On 7/25/2020 1:17 PM, John Carlyle wrote:
Regarding un-commanded upsets, I’m surprised only two people have so far
written to say they have experienced them. Flying out of Mifflin, I’ve had
about ten 80+ degree rolls over the last 10 years. They were all on strong
(30 kt) ridge days with a bit of wave about, mainly in mid-May, but also in
mid-October...

OK, I'll chime in here with some observations and thoughts...most of my stick
time gained in/above CO's Rocky Mountains out of Boulder.

Uncommanded rolls - my largest excursion was in rotor about halfway in from
the Front Range (CO) to the continental divide, easily estimated (from
instrument screws relative to the horizon) at 45-degrees, and counteracted by
hard (full?) opposite stick along with "a sustained (definitely!) full-rudder
stomp" by way of encouraging the down-swinging tip to reverse its motion. That
particular instance "got my attention" simply because: 1) it took a finite
amount of time to reach max-roll condition; and 2) I'd never rolled a plane
and had no desire to just then, despite thousands of feet of ground clearance.
15 meter 1st-generation glass.

Uncommanded pitch excursions - a tougher call in terms of "largest" simply
because - for most glider pilots - any "serious view of the ground" through
the forward canopy almost certainly feels like "going straight down, a claim
supported by ~2k hours in large-deflection-only flapped ships (no landing
spoilers) and plenty of "written stuff" seen in "Soaring" mag from pilots new
to 'em (particularly from "the Dick Schreder/HP-series" era. MY HP-14 had a
descent angle of an estimated 45-degrees along with an appropriately steep
nose-down angle in even the slightest headwind. I can't recall ever getting
uncommandedly pitched down to a similar degree, and the V-tailed HP was
peculiarly prone to pitching (generally smoothly) nose-down in the presence of
strong thermals.

Most violent air - my 1st microburst encounter. Seriously frightening/ugly!
Prolly a 50:50 crash/no-crash situation were I Tom Hanks in the movie
Groundhog Day. Duration was from ~2k'agl to ~3'agl, most of the time with me
unable to continuously focus my eyes on anything before the next
air-induced-jolt defocused things. Uncertain whether I was going to
overshoot/undershoot a 3,000' long field until on v-e-r-y short final. Had
actual diffyoogulty *locating* the field due to violence-induced focusing
impairment. The whole dismal affair was sufficiently stressful/lengthy that a
corner of my brain wanted the stress to "just end" *while* it was
occurring...closest I ever came to resignation to an unwanted fate.

Only once did I ever put myself in a position where (briefly - but Seriously
Alarmingly!) the very real possibility of hitting a ridge seemed
"not-vanishingly small." (Kids, definitely not recommended!) Caused by
"prematurely-circling" toward a ridge in sinking air that I'd presumed was
going to be rising. Seriously Stupid, all around.

Bob W.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com