Jonker JS-3 in Sagebrush

I know the pilot well and have had a lot of discussion with him about this. It turns out that this was the pilot's maiden flight in the JS3 and it turns out that the pilot has a bit of a thick brain and hadn't had enough opportunity to sit in the airplane and get familiar with the controls before setting sail.

After 16 years flying the ASW-27, muscle memory was involved. On downwind, the dive brakes were used to adjust appropriate pattern altitude starting from a high pattern entry from overhead, then somewhere on downwind the brakes were lastly put away. But, apparently not put away properly. The JS3 has several detent stops for holding the dive brake open at partial positions whereas the ASW-27 has only one detent at the closed and locked position.

By the time the poor SOB got to the base turn position he realized he was a bit lower than he expected and attributed that to sink. Bringing the turn around, he concluded that he was still in some pretty nasty sink. His split second decision was to get the airplane down on the deck for the dual purpose of getting into ground effect and secondly to get under the sink (sink always has to end at ground level when the ground is itself level). The intention was to attack the perimeter fence fast so as to be able to pop over it then on to runway 30. Plan C would be to land before the fence in the sagebrush if there wasn't positively enough energy to get over the fence.

As you already know from the original poster, plan C, landing before the fence was selected. Not surprisingly, speeding up with partially deployed air brakes caused energy to bleed all the more surely and quickly.

At touchdown a ground loop ensued that partly happened on top of the dense 4 foot high brush.

There's now a little bit of fix-it to be done on this beautiful new glider; nothing big enough to involve insurance companies.

When things go wrong there's takeaways... For JS3 flying, one must put eyeballs on the divebrake lever and its detents. It's not just push forward and lock anymore. We've learned that the hard way.

The other takeaway relates to adequate familiarizing with a new type. What I've done in the past with new gliders is to take them home to my workshop and sit in them for hours just playing with the controls and the instruments to make sure that I was totally familiar before taking flight for the first time. That was impractical this time. The program letter specifically required first flight at Minden and we were especially time squeezed because there were two of us who'd traveled long distance to get to Minden to pick up gliders and we needed to share one set of probes between two gliders (my JS3 arrived without probes); I was nominated to go first being the borrower in this instance.

Of course, that's all just sort of excuses. None of that should really have been a problem. I was properly briefed on the dive brake detents by a knowledgeable instructor and signed off accordingly. That little difference in the dive brake control design, though, just wasn't sufficiently engrained in this pilot's brain quite yet.

It's unusual to accidentally land out on your maiden flight with a brand new airplane. I'm feeling like a dodo for doing so and sad to have hurt my new bird.

Another big thank you to Mike and Tim and to Jim Lee for helping with my retrieve in that nasty sage brush.

As a postscript, I'm not so sure that having detent stops for open dive brakes is really a good idea. I'll think about that some more. I may decide to remove the detents. I suspect that there are other variations of the problem that I just had. It would be especially embarrassing if something like this happened to me again.

On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 10:27:40 PM UTC-6, Steve Koerner wrote:
I know the pilot well and have had a lot of discussion with him about this. It turns out that this was the pilot's maiden flight in the JS3 and it turns out that the pilot has a bit of a thick brain and hadn't had enough opportunity to sit in the airplane and get familiar with the controls before setting sail.

After 16 years flying the ASW-27, muscle memory was involved. On downwind, the dive brakes were used to adjust appropriate pattern altitude starting from a high pattern entry from overhead, then somewhere on downwind the brakes were lastly put away. But, apparently not put away properly. The JS3 has several detent stops for holding the dive brake open at partial positions whereas the ASW-27 has only one detent at the closed and locked position..

By the time the poor SOB got to the base turn position he realized he was a bit lower than he expected and attributed that to sink. Bringing the turn around, he concluded that he was still in some pretty nasty sink. His split second decision was to get the airplane down on the deck for the dual purpose of getting into ground effect and secondly to get under the sink (sink always has to end at ground level when the ground is itself level). The intention was to attack the perimeter fence fast so as to be able to pop over it then on to runway 30. Plan C would be to land before the fence in the sagebrush if there wasn't positively enough energy to get over the fence.

As you already know from the original poster, plan C, landing before the fence was selected. Not surprisingly, speeding up with partially deployed air brakes caused energy to bleed all the more surely and quickly.

At touchdown a ground loop ensued that partly happened on top of the dense 4 foot high brush.

There's now a little bit of fix-it to be done on this beautiful new glider; nothing big enough to involve insurance companies.

When things go wrong there's takeaways... For JS3 flying, one must put eyeballs on the divebrake lever and its detents. It's not just push forward and lock anymore. We've learned that the hard way.

The other takeaway relates to adequate familiarizing with a new type. What I've done in the past with new gliders is to take them home to my workshop and sit in them for hours just playing with the controls and the instruments to make sure that I was totally familiar before taking flight for the first time. That was impractical this time. The program letter specifically required first flight at Minden and we were especially time squeezed because there were two of us who'd traveled long distance to get to Minden to pick up gliders and we needed to share one set of probes between two gliders (my JS3 arrived without probes); I was nominated to go first being the borrower in this instance.

Of course, that's all just sort of excuses. None of that should really have been a problem. I was properly briefed on the dive brake detents by a knowledgeable instructor and signed off accordingly. That little difference in the dive brake control design, though, just wasn't sufficiently engrained in this pilot's brain quite yet.

It's unusual to accidentally land out on your maiden flight with a brand new airplane. I'm feeling like a dodo for doing so and sad to have hurt my new bird.

Another big thank you to Mike and Tim and to Jim Lee for helping with my retrieve in that nasty sage brush.

As a postscript, I'm not so sure that having detent stops for open dive brakes is really a good idea. I'll think about that some more. I may decide to remove the detents. I suspect that there are other variations of the problem that I just had. It would be especially embarrassing if something like this happened to me again.

Well done Steve. Confession is good for the soul or so I'm told. I still have my old sack cloth and a pot of ashes if you feel the need for them. Glad you are OK and the JS just a bit dinged.

Bill Hill

On 4/15/2019 10:55 PM, wrote:
On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 10:27:40 PM UTC-6, Steve Koerner wrote:
I know the pilot well and have had a lot of discussion with him about
this.
Snip...
As a postscript, I'm not so sure that having detent stops for open dive
brakes is really a good idea. I'll think about that some more. I may
decide to remove the detents. I suspect that there are other variations
of the problem that I just had. It would be especially embarrassing if
something like this happened to me again.

Well done Steve. Confession is good for the soul or so I'm told. I still
have my old sack cloth and a pot of ashes if you feel the need for them.
Glad you are OK and the JS just a bit dinged.

Bill Hill

+1 on the "Well done..." salvaging a foot shot without physical injury to
yourself, and minimal injury to your new bird.

And, THANK YOU! for sharing the details and assessment with 'the gliding
world' so quickly and forthrightly. Having recently absorbed a JS-3 Flight
Manual (future crewdog) I'd noted the dive brakes' multiple detents without
giving further thought regarding in-flight pros/cons/potentialities.

Good old Murphy - a powerful guy...

Bob W.

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Thank you for sharing, glad the pilot is Okay. Glad the glider is not too badly damaged either.

Thank you. You are helping our community become safer.

I have a newly-installed “Piggott Hook� on my ASH-26E, different function, but it is a physical change to the dive brake mechanism with added blockages. I am thinking over the pilot error modes as a result of your report.

Jim J6

On Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 12:27:40 AM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:
As a postscript, I'm not so sure that having detent stops for open dive
brakes is really a good idea.

Steve first thanks for sharing this and glad you're OK and bird
only slightly dinged.

Detent on spoiler is an oft-requested feature for many gliders and
sometimes retrofitted. In common cases where you want to fly onto
the ground and dump flaps, no detent on spoiler causes bounding
back into the air when you take hand of spoiler to dump flaps.
Please do not ask (remind) me how I know.

Thanks again and speedy repair,
Best Regards, Dave

Maybe add a red light on the panel when the brakes are unlocked? If you have an UC warning buzzer, there will already be a microswitch on the airbrakes.

Not the first bird in the sagebrush with spoilers out at Minden..........we got a 20B that was totaled there. Spoilers not locked and sucked open on takeoff! Pilot never did figure it out and put it in the sagebrush, shortly after release. I have made it routine to peek over my shoulder at 300 feet just to insure they are closed. Same on landing when I pull them, just to make sure they both are operating after a DG driver had only one spoiler deploy at Truckee, years ago. Mustle-memory is REAL, it became normal to shove the stick forward, after touchdown in the Genesis-2 in order to get the nose-wheel on the pavement while aiming straight down the runway. After 1000 hours of doing this, I flew an LS3a..........yep, I touched the nose on the pavement because muscle memory told me to shove the stick forward after touchdown. OK, lesson learned, right? Nope, I did it a second time!
The older we get, the more vigilant we must become!
JJ
PS, I’m thinking spoiler detent’s may be just asking for trouble? Better to keep your hand on the spoiler handle as long as you want them and still need them?

Thanks for that detail, Steve.
What happened seems to me typical of a safety device causing problems that we frequently see these days. For example, banging your head more often while wearing a hard hat (safety helmet), since it limits peripheral vision while making you taller.
I once aborted an ASH26E takeoff because it wasn't climbing.
Looking at the wing showed some orange things.
"Hmmm, what idiot left them open? Not much runway left, think I'll stop."
JJ, doing an engine run-up requires wheel brake, back stick and throttle, three hands? Perhaps this is one reason for the detents.
Jim

Jim,
So, spoiler detent’s were added in order to set the brakes because the pilot needed both hands elsewhere during run up! Then the detent’s resulted in unwanted spoilers on final? How about figuring out another way to set that wheel brakes? I’ve been watching Air Disasters on TV and can’t believe all the crashes caused by some computer geek adding some unnecessary feature. They covered an accident the other night where the copilot accidentally hit the Go-Around button and ended up crashing on the runway! Go-Around Button? The computer geek decided a pilot needed help shoving in the power and pulling the nose up? They crashed a 747 at SFO because of auto throttle didn’t shove in the needed power because the ILS wasn’t working Probably invented by the same Go-Around geek previously mentioned. Let’s not even mention the 737 fly by wire fiasco! I’m to the point that I wouldn’t get on a bird that doesn’t have the stick and rudder connected directly to the controls! I saw this crap coming 50 years ago in the F-111. If the bomb-aim’er made a cross-hair correction, the computer would only accept half his correction! The operator was only one input along with inertial, Doppler, etc. Now we have progressed to the point the operator may have no input at all. The computer thinks were stalling and by god the nose is getting shoved over, period!
Good to get that off my chest, I feel much better now!
JJ