towplane collides with glider, prop hits wingtip

Educational video...
Murphy's law at work... one thing leads to another...
towplane: Wilga
glider: LAK
place and time: competition at Pila in Poland, late August 2009
towplane's engine misses than cuts off during takeoff
prop collides with the wingtip
http://picasaweb.google.pl/Wojtekpar...27461393125826

Andre V, CFIG

On Aug 29, 4:34*pm, wrote:
Educational video...
Murphy's law at work... one thing leads to another...
towplane: Wilga
glider: LAK
place and time: competition at Pila in Poland, late August 2009
towplane's engine misses than cuts off during takeoff
prop collides with the wingtiphttp://picasaweb.google.pl/Wojtekpara/Wypadek#5238527461393125826

Andre V, CFIG

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

"tstock" wrote in message
...

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

Plain old taildragger-type ground loop?

Another question is what kind of brakes did that glider have? It didn't
seem to have been doing very much stopping.

Vaughn

"vaughn" wrote in message
...

"tstock" wrote in message
...

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

Plain old taildragger-type ground loop?

Another question is what kind of brakes did that glider have? It didn't
seem to have been doing very much stopping.

Vaughn


It appeared to me that the glider had not chance to stop, he's still being
pulled by the rope when the tow plane looses control.
We can see no where that either the tow or glider pilot released the rope.
Gliders in this situation do not have good brakes.
The error is in the tow pilot trying to keep the tow plane on a runway, he
faked left, glider pilot decides to go right and the tow pilot changes
direction.

On Aug 29, 8:34*pm, "vaughn"
wrote:
"tstock" wrote in message

...

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

Plain old taildragger-type ground loop?

Another question is what kind of brakes did that glider have? *It didn't
seem to have been doing very much stopping.

Vaughn

Lets all be thankful that the wingtip was the only thing chomped up by
the prop - could just as easily have been pilot hamburger!

TA

Lets all be thankful that the wingtip was the only thing chomped up by
the prop - could just as easily have been pilot hamburger!


Agreed.. and also thankful that this happened on the ground and not at
75 feet.

BT wrote:
The error is in the tow pilot trying to keep the tow plane on a runway, he
faked left, glider pilot decides to go right and the tow pilot changes
direction.

Wow. You should apply for a job as an accident investigator, your quick
conclutions would save them a lot of money! Not sure the reports would
be very accurate, though.

On Aug 29, 6:05*pm, tstock wrote:
On Aug 29, 4:34*pm, wrote:

Educational video...
Murphy's law at work... one thing leads to another...
towplane: Wilga
glider: LAK
place and time: competition at Pila in Poland, late August 2009
towplane's engine misses than cuts off during takeoff
prop collides with the wingtiphttp://picasaweb.google.pl/Wojtekpara/Wypadek#5238527461393125826

Andre V, CFIG

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

After watching this a couple of times, it appears to me the tug pilot
intended to turn around and didn't lose control until he saw the
glider about to collide with him - a failure to maintain situational
awareness.

I've had a tug abruptly stop on the runway centerline just after I was
airborne forcing me to fly around him - it's an experience I won't
forget. Just as in flight, the tug pilot should bear left if aborting
takeoff on the runway so the glider has somewhere to go.

The PZL 104 Wilga's Russian Ivchenko/Vedeneyev radial can be a cranky
beast - 'ready to go' and 'ready to quit' sound about the same. The
tug pilot may have been confused by that.

On Aug 30, 7:06*am, bildan wrote:
On Aug 29, 6:05*pm, tstock wrote:

On Aug 29, 4:34*pm, wrote:

Educational video...
Murphy's law at work... one thing leads to another...
towplane: Wilga
glider: LAK
place and time: competition at Pila in Poland, late August 2009
towplane's engine misses than cuts off during takeoff
prop collides with the wingtiphttp://picasaweb.google.pl/Wojtekpara/Wypadek#5238527461393125826

Andre V, CFIG

Any clues as to what caused the tow pilot to lose control at the end
of the runway and/or make the hard right turn into the glider's path?

After watching this a couple of times, it appears to me the tug pilot
intended to turn around and didn't lose control until he saw the
glider about to collide with him - a failure to maintain situational
awareness.

I've had a tug abruptly stop on the runway centerline just after I was
airborne forcing me to fly around him - it's an experience I won't
forget. *Just as in flight, the tug pilot should bear left if aborting
takeoff on the runway so the glider has somewhere to go.

The PZL 104 Wilga's Russian Ivchenko/Vedeneyev radial can be a cranky
beast - 'ready to go' and 'ready to quit' sound about the same. *The
tug pilot may have been confused by that.

I had an L-19 run out of gas on me on a downhiill asphalt runway. I
had just broken ground and my LS-3 was full of water. Full spoilers
and flying it onto the runway to engage the LS's powerful Tost drum
brake (not!) was the only thing that kept me out of the swampy
overrun. The tow pilot was smart enough to coast to a stop off the
left edge of the runway, leaving me room to scoot past on the right
edge of the pavement. I ended up with the tow rope wrapped around my
axle but no harm done.

place and time: competition at Pila in Poland, late August 2009

It happened a year ago, in 2008. The rest is true. Thank God noone got
injured. But there were a few more accidents during that competition. A few
days before one pilot got heavily injured crashing his Cobra glider in a
spin during an outlanding near airfield. It was a very unlucky competition.
Four damaged gliders, one damaged winch, one car (hit by one of the landing
gliders), and finally the tug. Also the weather was very poor: four tasks
played during 16 days of competition (two of them played on the 16th day -
yes, two tasks played one day).

Maciek