Another sailplane lost!

I have to agree that putting it in the trailer would be the most
prudent thing to do. I'd like to be the kind of guy that would
actually do it, but I'm not. *After a 5 - 8 hour flight, all I want is
a beer, something to eat, an access point to upload my flight, and
bed. The 1/2 hour required to pull the trailer to the glider, de-rig
and box it, then park the trailer and disconnect it from the truck
seems like a monumental task at the end of the day, especially when it
will be flown the next day, and the next.....

force your hand. do the safe thing. land out more often.

On Feb 2, 12:34*pm, John Smith wrote:
The technique is 6 deeply buried concrete tie down anchors per glider
- nose, tail and two on each wing - one inboard and one outboard. *On
flex-winged composite gliders, wing stands are used. *The gliders are
oriented 90 degrees to the high-wind direction.

I'll never understand how somebody would tie down a plastic glider
outside rather than put it in the trailer. Rigging a modern glider is a
matter of 10 minutes but possibly worth a couple of thousand dollars.

Interesting question. If the glider is flown every day, as many at
Boulder are, the wear and tear of daily rig/derig cycles would add up
plus there's the possibility that someone would eventually drop a wing
or worse.

That said, rigging with the best aids is not all that much harder than
working with full covers and 6 ropes. I'm inclined to think putting
the most expensive glass birds back in their trailer each day is the
better choice.

Of course, hangars are the optimum answer. At Boulder, hangars aren't
an option.

The critical, but often neglected aspect of keeping a ship on the
ground, undamaged is to reduce the angle of attack, both while tied
down and during ground handling. This dramatically reduced the load
on the tiedowns, as was very well documented in the old Red Schweizer
Soaring manual.

As a working example, Skylark North in Tehachapi (and formerly the
brutally windy CalCity) has never lost a tied down ship in 40+ years
(and only 1 while being ground handled) in a very windy environment
using this technique. Caracole in CalCity keeps their fleet safe
using this method as well.

Short of a tornado or similar extreme event, properly tied down ships
should never be lost. Of course, "never" is a very long time

Creating adequate tiedowns in a landout or safari situation is
problematic but getting the AOA down is not that hard (flaps full
negative, constrained tail dolly, inverted wash buckets, wood, or a
mound of dirt for tailwheel and dig hole for main gear).

I believe the best "combat" landout mode for keeping a glider on the
ground in high winds is to orient the glider 90 degrees to the wind
and expend all resources on keeping the upwind wing on the ground. I
have seen it used to good effect in extreme wave/rotor conditions
using a tractor tire, tiedown kit, rocks, and the pilot's body.

And another one bites the dust while tied down!

http://bit.ly/btNFm4

On Feb 3, 10:22*am, GARY BOGGS wrote:
And another one bites the dust while tied down!

http://bit.ly/btNFm4

This is possibly the 2-33 of the Prescott Soaring Club that was lost
in the same storm as the California Blanik.

I should note that we have twenty or so gliders tied down under shade
hangars at the Tucson Soaring Club and we haven't had any serious
damage lately.

Mike

On Feb 3, 9:22*am, GARY BOGGS wrote:
And another one bites the dust while tied down!

Naw, just a nibble. Jim Phoenix could have that ship flying in a week.

wrote:

I believe the best "combat" landout mode for keeping a glider on the
ground in high winds is to orient the glider 90 degrees to the wind
and expend all resources on keeping the upwind wing on the ground. I
have seen it used to good effect in extreme wave/rotor conditions
using a tractor tire, tiedown kit, rocks, and the pilot's body.

"orient the glider 90 degrees to the wind and...keep... the upwind wing
on the ground" was what I was taught 'way back when' (in the good old
days learning on 2-33's and 1-26's...and I think it's Great Advice for
low-wingloaded ships. I mean - absent a real tiedown, of course.)

Since then, I've come to believe there's a better approach for
15-meter-span plastic ships. I've used it (when I've had to) in the
Rocky Mountain West since the mid 1980's for my 15-meter-span Zuni. Note
the HUGE CAVEAT (which no lawyer made me put in).

HUGE CAVEAT: This assumes wind from a constant direction!!!

I put the UPwind wing UP.

Short of a wind strong enough to actually lever the ship up and over its
downwind wing (in which case I don't want to be anywhere *near* gliders,
tied down or otherwise!), this is the stable position, as critical
assessment at many windy gliderports will (usually, quickly) show.

The most severe test ever given my ship was on an outlanding at a
deserted airport in a wind exceeding 30 knots, with gusts almost
certainly over 45; while I was waiting for my crew, a chain-reaction
fatal interstate accident happened nearby, induced by blowing dust and
inappropriate driver reactions. Though in July, with ground temps above
90F when I landed, well before sunset, concern over hypothermia induced
me to abandon the ship for the shelter of a fuel truck cab.

Thanks to the zephyr, the most difficult aspect was extracting myself
from the cockpit without damaging the (~5' long, removable)
canopy...which is why I made no attempt to stay with/in the ship after
trekking for a phone. I watched the ship until it got dark; beyond
'floppy-wing-assisted' rocking, it never budged.

YMMV,
Bob W.