Ease of attaching and detaching

Martin Gregorie wrote:
- Wiedekind sleeves on the Hoteliers. Important on an ASW-19,
Pegase-101, ASW-20 because the hole in the fuselage is small. With the
sleeves the Hoteliers connect first time every time and can't detach.

In my opinion, stay away from Wiedekind sleeves, unless they are
required by the certification. I know two people who were very
seriously injured, and one who was killed, because a Hotelier connection
with a Wiedekind sleeve was thought to be properly connected, when it
was not. In each of these cases, a control check was apparently
performed, but it appears insufficient force was applied to cause it to
disconnect. The ball can get hung up inside the sleeve without being
fully inside the socket, the sleeve will partially, but not completely,
close under those circumstances. If you can't see it (or don't know
what to look for), you may miss it.

I hate fiddling with safety pins, but you can't get the pin in if the
ball isn't completely inside the socket. I've had no problem seeing
enough to get the pins in on ASW-19s, 20s, and Pegases, despite the
small openings...

Marc

In my opinion, stay away from Wiedekind sleeves, unless they are
required by the certification. I know two people who were very
seriously injured, and one who was killed, because a Hotelier connection
with a Wiedekind sleeve was thought to be properly connected, when it
was not.

I once partially connected the right spoiler on my LS6. I saw it
immediately when I pushed the glider away from the trailer but decided
to fix it in the staging area. Of course, as I passed the "reviewing
stand", people saw one partially deployed spoiler and everybody started
jumping up and down and pointing and yelling. "Yeah, I know, I know".

The good part was that Dave Nadler was there and he suggested something
that I've followed religeously since - When you attach the Hotelier
connector, try pulling the connection apart. If you are satisfied, only
then roll the sleeve over the connector.

Tony V. LS6-b "6N"

"Tony Verhulst" wrote in message
:

In my opinion, stay away from Wiedekind sleeves, unless they are
required by the certification. I know two people who were very
seriously injured, and one who was killed, because a Hotelier connection
with a Wiedekind sleeve was thought to be properly connected, when it
was not.

I once partially connected the right spoiler on my LS6. I saw it
immediately when I pushed the glider away from the trailer but decided
to fix it in the staging area. Of course, as I passed the "reviewing
stand", people saw one partially deployed spoiler and everybody started
jumping up and down and pointing and yelling. "Yeah, I know, I know".

The good part was that Dave Nadler was there and he suggested something
that I've followed religeously since - When you attach the Hotelier
connector, try pulling the connection apart. If you are satisfied, only
then roll the sleeve over the connector.

Tony V. LS6-b "6N"





Yep, good idea. I always operate the controls while trying to pull the
hotellier apart. And I have had a couple of times when it came loose in
my hand!



Larry

"01" USA