Canopy open incident.

On Saturday, June 15, 2013 7:03:38 AM UTC-6, Walt Connelly wrote:
I found this on YouTube and I would be more interested in what the crowd

on Aviation Banter/Soaring had to say. I am impressed that this

individual would post his video, has to be a bit embarrassing. Lots of

second guessing and backseat flying in the comments but I think he did

the right thing. What say you, far more experienced glider pilots?



Walt



https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...v=r0I75OZmA-0#!









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Walt Connelly

Well, this pilot can walk away and, presumably, the glider will fly again..... I'd bet there's a fairly large percentage of pilots who have had similar canopy 'events'. His emphasis on "fly the airplane" is laudable - except, possibly, in this case.

I've read reports which say pilots who suffer a takeoff emergency will almost always try to fly their aircraft once the ground roll is underway although this is usually not the best option. We can all think of pilots who might still be with us if they had aborted a takeoff when things started to go bad. To many pilots, the sky seems a safer place to think about how to deal with the emergency.

To abort a takeoff when there's still time takes resolve and self discipline. I brief my students to estimate a "go, no-go" point on the runway from where the glider can be stopped if the takeoff is aborted. Then, resolve to release before reaching that point if the takeoff roll isn't completely nominal.

I'd bet the pilot in the video, if again faced with the same situation, will release as soon as the emergency develops and land ahead on the remaining runway. As they say, "It better to be on the ground wishing to be in the air than in the air wishing to be on the ground."