Vermont Fatalities Today

Three people were killed in the crash of a 2-32 today.

Our thoughts are with their families, spouses and children, and with their friends and anyone who knew them from the gliding community. I think we all get a heavy heart when we hear of tragic news like this.

Safe soaring,

Chris Schrader

On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 10:24:58 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Three people were killed in the crash of a 2-32 today.

I find I always want to know more details whenever I hear of an accident that took the life of a fellow pilot. There is a curious morbid fascination, but more importantly, the ability to study the details and learn from it, hopefully to avoid repeating it. My condolences to the families involved. It's always hard to loose a loved one.

On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 9:24:58 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Three people were killed in the crash of a 2-32 today.

https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/ne...ash/1405919863

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/n...217558990.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...eople-on-board

On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 11:24:21 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 9:24:58 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Three people were killed in the crash of a 2-32 today.

https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/ne...ash/1405919863

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/n...217558990.html

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...eople-on-board

Sterling Mountain is 3600 ft high, located 11 km or 7 miles NW 300 deg. from Morrisville-Stowe Airport (KMVL or MVL) at 750 ft.
Wind at the Airport KMVL was reported from the South 10-12 mph, wind 3000 ft higher around Sterling Mountain could be twice as much as reported at the airport.
date
29 time 12:54 S 12 mph 10.00 Fair CLR 86 73
29 time 11:54 S 10 mph 10.00 Fair CLR 84 72

Yes, sad day indeed.

Three souls lost. Truly sad and my heartfelt condolences to the families and everyone else impacted.

I do agree with John Foster about wanting to know the why's and how's of any accident to learn what I can and to try to prevent it from happening to myself or others. The NTSB will investigate and report. At my club's monthly membership meeting we used to have a "safety moment" where we read an NTSB accident description and ask the question "what do you think was the cause?". There are no wrong answers, we just wanted to get people to stop and think a bit. We should start that program up again. For 2018 thus far I have 17 glider accidents (6 fatal) to choose from. Far too many.

- John OHM Ω

So sad.Â* To date this year, I have lost two friends and two
acquaintances in glider crashes.Â* This is four too many...

On 8/30/2018 7:34 AM, OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Three souls lost. Truly sad and my heartfelt condolences to the families and everyone else impacted.

I do agree with John Foster about wanting to know the why's and how's of any accident to learn what I can and to try to prevent it from happening to myself or others. The NTSB will investigate and report. At my club's monthly membership meeting we used to have a "safety moment" where we read an NTSB accident description and ask the question "what do you think was the cause?". There are no wrong answers, we just wanted to get people to stop and think a bit. We should start that program up again. For 2018 thus far I have 17 glider accidents (6 fatal) to choose from. Far too many.

- John OHM Ω

--
Dan, 5J

On Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 12:24:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
Three people were killed in the crash of a 2-32 today.

This is an especially sad situation. The pilot was Don Post, the owner of Stowe Soaring, was a good friend to all of the glider pilots flying out of Morrisville Stowe airport. For the last 10 years Don had been the backbone of the soaring movement at MVL.

We of course, also want to remember all the lost souls and their family members as well.

For those of you who fly 2-32s who were not checked out in them by a pilot as competent as Roy McMaster, who checked me out in 1967, it is important to remember that the 2-32 can be an especially lethal sailplane to fly that has often ended up killing the pilot, and on some occasions the passengers in the rear seat as well!

A crucial factor is the laminar flow NACA airfoils that were used, that results in most stalls falling into a spin immediately. It is especially important to fly patterns well above the stall speed, at least 70 mph, and if you plan to use full dive brakes to fly the pattern at 80 mph, never pulling full dive brakes below about 60 mph as at this airspeed attempting to recover from a rapid descent results in the tail slamming down hard: this fact can be discovered by simply looking at the last bulkhead in the tail of most 2-32s, that has either been replaced or doubled over.

As a former FBO who owned five 2-32s over a 16 year period, at the 1971 SSA convention I asked Bernie Carris, the test pilot at Schweitzer, why were there so many 2-32 spin ins. What he then told the group attending the FBO meeting that I believe was published in Soaring Magazine was that the 2-32 had a peculiar spin characteristic: after entering a fully developed spin, that might take more than one turn to get to, the 2-32 can then take up to two turns to recover, and if a recovery is not held for two turns, upon restarting it will take two more turns to recover. Of course, at low altitude, with typical spin entries starting with the ship appearing to roll over onto its back, there may not be enough time to even recover the spin.

As a former FBO whose knowledge of these peculiar flight characteristics haunts me to this day, it was not my mission in life to expound on these sorts of issues after leaving the business 36 years ago. One of the real problems that the SSA and the FAA has today, is the fact that the old timers like myself, who are aware of the Achilles tendons that some gliders posses, do not have the time to go around pointing out the hidden dangers in the sport including the hidden dangers that only become obvious when you are also running a shop that repairs the sailplanes you sell, which in the 70s included Blanik L-13s, that had a pair of Achilles tendons that kept on bringing back to us ships that CFIGs were flying in which they landed with flaps against our advice and when low, instead of pushing the dive brakes off, pushed the flaps, off, a mistake you can make in any flapped sailplane by the way, but seemed to be a bigger problem in Blaniks than others because of the close proximity of the flap and dive brake handles. These sorts of issues, like the fact that around 30% of the ASH-26e owners on their first flights thought the brakes were locked when they were not, is just another example of this sort of human interface problem that some gliders have that repeat regularly or on first flights do not get properly publicized, one of the most common accidents that often ends up in fatalities being the canopy flopping on take off, which after another triple fatality in a 2-32 accident Schweitzer determined did not prevent a glider pilot from controlling the glider while ignoring the canopy completely and yet there is a video on the web showing how to fly a 1-34 while holding the canopy with one hand and flying with the other, and by the way, the gliders that end up crashing with pilots attempting to close their canopies instead of flying them, turn out to include other two seaters as well.


Stephen Fried

Bernie Carris checked me out in the 32 and I don’t recall it being the monster portrayed on this thread. It was bit of a ‘truck’, but I enjoyed flying it, giving rides in it.
And I bet Don Post, who I do not know , was an experience pilot. What ever the cause, I’m reminded of a great article in Soaring on the subject of cascading events leading to an accident, and how important for the pilot to recognize and stop the progression. The writer was also a Doctor who has written several safety related articles. Would someone find and post a link. I would like to read it again.
This may have nothing to do with this accident, I am sadden and sorry to all involved, the families.
R