Erik,

I think you are conflating two incidents. I was "there" for both of them. No, I'm not a jinx. Back in those days I spent every day, all day, at the field, so whatever happened, I was there.

The first incident: NW ridge was predicted, but the wind was calm. I was helping the Pilatus pilot to bring the glider from one end of the field to the other. We untied the glider, and I had just connected a rope to the bumper of my car, and he connected it to the CG hook on the glider. Well, the predicted NW wind came all at once...a strong gust...the glider lifted off....held at the CG hook by the rope and the car, it did a sort of mini winch launch...

It got maybe 10' high and then settled back down on its wing tip...fair amount of damage, but repaired.

Second incident...Well I wasn't right there...but close.

I was the first tow of the day. Again predicted to be a ridge day, but fairly calm winds so far. The Pilatus was second on the grid for take off. After I towed to the ridge, a few minutes later, I called the tow pilot on the radio...a pilot-rep for those on the ground, to tell him the ridge was working and the thermals were strong.

The tow pilot's response to my radio call was kind of odd. He said something like," Errr, ahhhh, errrr, hey I'll get back to you!"

I thought, "OK whatever"

What I didn't know at the time was that the tow pilot was on final approach, and watched the (unattended) Pilatus rise off the ground and do a 1/2 flip, right in front of him!....The tow pilot didn't want to ruin my fun for the day, so he didn't say what happened, and I didn't find out until I landed some hours later...Glider was a "total"...

That incident resulted in a new club rule, that all gliders must either be tied to the ground, or have the spoilers held open while being moved on the ground.

We also installed a bunch of nose tie down ropes along the grid area.

Funny thing about that Pilatus...On aero tow, during ground roll and take off, you HAD to hold full forward stick....if you didn't hold it to the stop, the glider would take off and continue to climb, and then full forward stick would be useless...it would just keep climbing....You had to hold the stick forward, and do the ground roll in a nose down attitude...and it took off in that nose down attitude too....I guess the wings are rigged with a high angle?

Other wise really nice glider.


Cookie






Our poor Pilatus was knocked around a couple of times - nothing serious - until one day when she was being towed out to the launch line during a strong ridge day with a single wing walker. Suddenly the Pilatus was executing beautiful Immelman in at about 20 feet AGL. Unfortunately, the maneuver lacked the requisite 180 roll in the second half, and the aircraft ended up upside down with a busted wing and a broken "back".

P3