Blue Ridge Crash

Can anyone from VA confirm what may have happened to Dr. Schneller,
more than just a "rope break".

www2.wsls.com/news/2011/apr/11/virginia-tech-professor-killed-craig-
county-glider-ar-964634/

Condolenses and best wishes to all Meir's family and friends.

Originally Posted by Karen

Can anyone from VA confirm what may have happened to Dr. Schneller,
more than just a "rope break".

www2.wsls.com/news/2011/apr/11/virginia-tech-professor-killed-craig-
county-glider-ar-964634/

Condolenses and best wishes to all Meir's family and friends.

Always sad to hear of such incidents, we are reading about too many glider fatalities these days.

Condolences to the family.

Walt

On Apr 11, 8:19*pm, Karen wrote:
Can anyone from VA confirm what may have happened to Dr. Schneller,
more than just a "rope break".



Story I got was that the L-33 took off with spoilers open. Glider was
wallowing on tow .. rolling left and right.....Rope broke.... glider
nose up.....and glider did stall / spin from about 400'.

Some say he ws "signalling" for more airspeed, some say just
wallowing.

L-33 has very powerful spoilers....



Cookie

Originally Posted by

On Apr 11, 8:19*pm, Karen wrote:
Can anyone from VA confirm what may have happened to Dr. Schneller,
more than just a "rope break".



Story I got was that the L-33 took off with spoilers open. Glider was
wallowing on tow .. rolling left and right.....Rope broke.... glider
nose up.....and glider did stall / spin from about 400'.

Some say he ws "signalling" for more airspeed, some say just
wallowing.

L-33 has very powerful spoilers....



Cookie

Wow Cookie, an avoidable accident for sure. Still it is incumbent upon all of us to help reduce or eliminate these situations. When I am the wing runner, unless a pilot tells me he is taking off with partial spoilers I try to insure that they are closed and that the tail dolly is off among other things. We see this all too often. While it is ultimately the pilot's error, the tow pilot might have caught this in his mirror before take off, the wing runner might have noted them open. All involved have a duty to call things to a halt when something isn't right. Not pointing the finger at anyone but the more sets of eyes the better. It will be impossible to completely eliminate all potential problems but we must all do what we can to reduce them. Checklist anyone? Condolences to the family and friends.

Walt

Walt