Canopy open incident.

Originally Posted by 2G

On Saturday, June 15, 2013 6:03:38 AM UTC-7, 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#!









--

Walt Connelly

I won't 2nd guess his decision to stay on tow to evaluate the situation. I give him credit for continuing to fly the glider with no perceptible deviations. Contrast this to an accident at Ephrata, WA where a water bottle came loose in the cockpit shortly after becoming airborne. The glider pilot became preoccupied with grabbing the bottle and reflexively pulled back on the stick. The glider kited, pulling up the tail on the tow plane. The tow plane pilot was subsequently killed when the tow plane hit the ground (the forces on the tow hook exceeded the pilot's ability to pull the release).

PLEASE, the 1st priority is ALWAYS to fly the plane, especially at low altitude.

Tom

One might think that an engineer could design a system which would overcome the force on the tow hook which exceed the pilot's ability to pull the release. I've heard of a condition like this happening when the glider pilot "thought" he had released and in fact had not. Never sure how things like that happen.

Walt