Nearest near-miss?

On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 12:47:45 PM UTC-4, wrote:
..who’s got the closest near-miss?

I was flying out of Bayreuth in the BavariaGlide Pre-Worlds in 1999,
on a task leg heading east (sun to my back) over an large area with no lift,
kinda final-glide to the next area with lift. Suddenly the cockpit got quite
dark. I instinctively pushed the stick forward and looked up, to clearly see
the tape weave on the gear doors of the Nimbus 3D passing directly overhead..
Probably less than 5 feet to the gear, which means my tail was *really* close.
IIRC there were around 80+ gliders in that contest. We had one fatal mid-air.

On Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 12:26:02 PM UTC-7, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Friday, May 10, 2019 at 12:47:45 PM UTC-4, wrote:
..who’s got the closest near-miss?

I was flying out of Bayreuth in the BavariaGlide Pre-Worlds in 1999,
on a task leg heading east (sun to my back) over an large area with no lift,
kinda final-glide to the next area with lift. Suddenly the cockpit got quite
dark. I instinctively pushed the stick forward and looked up, to clearly see
the tape weave on the gear doors of the Nimbus 3D passing directly overhead.
Probably less than 5 feet to the gear, which means my tail was *really* close.
IIRC there were around 80+ gliders in that contest. We had one fatal mid-air.

I've had many close ones with errant gliders in and especially entering gaggles.

A few scares with oncoming gliders under streets as well.

All these strongly motivated my work on FLARM!

Another scary one wasn't quite as close as the Nimbus:
In Vermont decades ago, the glider above and ahead
of me in the gaggle hit a tree and pitched down a bit...

Be careful out there,
Best Regards, Dave

Dave, if I understand it correctly, he passed over your glider from behind. He was passing because he flew faster. So if you "instinctively pushed the stick forward", you actually accelerated, while obviously losing some height. Do you remember what happened with the distance between the two of you? I'm asking because I was in a similar situation (it was done intentionally 'for fun' by the other pilot - we spoke on the ground and he apologized for his dangerous stunt), and it was scary exactly because I couldn't get away from him. I guess opening the airbrakes would have been a better solution, but it all happened in a second and there was no time to think what was best.

On Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 8:02:17 PM UTC-4, Tom BravoMike wrote:
Dave, if I understand it correctly, he passed over your glider from behind.
He was passing because he flew faster. So if you "instinctively pushed the
stick forward", you actually accelerated, while obviously losing some height.
Do you remember what happened with the distance between the two of you?
I'm asking because I was in a similar situation (it was done intentionally
'for fun' by the other pilot - we spoke on the ground and he apologized for
his dangerous stunt), and it was scary exactly because I couldn't get away
from him. I guess opening the airbrakes would have been a better solution,
but it all happened in a second and there was no time to think what was best.

Spoilers would be better, except it takes another second to move your hand...
Pushing the stick forward raised the tail which could have made things worse.
He passed ahead as higher performance and wingloading allowed faster cruise
while still arriving high enough at the area with lift.

Be careful out there,
Best Regards, Dave

PS: The incident in Vermont required evasive action but not so close!

Had a close one out on task some years ago at Cordele. Beautiful classic strong day. Lots of marker clouds, all working. I was coming up under a lovely flat bottomed cu and just starting to feel the surge. Suddenly my forward view is completely full of Ventus. Got a brief but close look at the top of a bucket hat. The “senior� pilot never saw me. He was bombing along with all his control levers hard forward and had yanked on the middle one when he felt the lift. Had he pulled up half a second sooner, he would have speared me right in the belly. He completed his ballistic arc and dove for mach out the other side. Don’t forget to look up before you pull!

WB

On Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 3:26:02 PM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
(sun to my back)

Correction - Sun mostly overhead (early afternoon, start of task).

I was "shot down" by a B-17! The B-17 was operating from ALB, about 20 miles away from our gliding home plate, Saratoga County Airport, NY (5B2). The B-17 was taking well heeled passengers, who were willing to shell out several hundred bucks, for a ride. I was recently licensed in gliders and was struggling in a weak thermal near 5B2 at 2200'. The B-17 came on the CTAF and and announced he was doing a pass over 5B2 at 2000'. Before I could respond on the radio, someone else replied and told the B-17 "gliders in the area". The B-17 replied "glider in sight, no factor". I thought I was safe, but apparently the B-17 had another glider in sight and passed directly below me. The roar of those four big radials was deafening, and I remember looking right into the eyes of the passenger riding in the top turret. The close encounter had me so shook that I lost my thermal and ended up having to land soon thereafter - thus the "shoot down". I now have a transponder in my newer glider.

Cruising down the ridge in central Pa. late afternoon in the fall and looking into the lowering sun. It wasn't blinding yet but still a factor. Suddenly, there was a another glider coming at me head-on and quite near my altitude. I instinctively buried the stick. There was no thinking involved. He passed over me with maybe 50'(or less) separating us vertically. There was no lateral separation. Had we been at the same altitude our wings would have hit, maybe even striking each other fuselages. I don't know who it was and no one reported anything like this once all were back on the ground. Either he never saw me or maybe was flying from another field. It scared the crap out of me. That we didn't collide was simply a matter of luck.

1981, during PPL training (I already had a GPL) at a military base in Canada that also did commercial and GA traffic.

ATC had given me clearance to land and I was about 50' above the tarmac in a C-152 when ATC called and said, "You are being overtaken by a Douglas 9, many knots". Looked out the back window to see that I was about to become a hood ornament. Instructor took over, firewalled the throttle and shifted to the side of the runway while trying to climb away. The DC-9 passed us about 10 seconds later on his rollout.

Head to head with an F18c, by probably 50 to 100 feet in the Austin MOA about 10 years ago. I could easily see his helmet and mask and he was looking up at me. Amazing sight since I enjoy seeing military aviation hardware but with closure rates that high, not much a glider can do to get out of the way.
Darren

On final glide back home, 6000 ft,I was passing by an active field that produces alot of biz jet traffic, about 6 miles to my right. I was watch that area to my right pretty consistently as I was passing by the departure runways path. When I took a look to my left there was an Airbus bearing down on me. He went into a left roll just as I saw him. I rolled right and down. If he hadn't seen me it probably wouldn't have worked out.

I am now equipped with both Flarm and a transponder.