Accident at Szeged WGC

This looks very bad. Pilot ok, but the truck driver in critical
condition.

http://picasaweb.google.com/itb.pano...SzegedHungary#

"ppp1" wrote
This looks very bad. Pilot ok, but the truck driver in critical condition.

http://picasaweb.google.com/itb.pano...SzegedHungary#

Accident at Szeged WGC

A glider came in so low that it hit a truck or bus on the road that runs outside the airport fence. The glider then
cart-wheeled into the fence which is wire mesh between massive 10 ft high concrete posts with barbed wire on top.
Everything on the glider was broken - wings and fuselage, except the cockpit.

We later learned that the pilot apparently was not badly injured however the driver of the truck is in serious
condition.

Am 30.07.10 16:46, schrieb R. Schierbeek:
A glider came in so low that it hit a truck or bus on the road that runs
outside the airport fence. The glider then cart-wheeled into the fence
which is wire mesh between massive 10 ft high concrete posts with barbed
wire on top. Everything on the glider was broken - wings and fuselage,
except the cockpit.

We later learned that the pilot apparently was not badly injured however
the driver of the truck is in serious condition.

Note the priorities:

1. The Glider has been broken
2. The Pilot is ok.
3. Oh, yeah, the truck driver. I nearly forgot. He is seriously injured
and will possibly lose an eye.

On Jul 30, 8:37*am, John Smith wrote:

Definitely not fun & games anymore.

At szeged there are beautiful fields for the last few miles short of
the road and barbed wire fence. The only thing separating a landing
just shy of the road in a field and a landing 1 cm over the barbed
wire fence and road is the substantial number of points offered by the
rules for trying to pop over the fence.

We say "pilots will act safely and throw away the contest when safety
intrudes" but time and again experience proves us wrong. Put 400
points 1 cm above a barbed wire fence and pilots go for it.

This is a solved problem. A substantial minimum height for finish,
coupled with very strong penalties for coming in low, means that for
pilots like the one in this accident, racing is over when you're
making the life or death safety decision of stopping in the last field
or popping over the fence.

Alas, IGC rules do not even allow the safe finish. Yes, they allow a
cylinder with minimum altitude, but the penalty for finishing low is a
warning the first time, and 25 points the following times. Compared to
the loss of all speed points for stopping in the last field, this will
do nothing. The US has gradually moved ot a cylinder finish with
substantial penalties for low arrival, which is helping.

To those who have "never heard" of this type of accident, go read the
accident reports. European accident reports are littered with crashed
gliders in the last few km of contest flights, driving into the ground
in the hope of squeaking over the fence. (Kudos to Sailplane and
Gliding for printing them.)

All this is explained in great detail in an article I wrote for
Soaring magazine nearly 10 years ago. Here is a link.

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...20finishes.doc

I apologize for the harsh tone, but it's sad to see utterly
preventible accidents continue, and sadder still that international
rules do not even allow organizers to take the obvious corrective
action. This is not rocket science.

John Cochrane BB

So, we are all focusing on finish rules, etc. Would you still be
focusing on that if the pilot had made a safe, cylinder or line
finish, but flew a low approach to land at the edge of the field to
stop right by his trailer? This accident could have just as easily
been a safe finish followed by a low pattern.

I enjoyed the finish line, and I also like the finish cylinder. Heck,
I like the previous time of the flight too! It is up to us pilots to
be safe in all phases of our flights. You cannot make a rule that
will force this. Any rule that is made will have an edge that will
get tested in a way you never imagined. The new rule for this contest
can still permit the same thing to happen, if Andy's analysis is
correct. Finish at the bottom edge of the cylinder and have just
enough altitude to get to the field. All that happened is the
"finish the task bonus" moved out away from the airfield boundary.

This was a terrible accident that could have been avoided. It didn't
look like the sailplane came through a small gap in any trees, and
from the descriptions, there are lots of fields as you get close to
the airport, so he should have been able to see the truck coming.
Unless he had tunnel vision to the fence and airfield. Ever had
someone cut in front of you for landing, you change your plans, get a
bit low, and get focused only on one thing? You get pretty focused on
your landing area, and other things can go un-noticed. I suspect the
pilot was in this same "focused" mode, and never even saw the vehicles
that were crossing in front of him as he got closer to the airport.

Let's all plan our final glides and approaches with a bit more pad and
all be safe in doing what we love to do. Whether it be entering the
finish cylinder through the side, or just flying a safe pattern to a
safe landing.

Steve Leonard

What about this?

Keep the distance and timing finish line at the airfield (with a
minimum altitude of, say 30 feet in the UK, for go-arounds). Many
contests have a control TP close to the finish to line finishers up.
Just give that control waypoint a suitable minimum altitude below
which the glider increasingly penalised by points, and an absolute
minumum below which it is considered unsafe to try to stretch the
glide to the finish and the glider is scored as uncontrolled for that
point and so gets distance points only for the flight. Gliders that
reach the final control point below the lower minumum will have an
extra disincentive to carry on to the airfield as they will lose (not
gain) distance points by their scoring distance being radiused back
along the last leg from the uncontrolled final waypoint as per normal
scoring practice.

A suitable choice of control point position (as regards distance,
finishing direction and, crucially, a safe landing field) and minimum
turning height (for energy surplus for a safe finish) would ensure
that the fun for the pilot and spectacle for helpers and spectators of
airfield finishes is maintained. The control point position and
minimum height can easily be chosen so as to encourage either go-
around or straight in finishes as desired by the contest organisers.

[My preference would be to encourage fast finishes to a safe low
minimum height and crossing a line and not a cylinder at the
airfield. The logic being that, with the above regime, successfully
finishing gliders will flying at similar (and adequate) speeds and
glide slopes and the dangerous conflicts between gliders final gliding
at different speeds and heights and flying over and under each other
is minimised. Using a line they can spread out laterally without
penalty - with a cylinder everyone aims for the same closest point.
Having a low but sensible minimum altitude is safer than high fast
finishes which tend to lead to gliders flying over and under each
other because of different eyeball judgements about their height.
Most people can make a reasonable estimate of 30 or 50 feet.]

John Galloway

On Jul 30, 7:46*am, "R. Schierbeek" wrote:
"ppp1" wrote

This looks very bad. Pilot ok, but the truck driver in critical condition.

http://picasaweb.google.com/itb.pano...rashSzegedHung...

Accident at Szeged WGC

A glider came in so low that it hit a truck or bus on the road that runs outside the airport fence. The glider then
cart-wheeled into the fence which is wire mesh between massive 10 ft high concrete posts with barbed wire on top.
Everything on the glider was broken - wings and fuselage, except the cockpit.

We later learned that the pilot apparently was not badly injured however the driver of the truck is in serious
condition.

Hauntingly similar to the Hawker collision.

Hauntingly similar to the Hawker collision.

How so?

On Jul 30, 8:51*am, Tony wrote:
Hauntingly similar to the Hawker collision.

How so?

This accident is anything but similar to any accident I ever heard
off...

Ramy