with a latest rash of two seat motor equipped ships losing control and coming apart in the air for no obvious reason.
I have NO faith in the NTSB getting to the bottom of any of this. AFAIK the Nephi Arcus fuselage is still in the forest up by Monroe Peak Ut. I thought a loss of control surfaces was a major red flag and cause for a real investigation. Kinda hard to do a investigation when the fuselage after 3 months is still in the woods.
Concerning the Glider Bob Saunders Stemme NTSB investigation and final report,I found to be shallow and half assed at best. I never went to the crash sight, I wish I had now, to look at it with my own eyes to see what really happened. See where the engine switch's were and the engine controls etc etc.
Jonathan stated he knows of 7,7!! Nimbus 4's that have had the wings come off in flight, Holy S*%#t that's a lot!
These gliders we fly are built and stressed tested to take huge loads and most of the time do quite well; why are some coming apart? Design defects? FOD? Poor Maintenance, incorrect assembly, poor piloting skills? All of the above?
Or are all these accidents just the actual statistical odds catching up to us?
I wonder as several of these ships have obviously had control failures. And that is a tough nut to swallow. If I thought there was any history of my LS3a failing me I would not fly it, period. But people continue to fly those 2 place Shempp Hirth ships with and without motors, god bless them, they are braver than me! But this point I would not climb in one, but that's just me, there I said it. Something is obviously screwed up in those planes..
Keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up.

Just wanted to say, in almost 1700 hours of glider time, I have about 400 hours in s single seat N4 and about 100 in two different N4D's, one motor one pure sailplane. The hours in these long wingers are the most pleasant of my soaring career, especially the two place nimbus 4D. These aircraft are not easy to fly, but they fly magnificently! Have never flown 21 or 23 meters, but the 26.5 meter birds can efficiently dolphin fly for hundreds of kilometers, something you just can't do in a std, 15m or 18m bird. Plus they are graceful and beautiful, but a bit of inattention can leave dwindling options. They are like dating a super model, I imagine.