Some good news

Hanging yourself on the chest strap by realeasing the leg straps has been done unfortunately. Another parachute question were the leg straps off or is it possible the friction buckles were misrouted(or less likely failed) and they were on but legstraps fully extended? Route through the friction buckles backwards(slack legstrap will be on the inside) and it looks normal at the buckle but won't hold.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:09:00 PM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
... Three gliders were damaged. ... one damaged in flight,

Rotor?

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 12:25:20 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:09:00 PM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
... Three gliders were damaged. ... one damaged in flight,

Rotor?

One bail out in IMC.
One hit a tree on the mountain and then flew home.
One landed at the base of the mountain road in a very poor "field" with minor ground loop damage.
UH

Rotor is the Boogie Man.

In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52 whose
vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor. I feared
rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time /in a glider/ with
the airspeed well within the green arc. Yes, it's bumpy, but
maintaining control is a non-event. Using rotor to climb into the wave
is sometimes the only way to get there. There's a terrific mix of up
and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of the rotor, the net is
up. You climb in rough air and then, all of a sudden, it becomes silky
smooth and the rate of climb increases rapidly. What a treat! Having
said that, I still have enough sense not to fly through rotor with the
airspeed in the yellow!

On 10/21/2015 10:25 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:09:00 PM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
... Three gliders were damaged. ... one damaged in flight,
Rotor?


--
Dan, 5J

On 10/22/2015 7:53 AM, wrote:
On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 12:25:20 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:09:00 PM UTC-4, Tango Eight wrote:
... Three gliders were damaged. ... one damaged in flight,

Rotor?

One bail out in IMC. One hit a tree on the mountain and then flew home. One
landed at the base of the mountain road in a very poor "field" with minor
ground loop damage. UH


Mercy! Life on the edge/gotta be some sort of record...

Bob W.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 8:57:04 PM UTC-4, Christopher Giacomo wrote:
Evan, I think you are spot on in your assessment. The most common advice and suggestion I have got from my most respected pilot friends is that at any point in the flight slowing down, communicating, and building a solid plan while you sit in a stable environment will generally lead to the best outcome. The biggest thing I kick myself about on this flight is that I was not communicating with DY when I was up there, was not asking for help from the ground, but more of giving a running monologue on the radio of what my next circus act would be.

Karl, the only wings I ever earned in the air force were (ironically) my jump wings while at the AF Academy. I'm a stability and control engineer in the AF currently.

Chris, I congratulate you for coming here and writing about your "adventure" along with your thoughts/ideas while "you were there".
Like most things, it's easy to "Monday morning quarterback".

As an ex-instructor, I'm glad you realize (and wrote) that you gave up other help you had available. It's way too easy to get caught up in the moment and ignore the outside world.

I believe we're all glad you survived with nothing more than a dented glider and a sorta hurt pride.
Keep asking questions (here or local field), be willing to continue learning and have fun.
Anything can be dangerous, understanding and limiting risk (the level varies by person) is a good way to live a long life while having fun.

This past summer, I even asked a few other pilots about the end of a flight I did and the decision making I did and the field selection. While nothing was hurt (glider, people on the ground, me...), I wondered if I didn't "back off" soon enough or possibly accepted a higher level of risk than was really prudent. Two of the pilots I spoke to are on this forum.

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 6:27:40 PM UTC+3, Dan Marotta wrote:
Rotor is the Boogie Man.



In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52
whose vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor.* I
feared rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time in a
glider with the airspeed well within the green arc.* Yes, it's
bumpy, but maintaining control is a non-event.* Using rotor to climb
into the wave is sometimes the only way to get there.* There's a
terrific mix of up and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of
the rotor, the net is up.* You climb in rough air and then, all of a
sudden, it becomes silky smooth and the rate of climb increases
rapidly.* What a treat!* Having said that, I still have enough sense
not to fly through rotor with the airspeed in the yellow!

I dunno.

If you stay in the green then, yeah, you won't break the glider. But I've been in Omarama rotor where it was so uncomfortable that I wanted the airspeed more like 50 or 55 knots. And then the problem was having enough aileron authority to say upright. And occasionally, less than stall speed on the clock, and all you can do is accept the low G and the nose dropping until the speed comes back a few seconds later.

Wow! I think the one hitting the tree in flight and then landing back safely at the airport should buy the lottery ticket! There should be another good story there.

Ramy

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 6:27:40 PM UTC+3, Dan Marotta wrote:
Rotor is the Boogie Man.



In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52
whose vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor.* I
feared rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time in a
glider with the airspeed well within the green arc.* Yes, it's
bumpy, but maintaining control is a non-event.* Using rotor to climb
into the wave is sometimes the only way to get there.* There's a
terrific mix of up and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of
the rotor, the net is up.* You climb in rough air and then, all of a
sudden, it becomes silky smooth and the rate of climb increases
rapidly.* What a treat!* Having said that, I still have enough sense
not to fly through rotor with the airspeed in the yellow!

Oh, and check out the vario action after 0:30 in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLCSpVL35Tk

A pretty tame example compared to some, but I happened to have the phone filming.

My scariest flight experience was encountering rotor while flying an MD 500 helicopter! Was trapped in the rotor with control of the aircraft in question most of the time. I was shaken for a while after. This being the scariest event even over an inflight fire, a sudden decompression at 22K FT and flew through wing tip vortex of MD 80 on takeoff.

Have towed through rotor at Minden, was sporting but not frightening.

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 8:27:40 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Rotor is the Boogie Man.



In the Air Force flight training they showed us movies of a B-52
whose vertical tail had been torn off in an encounter with rotor.* I
feared rotor, too, until encountering it for the first time in a
glider with the airspeed well within the green arc.* Yes, it's
bumpy, but maintaining control is a non-event.* Using rotor to climb
into the wave is sometimes the only way to get there.* There's a
terrific mix of up and down but, if you stay on the upwind side of
the rotor, the net is up.* You climb in rough air and then, all of a
sudden, it becomes silky smooth and the rate of climb increases
rapidly.* What a treat!* Having said that, I still have enough sense
not to fly through rotor with the airspeed in the yellow!