Crunch Alert (USA) - hugely serious but (apparently) non-fatal

On Monday, April 30, 2012 7:46:35 PM UTC-7, Renny wrote:
On Apr 30, 7:28*pm, T wrote:
On Apr 30, 1:21*pm, Mike the Strike wrote:

From Albuquerque Soaring web site...

"Per Billy Hill this evening: today Angel Pala was thermalling with Billy in the area north of Moriarty and south of Lamy when he heard a loud bang, and lost rudder authority (both pedals fell full forward). Evidently the glider behaved like full right rudder. Shortly thereafter the glider entered an inverted spin, and Angel wisely decided he should walk home, and so hit the silk. He landed under parachute, and hiked out, and was taken to a hospital in Santa Fe. He seems to be fine and Billy expects to pick him up when he is released from hospital.

Mike

Happy that all is well with the pilot..

But do we know what happened? a mid air? a rudder cable failure?

T

It was not a mid-air. We are awaiting more information on the
investigation. The good news is that.Angel is now home and is
recovering from his bumps and bruises after landing, via parachute, in
Nowhere, NM........
Thx - 3R

Wow, thank god it happened at altitude!
Isn't it that virtually all our rudder pedals mechanism are spring loaded, and if one cable breaks the result is instantaneously full rudder? I always thought this is a receipt for disaster. A glider without rudder control may still be flyable and even landable, but not with full rudder!

Ramy