Glider Stall Spin Video on YouTube

Edgar wrote:
He sure looks like he is flying fast enough that a stall wouldn't have
occurred. Something break?

Look at the wind sock: There's a strong tailwind.

According to the German glider forum, it is a Jantar. Winch launch, rope
break, 180 to a downwind landing on a parallel runway. Got a tad slow
and when he applied left aileron, the right wing stalled.

The unanswered question is why turn? If the winch cable breaks at 80m
almost by definition there's room to land ahead on a normal airfield,
especially with the sort of wind the sock is showing.

Was this at one of those glider-only fields that I'm told some German
clubs use or like I've heard Drury Hill in NZ described? The type with a
small launch/landing area and the winch set up at the end of a farm
track some distance away?

Wish I knew what that airfield looks like.

BTW, according to the Sailplane Directory a Jantar looks similar to that
but has upper and lower surface brakes. I could only see top surface
brakes in that clip, so my guess would be that its a DG-500 rather than
a Jantar.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

The unanswered question is why turn? If the winch cable breaks at 80m
almost by definition there's room to land ahead on a normal airfield,

You may not have realized that the two operative words in that sentence
are "almost" and "normal". Knowing nothiing about the particular field
that accident happened, I give the pilot the benefit of doubt and just
believe that he had his reasons.

brakes in that clip, so my guess would be that its a DG-500 rather than
a Jantar.

:-)
When the discussion started in that forum, they talked about a DG-500.
Later they corrected it to Jantar-1. Always according to that forum (I
know nothing about the Jantar), in that glider you can stall a wing by
applying ailerons, which perfectly explains what I see in the video. But
frankly, I don't think the tipe of glider matters.

Edgar wrote:
The unanswered question is why turn? If the winch cable breaks at 80m
almost by definition there's room to land ahead on a normal airfield,

You may not have realized that the two operative words in that sentence
are "almost" and "normal".

I wrote that rather carefully. You've rather distorted what I said by
skipping what I went on to say about the shape and size of the field.

On my club field turning at 80m would never be necessary because the
runway is mown grass 1000 m long by 100 m wide with the winch at one end
and 200-400m of landing area behind the launch point. Judging from the
trees etc. in the background of the clip that is almost certainly not
the case where the accident happened.

I give the pilot the benefit of doubt and just believe that he had his reasons.

Agreed. If we knew what the field looked like maybe we could all learn
from his sad experience.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Martin Gregorie schrieb:

On my club field turning at 80m would never be necessary because the
runway is mown grass 1000 m long by 100 m wide with the winch at one end
and 200-400m of landing area behind the launch point.

Where I fly, the runway is 600m (we can place the winch some 200m
further away) and there are buildings along the runway. There is a
certain height where a downwind landing is the only safe option should a
rope break occur. I don't even know at which exact altitude this is, as
we judge it by eye and it changes with the wind conditions.

If we knew what the field looked like maybe we could all learn from
his sad experience.

What I have learnt by *almost* experiencing an accident is that when
having to choose the downwind landing option, don't turn too early, as
the wind will blow you a considerable distance down the runway. Further,
don't let the speed over ground fool you in judging your airspeed (as
the pilot involved probably did).

According to the Germans it happened on the Magdeburg airfield in
Eastern Germany on May 7th, 2000. You'll find it in Google Earth @
52°04'28"N 11°37'37"E. The airplane was a Jantar Std. 1, registration
D-8420. It was filmed by the local TV station MDF.1 by coincidence,
they were there to tape a report/documentation.

The winch was located further to the left, launch was on the grass
runway 09, after the rope break the pilot continued to fly straight
for a bit to then execute a 180° turn to the right to land on the
parallel paved runway 28 to the right. In the process the pilot pulled
up the nose, used left aileron to reduce the bank and as a result got
into a stall and incipient spin. The (un)lucky pilot apparently walked
away with just some minor cuts.

Markus

According to the Germans it happened on the Magdeburg airfield

http://www.flugzeughalle.de/nuke/htm...nt/flplatz.jpg
http://www.flugzeughalle.de/nuke/htm...t/flplkart.gif