Marian Aldenhövel wrote:
Hi,

Training for wire breaks starts at a high altitude in free flight. The
zooms, simulated break at 60 knots and pushover are repeated many times
until the student performs them instinctively.


Interestingly we don't do it like this where I am learning to fly.

We are taught to plan every launch as featuring a wire break and to
preplan up to what altitudes to land straight, turn back or fly the
pattern as part of the takeoff-check. During training we are to say
these altitudes and actions out loud.

Before soloing we do a minimum of three excercises where the instructor
pulls the knob at some point during the launch. So it's the real thing,
nothing "emergency-like" there. We do not train wire-breaks at altitude.

Still I feel very safe. And I also found pushing over, gaining normal speed
and then attitude the natural thing to do. It helps to have a plan as to
what to do next but up to there it really is instinct. I have not heard
of any of my fellow-students _not_ reacting that way.

it Ciao, MM
It comes down to flying the glider.

Winch launches are normal practice, and recovery from launch failures are part
of our normal training. So apply the normal rules.

We teach / have been taught a simple truth - nothing you do is going to improve
matters before you have a safe flying speed. If there is a launch failure, you
have to retain or regain safe flying speed and attitude first.

It does not matter in what part of the flight regime you are in, if you find
yourself below stall speed, you soon find you are not flying. When close to the
ground this can have unpleasant consequences. So we learn to always have enough
energy to regain a safe speed,attitude and height should a cable fail. This
means no "rocket" launches, but rather a smooth progression into the steep
climb, at a safe speed. If the cable then breaks, it is simply a matter of
smoothly but decisively moving the stick forward (no aerobatic bunting required)
and a little patience till the airspeed recovers. Again, there is no point in
getting ahead of things here, once the glider is flying at a normal attitude and
speed is the time to assess your choices. YOu should have planned what your
alternatives would be before the launch, so this should be a time to confirm and
act on them. But you are flying a normal aircraft in a normal way. The only
thing unusual will be how far you are down the runway, and this is dependant on
how high the failure occurred. If you are really low, you land ahead, there is
lots of runway. If there is lots of runway behind you, you should have lots of
height to make a circuit.

There is one field where I fly, where you have to be careful of energy,
launching uphill, with a heavy two seater on a shortish cable, there is an
uncomfortable part of the launch where you have few safe options. But this is
not a usual winch situation and still a lot safer than trying the same thing
behind a tug...

Bad situations, as always come from a sequence of bad choices, or events, and
you can usually avoid them.

As an example:
From personal experience, it can be somewhat unnerving to find yourself having
to keep the stick forward when there is an awful expanse of brown stuff filling
the canopy.
How did I get there - low wing loading trainer, 10kt on the nose and an over
enthusiastic winch driver had me at the upper end of the safe winch speed window
at 20", so I rotated into the steep climb to control the speed. At 60" going
through the wind gradient now, and the winch driver is still poaring on the
power when the weak link goes.
Training and experience take over even for a low time pilot, and I push over
smoothly, (I will admit to lifting the dust... ) Then it is a case of wait ,
seemingly for ever until the speed is back. Nose is well down at this point, but
you are not worried about the outside at this point - only with flying
percisely, and getting the speed back in the green arc. Then a smooth transition
to normal attitude, pop the brakes and the shortest flight of my career is over.

Should have released when I felt the excess power
Should have accepted overspeed rather than pulling so hard to slow the winch
Should have had better situational awareness and realised I was getting into a
dangerous corner

Lots of "should haves", but the point is that because of having enough speed,
even a cable break at very low height in the steep climb was recoverable.
Despite having less than 20kt on the ASI at the top of the push over, the low G
meant the aircraft was still flying. Of course, coarse control movements will
get you into trouble here, but then they aren't advisable any other time either.


For what it is worth - before we fixed our drum, we had such frequent cable
breaks that my instructors were confident of my ability to handle one - I had 9
real failures before going solo...

These days we have to simulate them.
--
Bruce Greeff
Std Cirrus #57
I'm no-T at the address above.