In Flight Emergency

In the 2009 15M Nationals at Aston Down we were sent one day to
Northampton, Winslow, and Kettering and were confronted by a huge dead area
near the turns that simply stopped everyone dead in their tracks. I managed
to make the NOS and WSL turns but couldn't see a way into the KES turn
until I took a cloud climb near Banbury and got enough height to fly across
the gap to a squall line I could see running N over Milton Keynes.

I arrived at cloud base just as the line started sparking and decided
(having read the reports referred to earlier) that discretion was the best
course, ran away and landed in a field.

Was there a safe way to use the squall line that was sparking? Rollings,
what is your advice?

Jim

This has been a very interesting discussion. To look at another site's history, in 1970 the Albuquerque Soaring Club moved to Moriarty, NM. Since that time there has been one reported glider lightning strike and that happened to Ken Sorenson during the US Standard Class Nationals at Moriarty on July 11, 1996. Fortunately, although the canopy blew out and the ship's electronics were fried, Ken managed to safely land at Estancia, NM.

Regarding the use of parachutes at Moriarty, over the past 45 years, there has only been one recorded use of an emergency chute and that event occurred in 2012 due to an in-flight emergency. Despite being injured, the pilot survived and was able to walk out of the remote area.

Over the past 45 years the Moriarty, New Mexico Municipal Airport has been a very active soaring site and today there are perhaps 40 gliders flown on a fairly frequent basis by both Albuquerque Soaring Club members and folks who fly with Sundance Aviation (the Moriarty based glider FBO). Lighting is very common during the monsoon season which usually begins in late-June/early July and usually ends in mid-September.

So, what can we learn here? As others have stated, lighting strikes are rare and the need for using an emergency parachute is also pretty rare, but as someone quite wise once told me.....

"It is better to have a parachute and not need it than to need a parachute and not have it...."

Thx - Renny

Thanks Mike,

When I got my EE degree in 1972 they had not heard of such things, at
least where I went to school! I agree that it would take a lot of amps
to generate a magnetic field strong enough to cause the described damage
to the aileron pushrod.

All this talk of parachutes - I always wear my ram air rectangular
parachute when I fly my glider and I even went to the local jump club to
experience flying and landing one of the same size. It was so much fun
that I made seven jumps but it was too expensive for my tastes (at least
while renting the equipment and paying for the instructor's jumps). He
left the aircraft after I had a good chute.

On 3/18/2015 11:08 AM, Mike the Strike wrote:
Dan:

We know the lightning strike in the British accident was an extremely severe positive ground stroke for several reasons:

1) The EA technology lightning location system identified the likely stroke and estimated its peak current at 80 kA (it could have been higher)

2) The compression magnetic forces that deformed the push rod were extremely large and the effect could not be reproduced in the lab (and several tried!)

3) The quantity of metal melted indicates a very high charge transfer, likely in excess of 200 coulombs.

4) The damage incurred indicated a strike that exceeded the tests used for certification of aircraft and they are pretty conservative.

This was an unusually severe event that is unlikely to be experienced again any time soon. Most aircraft lightning involves fairly low current and low energy air discharges or leaders and it's pretty rare for an aircraft to be involved as part of the circuit in a ground flash, let alone a severe positive one.

If you stay half a mile horizontally away from any active storm cell and keep out of the precipitation shaft you are unlikely to be hit.

Mike (who plays with lightning a little bit)

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 8:43:44 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Excellent report. What does 'feeling very draughty' mean? Is that
a British idiom? Or does it simply mean he felt a draft?



Would someone please explain to me how only the aileron control
system, and not the adjacent air brake system, being damaged by the
lightening strike indicates that it was a positive discharge? Why
was only one system damaged? Why not both? Why one vs. the other?


I'm only half way through the report but have to leave to fly the
tug. I'll finish this evening.



So far, I think the apparent magnetic deformation of the aileron
control rod indicates a current level not attainable by a negative
strike, hence the assumption of a positive strike. I'm still
contemplating why only the aileron system was damaged. Perhaps
because it extended further into the wing (closer to the tip) and so
took the full current, bypassing the air brake.



Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...




On 3/18/2015 2:51 AM, Justin Craig
wrote:



At 16:55 17 March 2015, Dan Marotta wrote:


Yes, and I wear a chute when I fly my glider, but not when I'm giving
rides in a Grob, Blanik, 2-33, or Lark. Neither do I wear a parachute
when flying the tug and I've had four engine failures while flying tow
planes, in none of which would I have considered bailing out.

Does Poland really require parachutes in gliders? Are passengers with
no training required to wear a parachute?


*** I wonder about the outcome if


one of them should attempt to jump****


You could ask this chap? I suspect he was rather grateful to be wearing a
chute!

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...pdf_500699.pdf








--

Dan Marotta

--
Dan Marotta

This has been a very interesting discussion. To look at another site's history, in 1970 the Albuquerque Soaring Club moved to Moriarty, NM. Since that time there has been one reported glider lightning strike and that happened to Ken Sorenson during the US Standard Class Nationals at Moriarty on July 11, 1996. Fortunately, although the canopy blew out and the ship's electronics were fried, Ken managed to safely land at Estancia, NM.

Regarding the use of parachutes at Moriarty, over the past 45 years, there has only been one recorded use of an emergency chute and that event occurred in 2012 due to an in-flight emergency. Despite being injured, the pilot survived and was able to walk out of the remote area.

Over the past 45 years the Moriarty, New Mexico Municipal Airport has been a very active soaring site and today there are perhaps 40 gliders flown on a fairly frequent basis by both Albuquerque Soaring Club members and folks who fly with Sundance Aviation (the Moriarty based glider FBO). During those 45 years there have been literally thousands of glider fights out of Moriarty.

New Mexico is also well known for its many thunderstorms and the associated lightning which is very common during the summer monsoon season. This active period usually begins in late-June/early July and normally ends in mid-September.

So, what can we learn here? As others have stated, lightning strikes are rare and the need for using an emergency parachute is also pretty rare, but as someone quite wise once told me.....

"It is better to have a parachute and not need it than to need a parachute and not have it...."

Thx - Renny

Originally Posted by Bruce Hoult

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 12:57:58 PM UTC+13, Martin Gregorie wrote:
By the time I joined a gliding club and started learning to fly in 2000,
almost exactly a year after that lightning strike, nobody flew or was
flown at my club without a parachute, a discipline that we still follow.
I've always heard that is a direct result of the accident.

If you assume it takes 2 minutes to put on and take off parachutes, and that each of the pilots gained 50 years of life as a result, then parachutes are worth it if needed once in every 26 million flights.

How many glider flights are there in the world in a year? I'd wild-ass-guess 15000 in NZ with about 1000 pilots. Is it 80k pilots in Europe and maybe 10k in USA? Let's say 100k world-wide. So maybe 1.5 million glider flights a year world wide.

Is there such a lightning strike every 16 years? No. It's the only one ever.

Of course that's not the only risk parachutes protect against. The main other one is mid-air collision. How often do those happen with students/rides?

The only mid-airs I've heard of either involved cross country and contest pilots, or were at low level in the airfield vicinity where a chute is not going to help.

Hi Bruce

We had a bailout from a Discus CS in February at the Auckland Gliding Club as a result of aileron controls becoming jammed. The pilot is pretty happy he was wearing the expensive seat cushion. He departed the CS at about 1600' AGL

:-) Colin

Originally Posted by Bruce Hoult

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 12:57:58 PM UTC+13, Martin Gregorie wrote:
By the time I joined a gliding club and started learning to fly in 2000,
almost exactly a year after that lightning strike, nobody flew or was
flown at my club without a parachute, a discipline that we still follow.
I've always heard that is a direct result of the accident.

If you assume it takes 2 minutes to put on and take off parachutes, and that each of the pilots gained 50 years of life as a result, then parachutes are worth it if needed once in every 26 million flights.

How many glider flights are there in the world in a year? I'd wild-ass-guess 15000 in NZ with about 1000 pilots. Is it 80k pilots in Europe and maybe 10k in USA? Let's say 100k world-wide. So maybe 1.5 million glider flights a year world wide.

Is there such a lightning strike every 16 years? No. It's the only one ever.

Of course that's not the only risk parachutes protect against. The main other one is mid-air collision. How often do those happen with students/rides?

The only mid-airs I've heard of either involved cross country and contest pilots, or were at low level in the airfield vicinity where a chute is not going to help.

Hi Bruce

I'm aware of 2 midairs at circuit height, one in the UK and one in Australia, where the pilots of the disabled gliders (2) were saved by using the chute

Colin

On Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 8:43:03 PM UTC+13, Ventus_a wrote:
We had a bailout from a Discus CS in February at the Auckland Gliding
Club as a result of aileron controls becoming jammed. The pilot is
pretty happy he was wearing the expensive seat cushion. He departed the
CS at about 1600' AGL

Wow that's pretty low. Prior experience?

Originally Posted by Bruce Hoult

On Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 8:43:03 PM UTC+13, Ventus_a wrote:
We had a bailout from a Discus CS in February at the Auckland Gliding
Club as a result of aileron controls becoming jammed. The pilot is
pretty happy he was wearing the expensive seat cushion. He departed the
CS at about 1600' AGL

Wow that's pretty low. Prior experience?

It is Bruce.

The UK one was a gentleman who if I recall correctly was 80 or so and he was in a K8. Was quite a few years ago now and he had experience back in WW2.

The Australian one was quite some time ago as well and once again relying on an aging memory the pilot was in his mid to late 60s. It was a Discus of some description. Saw the fuse years ago back when Sandy Shields was still the owner of Sailplane Services

As an aside Theo Newfield had a midair many years ago in a comp in Australia. He was hit from behind and the other pilot didn't survive

Colin

On Monday, March 16, 2015 at 7:29:19 AM UTC-7, Waveguru wrote:
At about 800ft I lost a cylinder bolt and the case cracked at about 1:30 on this video.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=972894796062971

Boggs

I think of a parachute as a form of life insurance where the buyer, as well as the family, is the beneficiary. And, it comes with a very small annual expense (repacking).

I wonder how many married pilots out there don't have regular life insurance to help their potential widow and kids if they were to die? The number of people who do die is quite low compared to those who don't die, which is why life insurance companies are quite profitable. BUT, when someone in that small percentage of policy holders does die, the family benefits. Think about it.

What caused the aileron jam, if known?

Hi Bruce

We had a bailout from a Discus CS in February at the Auckland Gliding
Club as a result of aileron controls becoming jammed. The pilot is
pretty happy he was wearing the expensive seat cushion. He departed the
CS at about 1600' AGL

:-) Colin