Puchacz New Cautionary Tale/Tail

Folks:

You will not yet find this on any accident/incident reports.
There were no fatalities.

A pilot called me to relay this story.
The SZD-50-3 Puchacsz was bought used from Europe and
imported to the US with ~1900 hours. The glider was given a US
airworthiness inspection, and licensed by an FAA
inspector last week Thursday or so. It went into legal service
before the weekend.

On Saturday, following only a few flights, the pilot felt some
restriction in rudder movement, and asked the front seat passenger
to adjust the length of rudder stirrups for more freedom of movement.
The passenger complied, and free movement was "restored."

The flight continued in nice lift, and some mild maneuvers
for perhaps twenty five more minutes prior to landing.
As the glider came to a halt, the ground personnel roared up to the
cockpit
and informed the pilot that there was no rudder on the machine.
All parties were amazed.

A search by air for the missing rudder were fruitless.
I have not seen the Puchacsz.
I do not have pictures or links to any photos.
I cannot comment on the mode of departure.
I do not know if the cables or swedges and thimbles are on
the machine, nor if the vertical hinges are in place on
the rear face of the vertical fin.

I do know there was a mandatory service item to replace the
rudder stop elastic nut on the bottom bolt with a castelated nut
and safety key. I cannot say if this was done, found, gone or
otherwise on the machine in question.

I do know that you should look at the attachments of
controls and moving parts fully and carefully on each
pre-flight inspection. Things change and move over time.

The pilot in this case asked me to put the information out
to the soaring community, PRIOR to any formal incident
investigation, to prevent any possible similar occurrence.

Cindy Brickner
Southern California
www.caracole-soaring.com