Check your rudder cables!

We just had another rudder cable failure at the junction with the pedal S tube. Luckily this time it happened in a two seater and resulted in lost of rudder control only for the back seat PIC. Fortunately the front seat passenger was also a licensed pilot and could continue flying the glider, but not before they momentarily considered bailout until they realized the front seat still had full control.
A similar incident in a single seater last year resulted in a bailout. Due to the pedal spring, a cable failure may result in a full opposite rudder and unrecoverable spin/spiral.
It will be a good idea to inspect this area often, and even adjust the rudder pedal back and forth to expose and inspect more cable. At least in some models there should be a plastic sleeve to protect the cable there.

Ramy

At 05:51 19 October 2013, Ramy wrote:
We just had another rudder cable failure at the junction with the pedal S
t=
ube. Luckily this time it happened in a two seater and resulted in lost
of
=
rudder control only for the back seat PIC. Fortunately the front seat
passe=
nger was also a licensed pilot and could continue flying the glider, but
no=
t before they momentarily considered bailout until they realized the
front
=
seat still had full control. =20
A similar incident in a single seater last year resulted in a bailout.
Due
=
to the pedal spring, a cable failure may result in a full opposite rudder
a=
nd unrecoverable spin/spiral.=20
It will be a good idea to inspect this area often, and even adjust the
rudd=
er pedal back and forth to expose and inspect more cable. At least in
some
=

Type of glider please?
models there should be a plastic sleeve to protect the cable there.=20

Ramy

Schleicher. But most gliders nowadays using the same rudder pedal adjustment mechanism using S tube. My 27 has plastic cover where the cable enters the S tube.

Ramy

I don't understand? Are the front pedals not connected to the back ones and
the back ones connected to the rudder? Which model of Schleicher glider
please.

At 05:51 19 October 2013, Ramy wrote:
We just had another rudder cable failure at the junction with the pedal S
t=
ube. Luckily this time it happened in a two seater and resulted in lost
of
=
rudder control only for the back seat PIC. Fortunately the front seat
passe=
nger was also a licensed pilot and could continue flying the glider, but
no=
t before they momentarily considered bailout until they realized the
front
=
seat still had full control. =20
A similar incident in a single seater last year resulted in a bailout.
Due
=
to the pedal spring, a cable failure may result in a full opposite rudder
a=
nd unrecoverable spin/spiral.=20
It will be a good idea to inspect this area often, and even adjust the
rudd=
er pedal back and forth to expose and inspect more cable. At least in
some
=
models there should be a plastic sleeve to protect the cable there.=20

Ramy

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...l?dsId=3402451

says ASH-25.

BTW: Most glassfibre Schleichers have a mandatory 3000-hour life on rudder
cables (and some others), that is taken up in the 3000-hour inspection
program. I find that this gets overlooked sometimes by owners
unintentionally, not insinuating that is what happened here.

Occasional inspection of rudder cables is not a bad idea. Some decades ago, I severed my rudder cable at a point where it passed along the cockpit in a tube in the sidewall with an errant screw when installing a boom mike. When the repair shop pulled out the cable, they found almost identical damage a few feet back in the fuselage caused by the factory! I had been flying it for over a year with just a couple of strands left.

Mike