Glider accident while filming commercial in 2011. NTSB Report updated

On Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:55:19 PM UTC-7, Papa3 wrote:
Finally, it's hard to tell, but it sounds like this wasn't a failed recovery from an extreme nose up low altitude rope break. From the text, it appears that it may have been a stall-spin after the initial recovery - maybe trying to perform a full 180 from low altitude? At least, that's how I read it.

Anyone else getting the same picture?


This happened in my area and I was marginally involved in the aftermath (mostly second-hand, so apply some grains of salt as-necessary). Some things to keep in mind, regarding this accident:

1] It was done during the filming of a commercial, NOT a normal launch. There were goals to capture certain maneuvers and angles on-camera.
(You can provide your own conjecture about how that may or may not have affected people's thinking, actions, and/or safety-margins.)

2] The filming location was not chosen for its safety, it was chosen for its aesthetic appeal and/or possibly other factors (that I was not privy to). What I can say for a fact is that several other airports exist in the region that have much longer & wider runways, fewer obstructions, more taxiways, and more "outs" in case of an emergency. (And at least one person told me they suggested one of those other airports to the accident-pilot, sometime in the days or weeks before the accident).

4] Eyewitness reports by fellow pilots (to me) corroborate the NTSB report about the glider returning to "level" after the rope-break, prior to entering a turn/spin. You may speculate about whether the nose-down pitch recovery was done properly; or perhaps whether the pilot recovered properly but then got distracted looking at his emergency landing options. Or perhaps he lost track of the tow-vehicle and was afraid to pitch down and land on the runway area for fear of hitting the car/camera-crew. Or perhaps he had a plan but some combination of low-airspeed and/or cross-wind and/or wind-gradient and/or turbulence from the nearby trees resulted in a loss of lift on one or both wings.

Just remember its speculation. Speculating can be valuable to help us think through potential hazards and guard against them in our own experiences; and I think its worthwhile to play "what if" with accidents with a view towards making ourselves safer. Certainly lessons can be learned. But always keep in mind that we don't _know_ what was going on in that person's mind, or what aggravating factors might have tipped the situation out of "potentially unsafe" territory and into an "accident".

--Noel