TOW PLANE Accident

Have you ever lost close friends or family while they were acting as PIC?

There is powerful psychology at play. Wanting to believe that your friend or loved one was incapacitated is as normal as it gets.

T8


On Monday, March 11, 2019 at 10:07:23 PM UTC-4, Charlie Quebec wrote:
This is the post from reddit from the son of the pilot. He has actually seen the footage. Interestingly, he mentions health as a possible issue.
mrmrkester • 18d
The fatality in this accident was my father.

I have viewed the GoPro video in question a million times (doesn’t show impact) and to blame the accident solely on that doesn’t really make complete sense.

The towplane goes down by itself before the kiting really takes place. My dad was a pretty healthy guy but I’m more likely to believe in a medical issue before solely blaming the glider instructor. I’m not the NTSB so I won’t do their job, but it just doesn’t all add up.

Our Pawnee had the ability to cut the rope from the towplane end plus my dad makes no radio calls?

I’m a member of a different soaring club near my university and they tried replicating the accident (at altitude) and the tow pilot didn’t report much difficulty in controlling the Pawnee.

I’m a CFI-G myself, but if you ever lose sight of the towplane please release immediately. Had this pilot done this I’m not convinced the result would have been much different, but perhaps would have given my father a better chance of survival.

What we do carries an inherit risk, especially when flying behind a rope of someone else.

Please be safe out there.