On 10/21/2015 4:02 AM, Tango Whisky wrote:
Am Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2015 18:48:11 UTC+2 schrieb Ramy:
... but even more kudos for the other pilot for thinking outside the box
and turning downwind and fly cross country, significantly increasing his
chances to find drier air or a gap further downwind.

Ramy

Why would that be out-of-the-box thinking?! It's pretty much plan A in
moist wave conditions.

Bert Ventus cM TW


When I first began pondering wave flying - and dambetcha, the possibilities of
getting trapped on top or enveloped in IMC and having to "do something about
it" thoroughly got my attention! - my Plan A became "waiting until I was
*forced* (e.g. by approaching sunset) to descend," my Plan B was "retreat
downwind until "some better option appeared" (and *screw* retrieve
inconvenience), while Plan C was bail out. This mental conversation occurred
well before obtaining my license or going XC.

Eventually - thanks to flying large-deflection-landing-flap-equipped gliders
and moving to an area where "really wet waves" were pretty much a rarity, I
inserted - if I was absolutely certain clear air between peak-tops and cloud
bases existed - a Plan A.5) IMC descent through the clouds (convenience - woo
hoo!).

Fortunately, other than sometimes playing the waiting game while aloft
(usually due to gnarly pattern/lower-down conditions), I never really had to
seriously consider implementing any of the other options.

My take on the "need for this bailout" was it was likely due to a form of
"get-home-itis" (i.e. diving for a closing hole) leading to IMC below
peaktops. Once there, the decision to abandon the plane was the right one, I
think.

By way of personal analysis of a traumatic situation that easily could have
ended fatally, even had there not simultaneously been aloft another glider
with whom he theoretically might have been able to discuss the situation(who,
it's my understanding, began a descent for home before reconsidering the
rapidly closing wave window, climbed back aloft and used
altitude/time/distance to implement my Plan B), by committing to the "window
or nothing else" Chris G. forfeited whatever options the time-aloft option
alone may have ultimately brought him....and I realize it was already late-ish
in the day.

So, yes, hindsight suggests to me better options & decisions were still on the
table when he implemented the decision chain that save for deciding to bail
out could have ended fatally...but thoughtful pilots will also recognize he
DID "break the chain." There but for the grace of God...?

Bob W.