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Glider Cockpit Safety



 
 
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  #31  
Old September 11th 18, 11:29 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Muttley
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Default Glider Cockpit Safety

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 8:24:26 AM UTC+1, wrote:
At the OSTIV meeting in Delft in 2007, a presentation was made before the delegates of Training and Safety Panel and Sailplane Development Panel by professor Antonio Dal Monte, the then Director of the Italian Institute for Sport Sciences. Prof Dal Monte had been involved in the official analysis of Senna's crash, and had also been instrumental in creating the detachable safety cockpit for racing speedboats after the fatal crash of Stefano Casiraghi, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco while he was defending his world offshore title.

Having analized a series of fatal glider crashes, he concluded that the mass of the wing with the strong spar positioned right behind the head of the pilot was a major factor in the lethality of these crashes. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine was killed when his wooden Siebert 3 (similar to the Ka-6) spun in, and when picking up the pieces, we found the T-handle of one of the main bolts had been bent on impact. His head had been one foot in front of that bolt...

What Dal Monte proposed was a detachable safety cockpit for gliders, mounted on rails that would be angled approximately 30 degrees (more or less parallel to the backrest) and fixed by a suitable weak link. In case of a crash, the whole wing and rear fuselage would be guided under the cockpit instead of crushing it. He even suggested making a standard cockpit to be used by all manufacturers, as the real differences in profile at cockpit level are rather small and this would reduce the costs.

Unfortunately, the engineers from the main manufacturers, present at this reunion, simply laughed the proposition away without even seeming to consider the option. I always thought that, had the professor been a German instead of an Italian, they would at least have considered the pros and contras.. But Italy = opera + mafia in the head of many people. It is also Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini...


Same presentation by Professor Antonio Dal Monte was made to the IGC Plenum meeting.
  #32  
Old September 11th 18, 10:24 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dave Walsh
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Default Glider Cockpit Safety

I always thought that, had the professor been a German
instead of an Italian, they would at least have considered the

pros and contras"

I seem to remember a few years ago a German Akafleig at
Friedrichshafen had a mock up of a two seater cockpit where a
BRS (Ballistic Recovery System) type system extracted the
pilots from the cockpit? A sort of jump seat for glider pilots.
Never heard whether they ever got it built or tested.
My guess is money & certification costs killed the project.

Then of course there's the fundamental problem, highlighted
on DG's website, that most glider purchasers will not buy
safety; safety does't sell gliders. One of DG's own contributions
to safety was the NOAH pilot ejection system, a very simple
system: pull one toggle, the seat belts undo and a gas bag
under the seat fills with nitrogen lifting the pilot up - all the
pilot has to do is roll out of the cockpit (if he has a parachute
with a static line, as in Germany, he doesn't even need to pull
the rip-cord).
Much to DG's annoyance very few purchasers stumped up the
few thousand Euros it cost.

A fit athletic 20 year old might have no problem exiting a
gyrating cockpit; how about an unfit overweight 60 year old?
Nothing personal!


  #33  
Old September 11th 18, 11:43 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Andrzej Kobus
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Default Glider Cockpit Safety

On Monday, September 10, 2018 at 12:43:46 PM UTC-4, Nick Kennedy wrote:
The slow motion of that F1 crash was hard to watch.
I too would really like a BRS system in my plane. Those things work good! They have had alot of saves.
I had one on my Hang glider back in the day from 1989- 2000


The driver walked away so enjoy watching.
 




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