Newbie seeking advice

When I read Fred's report of tail separation, my first thought was
pre-existing damage from a tail dolly that clamped the tail boom too
tightly. The hard landing/poor repair scenario works too.

Bill Daniels

"Gldcomp" wrote in message
. com...
Like I said, accidents like this are extremely rare.
If we look at the history of your old Open Cirrus, it probably had
previous
damage history.
It wouldn't be a surprise if it had previously severed the tailcone in a
groundloop during an outlanding.
I know a few cases similar to yours, and all could be traced back to a
previous damage that was hidden and not well repaired.

Still, a rare event, and like I said, it is NOT the reason we wear a
parachute.
Airplanes break up in flight more often than gliders and power
pilots/passengers are not required to wear a parachute.

If we respect our flight envelopes, gliders don't break up in flight.
They are certified aircraft and are designed to withstand severe forces,
as
long as we respect their limits.

"f.blair" wrote in message
news:27Kyc.16387$2i5.5757@attbi_s52...
I beg to differ with this last post. In a contest flight south of
Littlefield, TX in 1988, the tail section of my Open Cirrus broke just
in
front of the horizontal stabilizer. At the nose of the glider went down
with no response from the stick, I began to unbuckle. As the glider
went
inverted, I rolled out and successfully reached the ground with the help
of
my big round parachute. I had encountered some severe turbulence, that
in
later discussions with Dick Johnson, he decided must have been some type
of
horizontal, rotor type cloud. I was encountering severe updrafts then
severe downdrafts. The whole glider was going up then down, not just
the
nose. I was basically just holding on waiting for it to stop. Went
through
about 5-6 cycles of up then down, then it got real quiet and the nose
started down and that was when I realized that the control stick did
nothing, so I got out. The boom was broken, but the tail was attached
by
cables and a push rod. I watched it land in the field next to me, a
smooth,
flat approach. The glider was inverted, but the tail section was
upright.
The only thing that was not bent during the landing was the T.E. probe
that
was on the front edge of the vertical stabilizer. Gliders can have
structural failures.

It is not a good idea to say that 'something' will never happen.

Still flying and loving it.

Fred Blair
Greater Houston Soaring Association

Original Post:
Forget all the "I think this", "I think that" very common to
rec.aviation.soaring.

Gliders don't fall appart in flight by themselves like ultralights and
other
crazy flying machines.
Gliders are, after all, certified aircraft.

Sure a parachute might also save you in case of structural failure,
but
the
vast majority of bail-outs were motivated by mid-air collisions.
I only know of structural failures leading to bail-outs in factory
test-flights and in older wooden gliders who had been previously
repaired
using unknown techniques, and end-up losing their tails, leading to
bail-outs.

Glider structural failures are extremely rare in real life outside of
these
cases.

Gliders don't break-up in flight unless they hit something.