In wave, in blue hole at cloud level, hole closes, in IMC, then what?

So I'm flying in a blue hole in wave lift of 5 m/s, trimmed to 50 knots, in clear air with a cloud layer upwind and downwind, cloud top above and cloud base below. Suddenly I find myself in IMC. What are my options?

My glider is capable of benign spiral. I open the spoilers, (already trimmed to 50 knots) and let go of stick and rudder. Then I mentally rehearse my bail out procedure and expect to come out below the cloud (or possibly above). It seems like I should decisively and without hesitation initiate the spiral ASAP, while the glider is still relatively level and at cruising airspeed.

Suggestions?

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 7:08:36 AM UTC-7, son_of_flubber wrote:

Suggestions?

Flaps 90, and grind out of the bottom of the cloud at 50 kts.

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 9:55:15 AM UTC-5, Bob Kuykendall wrote:


Flaps 90, and grind out of the bottom of the cloud at 50 kts.

Love my 90 degree flaps! You have to push to keep it up at 50 knots!

Hmmmmmm, The spiral dive is exactly what you don't want! Think about it, your in the soup, cranked over holding your spiral and the airspeed keeps building. What do you do? Pull back to slow it down, right? There is a name for that situation, its called a dead-man-spiral.
I'm for pulling the spoilers, trim for 65 and turn loose. Try it next time you have extra altitude. I once logged something like 30 minutes in my H-301 Libelle (spoilers closed), she never went over 45 degrees and I hadn't touched anything for 30 minutes.
JJ

In his original post he said "benign spiral"...

My Mosquito had terminal velocity limiting trailing edge brakes.
My ASW-19 did a lovely benign spiral.
My LS-6a was divergent in pitch and would quickly go out of control
without positive inputs.

Haven't tried it in my LAK-17a... Must remember to give it a try at the
end of my next flight!

On 4/8/2015 9:04 AM, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Hmmmmmm, The spiral dive is exactly what you don't want! Think about it, your in the soup, cranked over holding your spiral and the airspeed keeps building. What do you do? Pull back to slow it down, right? There is a name for that situation, its called a dead-man-spiral.
I'm for pulling the spoilers, trim for 65 and turn loose. Try it next time you have extra altitude. I once logged something like 30 minutes in my H-301 Libelle (spoilers closed), she never went over 45 degrees and I hadn't touched anything for 30 minutes.
JJ

--
Dan Marotta

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 11:22:24 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
In his original post he said "benign spiral"...

Right. Benign. The thing that is somewhat new to me is the possible desirability of initiating the benign spiral promptly, before the glider departs from a normal attitude.

My old Grob Speed Astir II (G104) had a benign spiral mode that was actually outlined in the flight manual. It worked.

My LS-8 will not hold a benign spiral. It begins a series of pitch downs and pitch ups that just keep gaining in amplitude and airspeed. I have not tried holding centralized controls but I can easily see where the plane would start banking due to turbulance and then you enter the death spiral.

Because of this, my new instruments have an artificial horizon (S80).

The more common scenario that broke gliders few times in wave is that you are already flying close to VNE when you find yourself in a cloud since you already trying to escape. It can be a meter of seconds until you loose you wings. What do you do? Do you pull full spoilers at VNE? Or do you slow down first and zoom deeper in the cloud before opening spoilers? The 27 manual doesn't specifically says don't open spoiler at VNE but the common wisdom says don't.

Ramy

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 11:04:10 AM UTC-4, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Hmmmmmm, The spiral dive is exactly what you don't want! Think about it, your in the soup, cranked over holding your spiral and the airspeed keeps building. What do you do? Pull back to slow it down, right? There is a name for that situation, its called a dead-man-spiral.
I'm for pulling the spoilers, trim for 65 and turn loose. Try it next time you have extra altitude. I once logged something like 30 minutes in my H-301 Libelle (spoilers closed), she never went over 45 degrees and I hadn't touched anything for 30 minutes.
JJ

HOLY CRAP!

No problem in my 2-32, with dive brakes that won't let me go over VNE, but it didn't work at all in my Jantar 2A.

Boggs