Bill Gawthrop "F8" Accident - Sun 07/13/2014 - His Status

Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical issues.. Wind shear or a downdraft near the approach end of Truckee runway 20 may have been a factor. Bill was returning from a 800km flight up to and beyond Crater Lake Oregon. This was his first soaring flight since the Nationals.

Dianne reported to me at 1pm today from the Reno Renown Regional Medical Center that Bill took his first walk. He has four broken vertebrae that are stable fractures and will not require surgery. His ankle braces/boots "...are very fashionable". Rehabilitation starts at a nearby center tomorrow, Saturday July 19th. Bill will be in Rehab there in Reno for awhile.

Bill, we wish you the best in your recovery. Looking forward to having you join us again in the sky!

Walt Rogers WX

That is great news. Thanks for the update.

On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:00:35 PM UTC-4, WaltWX wrote:
Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical issues. Wind shear or a downdraft near the approach end of Truckee runway 20 may have been a factor. Bill was returning from a 800km flight up to and beyond Crater Lake Oregon. This was his first soaring flight since the Nationals.



Dianne reported to me at 1pm today from the Reno Renown Regional Medical Center that Bill took his first walk. He has four broken vertebrae that are stable fractures and will not require surgery. His ankle braces/boots "...are very fashionable". Rehabilitation starts at a nearby center tomorrow, Saturday July 19th. Bill will be in Rehab there in Reno for awhile.



Bill, we wish you the best in your recovery. Looking forward to having you join us again in the sky!



Walt Rogers WX

Thanks Walt - we've all been worried...

2T

On Friday, 18 July 2014 14:00:35 UTC-7, WaltWX wrote:
Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical issues. Wind shear or a downdraft near the approach end of Truckee runway 20 may have been a factor. Bill was returning from a 800km flight up to and beyond Crater Lake Oregon. This was his first soaring flight since the Nationals.



Dianne reported to me at 1pm today from the Reno Renown Regional Medical Center that Bill took his first walk. He has four broken vertebrae that are stable fractures and will not require surgery. His ankle braces/boots "...are very fashionable". Rehabilitation starts at a nearby center tomorrow, Saturday July 19th. Bill will be in Rehab there in Reno for awhile.



Bill, we wish you the best in your recovery. Looking forward to having you join us again in the sky!



Walt Rogers WX

On Friday, July 18, 2014 2:00:35 PM UTC-7, WaltWX wrote:

Thanks Walt - all best wishes to Bill and Dianne for full and speedy recovery.

On Friday, July 18, 2014 5:00:35 PM UTC-4, WaltWX wrote:
Bill Gawthrop who won the U.S. Open Nationals at Montague on July 3rd, is doing well after the crash of his beautiful JS-1c Jet at Truckee, CA. I have not talked directly with Bill, only his wife Dianne. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but seem to be unrelated to any mechanical issues. Wind shear or a downdraft near the approach end of Truckee runway 20 may have been a factor. Bill was returning from a 800km flight up to and beyond Crater Lake Oregon. This was his first soaring flight since the Nationals.



Dianne reported to me at 1pm today from the Reno Renown Regional Medical Center that Bill took his first walk. He has four broken vertebrae that are stable fractures and will not require surgery. His ankle braces/boots "...are very fashionable". Rehabilitation starts at a nearby center tomorrow, Saturday July 19th. Bill will be in Rehab there in Reno for awhile.



Bill, we wish you the best in your recovery. Looking forward to having you join us again in the sky!



Walt Rogers WX

Many thanks for the update Walt. Wishing Bill a thorough recovery and return to the skies.
QT

Bill was not the first to hit the cliff at Truckee and
sadly, he won't be the last. I can remember 3 others. When a south wind comes to the cliff, it follows the terrain down, we call this "sink at the approach end of 19". When the reported wind is over 10 knots I don't fly past the cliff, simply fly my base leg parallel to and not past the cliff, turning final at 150 feet.
Speedy recovery, Bill
JJ

On 7/19/2014 5:56 AM, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Bill was not the first to hit the cliff at Truckee and
sadly, he won't be the last. I can remember 3 others. When a south wind comes to the cliff, it follows the terrain down, we call this "sink at the approach end of 19". When the reported wind is over 10 knots I don't fly past the cliff, simply fly my base leg parallel to and not past the cliff, turning final at 150 feet.
Speedy recovery, Bill
JJ

Likewise.

MG

--
Mike I Green

On Saturday, July 19, 2014 5:56:29 AM UTC-7, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Bill was not the first to hit the cliff at Truckee and

sadly, he won't be the last. I can remember 3 others. When a south wind comes to the cliff, it follows the terrain down, we call this "sink at the approach end of 19". When the reported wind is over 10 knots I don't fly past the cliff, simply fly my base leg parallel to and not past the cliff, turning final at 150 feet.

Speedy recovery, Bill

JJ

Wow, that's shocking. It must be time to do something about that.

One thing that would obviously help would be to remove the motivation to land short over the cliff. When I was there last there were two turnoffs that gliders used. One is actually before the airplane aim point marking and the other is just a little past it. How about creating a new turnoff area that is significantly further down field and then stop using those two close in turnoffs. I suppose it would either take some very stern policy or maybe mechanical barriers to eliminate the temptation of the more convenient access to the tie down area via the existing short turnoffs.

Sorry to be kibitzing from the peanut gallery.

Truly my best wishes are for Bill. His speedy recovery is the most important matter for now.

JJ, I am not sure about the recommendation to turn base to final at 150 feet over the threshold from the following reasons:
1- it requires a very low base to final in a turbulent area if you want to be able to make the turn off.
2- it is hard to judge that you are indeed not slightly past the cliff. The problem is that slightly past the cliff is the absolutely worst place to do your base to final since this is the area with the strongest sink. It is a narrow area, exactly where you would expect to find ridge lift if the wind was from opposite direction.
So my preference normally is to do my base a little further downwind where I don't expect to find sink, and do a high steep final with nearly full spoilers and extra 10 knots for energy, so hopefully I am high enough over the threshold not to hit the sink, and if I do, hopefully closing the spoilers and the extra energy will overcome the sink effect on the glide. There shouldn't be much sink at more than twice the cliff heights, say 200 feet above.

I just posted the above to the soartruckee yahoo group where I think this should be discussed further. Please join the discussion there.

Ramy

On Saturday, July 19, 2014 10:37:43 AM UTC-6, wrote:
On Saturday, July 19, 2014 5:56:29 AM UTC-7, JJ Sinclair wrote:

Bill was not the first to hit the cliff at Truckee and



sadly, he won't be the last. I can remember 3 others. When a south wind comes to the cliff, it follows the terrain down, we call this "sink at the approach end of 19". When the reported wind is over 10 knots I don't fly past the cliff, simply fly my base leg parallel to and not past the cliff, turning final at 150 feet.



Speedy recovery, Bill



JJ



Wow, that's shocking. It must be time to do something about that.



One thing that would obviously help would be to remove the motivation to land short over the cliff. When I was there last there were two turnoffs that gliders used. One is actually before the airplane aim point marking and the other is just a little past it. How about creating a new turnoff area that is significantly further down field and then stop using those two close in turnoffs. I suppose it would either take some very stern policy or maybe mechanical barriers to eliminate the temptation of the more convenient access to the tie down area via the existing short turnoffs.



Sorry to be kibitzing from the peanut gallery.



Truly my best wishes are for Bill. His speedy recovery is the most important matter for now.

What happened to the third turnoff? The reason I ask is that on my first landing there in my DG-100 I announced I'd take the first, then second, and finally made the third. My first high altitude airport;^) The wheel brake wasn't very effective alas.

Frank Whiteley