boulder mid-air

The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

On Feb 7, 11:27*am, None wrote:
The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

maybe they can write "He had the right of way" on the towpilots
gravestone.

On Feb 7, 10:27*am, None wrote:
The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

It's possibly worse than that.

The Boulder airspace available for tow planes is severely restricted
by noise sensitive areas meaning that departures and arrivals resemble
instrument flying SID's and STAR's. Every MHG aero tow departure
follows one of three tightly constrained routes. These routes are
published on local maps and posted where every local pilot can see
them. Instructors doing field checkouts and BFR's always make sure
pilots know about them.

From published photos and maps, the collision happened on the heavily
used "north mountain departure" route - ~90% of MHG tows use that
route with a tow every 5 or 10 minutes in busy times. That route has
a Minimum Crossing Altitude (MCA) at the foothills of 8300 feet MSL so
tow altitudes are also tightly constrained.

The Cirrus was registered to a Boulder resident but it's not yet clear
who was flying it. The pilot should have been very familiar with
heavy aero tow traffic on the north mountain departure and known
exactly where tows are likely to be encountered.

One of the questions not answered yet is whether the Cirrus was on
flight following or not. Boulder is a few miles outside of Denver
International's airspace, but within 30 nm from it, meaning all
powered planes are required to have mode C transponders. I assume that
both the Cirrus and tow plane had ones. When I flew at Boulder with
MHG for a couple of weeks last summer, I was shocked by the amount of
traffic I saw. Especially, the traffic south of Boulder was like 6
times more crowded than the traffic I'm used to in Truckee/Minden area
(note that Reno is class C and Denver is class B). I cannot think of
flying into such an area without flight following by Denver approach.

My condolence to the towpilot's families. I hope that this isn't the
young ones who towed me or helped me rigging my glider.

Good job on the glider pilot who brought passengers back home safe.

-Gen

On Feb 7, 1:26*pm, bildan wrote:
On Feb 7, 10:27*am, None wrote:

The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

It's possibly worse than that.

The Boulder airspace available for tow planes is severely restricted
by noise sensitive areas meaning that departures and arrivals resemble
instrument flying SID's and STAR's. *Every MHG aero tow departure
follows one of three tightly constrained routes. *These routes are
published on local maps and posted where every local pilot can see
them. *Instructors doing field checkouts and BFR's always make sure
pilots know about them.

From published photos and maps, the collision happened on the heavily
used "north mountain departure" route - ~90% of MHG tows use that
route with a tow every 5 or 10 minutes in busy times. *That route has
a Minimum Crossing Altitude (MCA) at the foothills of 8300 feet MSL so
tow altitudes are also tightly constrained.

The Cirrus was registered to a Boulder resident but it's not yet clear
who was flying it. *The pilot should have been very familiar with
heavy aero tow traffic on the north mountain departure and known
exactly where tows are likely to be encountered.

My post was intended as a way to reply to nonpilots, news media, etc.
We are bound to get more and ore criticism and comments to the effect
that there should be no glider flying, or somewhat less restricted
versions
of the same argument.

From the description the Cirrus pilot was just not looking and in
effect just walked
out into the road without looking to see whether a car was coming. I
don't
want to be insensitive to the family of the Cirrus pilot, but the
fault was his
and not the fact that glider activity was present. In my experience,
many IFR pilots
just don't look out for VFR traffic and expect ATC to keep them clear
of ALL traffic.
Is that stressed enough in IFR training? ( I know this is before any
NTSB ruling
and is based on hearsay evidence only.)

Having the "right of way" only works if the other pilot see's you.
He can't "yield" to what he does not see.


"None" wrote in message
...
The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

On 2/7/2010 4:02 PM, None wrote:
On Feb 7, 1:26 pm, wrote:
On Feb 7, 10:27 am, wrote:

The rules say that an aircraft towing or re-fueling has the right-of-
way over all other powered aircraft.

Please point out to critics of glider operations that every pilot is
taught this rule before flying solo and that this rule is on the
written test he or she must take before getting a license.

It's possibly worse than that.

The Boulder airspace available for tow planes is severely restricted
by noise sensitive areas meaning that departures and arrivals resemble
instrument flying SID's and STAR's. Every MHG aero tow departure
follows one of three tightly constrained routes. These routes are
published on local maps and posted where every local pilot can see
them. Instructors doing field checkouts and BFR's always make sure
pilots know about them.

From published photos and maps, the collision happened on the heavily
used "north mountain departure" route - ~90% of MHG tows use that
route with a tow every 5 or 10 minutes in busy times. That route has
a Minimum Crossing Altitude (MCA) at the foothills of 8300 feet MSL so
tow altitudes are also tightly constrained.

The Cirrus was registered to a Boulder resident but it's not yet clear
who was flying it. The pilot should have been very familiar with
heavy aero tow traffic on the north mountain departure and known
exactly where tows are likely to be encountered.

My post was intended as a way to reply to nonpilots, news media, etc.
We are bound to get more and ore criticism and comments to the effect
that there should be no glider flying, or somewhat less restricted
versions
of the same argument.

From the description the Cirrus pilot was just not looking and in
effect just walked
out into the road without looking to see whether a car was coming. I
don't
want to be insensitive to the family of the Cirrus pilot, but the
fault was his
and not the fact that glider activity was present. In my experience,
many IFR pilots
just don't look out for VFR traffic and expect ATC to keep them clear
of ALL traffic.
Is that stressed enough in IFR training? ( I know this is before any
NTSB ruling
and is based on hearsay evidence only.)
The reality is that other aircraft are difficult to see, even if you
know where to look. What is very frustrating is that affordable ADS-B
technology exists that could have prevented this accident.
Unfortunately commercialization is being delayed by the FAA's obsession
with IFR ADS-B applications, while certification standards for low cost
VFR devices are on the back burner.

--
Mike Schumann

Mid air collisions are dramatic events what with fireballs and flaming
debris falling from the sky. Fixing the problem involves some cool
technology too. The whole thing tends to get folks excited.

However, the sad statistics say that a midair is one of the least
likely ways to die in an aircraft. The most frequent fatal glider
accident is just hitting something while you're trying to land -
fences, trees, etc.... It's the leading type of fatal glider
accident. Miss-handling a takeoff roll or a premature termination of
tow is the 2nd leading cause. Neither are as dramatic, but they're
far more lethal. The fix is just mundane stick and rudder skills -
not gee whiz technological solutions.

Folks, please be careful out there.

On Sun, 7 Feb 2010 17:20:47 -0800 (PST), bildan
wrote:

However, the sad statistics say that a midair is one of the least
likely ways to die in an aircraft.

Of course it's true. But a typical mid-air tends to have multiple
fatalities.
In Europe, as far as gliders are concerned, collision are related to a
considerable part of fatalities, somewhere in the region one
third/fifth of the total death toll we pay.

Aldo Cernezzi

In this case parachutes may have helped too. Multiple eyewitnesses
report the cirrus occupants jumping from the burning wreck as it
descended under the BRS. Who knows if the tow pilot would have had a
chance or was killed by the impact.

Some years ago there was an account in Soaring Mag by a tow pilot who
always wore a surplus military chute while towing and was laughed at
by all the club members till the day his towplane caught fire at 1500
ft or so and he saved his life by jumping. As I recall, the article
ended by telling how all the other local tow pilots flew with chutes,
helmets, and nomex suits afterward. The story made a big impression
on me.

MM