Residential Street Glider 'Landing' Video

Jpax

Jpax

Well-Known Member
Pretty cool video, luckily he was able to get it down in a decent spot! And got a strike on those garbage cans. :cool:

 
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Pilot's comments - worth reading

"Complacency has no place in soaring. I was trained better than to have lingered on the lee-side of a ridge over rough terrain. The dramatic outlanding was due to my actions exclusively.

While tight turns over roofs, brushing treetops and dodging street signs are not desired flight maneuvers, they do make for interesting viewing. An almost perfect (for a power pilot and plane but not a sailplane) landing until an unnoticed mailbox catches the right wing of the sailplane about 8 inches from the tip.

The original is 16 minutes of Full High Definition Video and shows every second of the events leading to this out-landing/ crash. It has been closely reviewed and much learning has taken place. My instructor, safety officer, FAA and NTSB were all outstanding professionals in helping grow skills from this experience.

More videos on this are coming. See if you can spot how the differences between a power pilot's training and a glider pilot's training could have contributed to this outcome."

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Critique posted from a glider tow pilot

"Larry, You've got to be flying a lot slower! You should be able to stop a 1-26 in about the length of a tow rope (shorter even). Touching down "two point" is the way to go. So many glider instructors never get their students to make a habit of low energy landings every time and this is a common result. I see the single wheel high speed landings all the time taught as a norm, it just doesn't make sense. Low speed and stick in your lap everytime is the way to go!"

(Qutch comment - I agree. That's the first thing I thought of. It really doesn't take that much runway to put down a glider. drunkenbeagle Inverted25 Nihon_Ni @rvg203, tlewis95 rvg203 @TowJoe ?)
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cousin+eddie+Bingo.jpg

Dang he had some speed.

(Edit: this surprisingly makes me want to take soaring back up now that it's only two hours away)
 
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I know there are severe penalties for anyone trying to sneak junk (like Chemtrails or CIA Conspiracies) into the General Section. What's the penalty for mistakenly putting quality material like this glider video in the Lav Section?

I wouldn't know, since I've never come up with any quality material to post.
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Qutch said:
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I know there are severe penalties for anyone trying to sneak junk (like Chemtrails or CIA Conspiracies) into the General Section. What's the penalty for mistakenly putting quality material like this glider video in the Lav Section?

I wouldn't know, since I've never come up with any quality material to post.
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Free beer! Delivered overnight for Sunday delivery in a container of dry ice. What's better than free drinks and dry ice?! Well, a lot of things, but that's beside the point ;)
 
Jpax said:
Free beer! Delivered overnight for Sunday delivery in a container of dry ice. What's better than free drinks and dry ice?! Well, a lot of things, but that's beside the point ;)
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Well since you screwed this up, wasting it in the Lav where people like me who know nothing about aviation hang out, I'm thinking you started drinking a day early.
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The first thing I thought too was wayyyy to fast. Hard to say exactly how fast but I would say 65-70mph when 50 would have been just fine. Another great example of why fields > roads 95% of the time. Oh well, he walked away with nothing more then bent pride and metal and learned from it, hopefully others can too.
 
tlewis95 said:
The first thing I thought too was wayyyy to fast. Hard to say exactly how fast but I would say 65-70mph when 50 would have been just fine. Another great example of why fields > roads 95% of the time. Oh well, he walked away with nothing more then bent pride and metal and learned from it, hopefully others can too.
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What are the rules on landing off airport in a glider? Can you get in any sort of trouble even if no property damage occurred?
 
Jpax said:
What are the rules on landing off airport in a glider? Can you get in any sort of trouble even if no property damage occurred?
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"Landing Out" is part of the sport of soaring (during distance competitions it's expected - you fly until you can't find lift. Altitude record is over 50,000 ft, the distance record is over 1800 miles I think. They come down where they come down.)

Wikipedia - If lift is not found during a cross-country flight, for example because of deteriorating weather, the pilot must choose a location to "land out". Although inconvenient and often mistaken for "emergency landings", landing out (or "outlanding") is a routine event in cross-country gliding. The pilot has to choose a location where the glider can be landed safely, without damaging the plane, the pilot, or property such as crops or livestock. The glider and the pilot(s) can then be retrieved by road from the outlanding location using a purpose-built trailer. In some instances, a tow-plane can be summoned to re-launch the aircraft.

We just call for the trailer (not me of course, but others not as talented as me)
trailer.jpg


No one told me, later when I joined the Air Force, that Landing Out is not O.K. I could not believe how much it cost to retrieve my T-38 from that farmer's field.
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Landing out where I soar is very common. Fly until the lift dies which sometimes happens rather quickly. Usually not a big deal. We have a lot of open fields here that won't damage glider. I disagree with the comment though about two point landing a 1-26. If you want to stop a 1-26 you want to put it on its nose. It has a special skid designed to stop it almost immediately and it won't damage it. I have landed our clubs 1-26 across our grass runway before when the winds shifted to a string crosswind. That thing will stop on a dime
 
Inverted25 said:
Landing out where I soar is very common. Fly until the lift dies which sometimes happens rather quickly. Usually not a big deal. We have a lot of open fields here that won't damage glider. I disagree with the comment though about two point landing a 1-26. If you want to stop a 1-26 you want to put it on its nose. It has a special skid designed to stop it almost immediately and it won't damage it. I have landed our clubs 1-26 across our grass runway before when the winds shifted to a string crosswind. That thing will stop on a dime
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You can also float a 1-26 for about a mile in ground effect at 5kts above stall speed.
 
I didn't necessarily agree with all of the Tow Pilot's critique either. Extra speed is prudent when dealing with unknown conditions, or possible turbulence around structures. This pilot was landing without knowledge of winds, in an area populated by houses, so for that and a number of other reasons I don't question the extra approach speed (insurance). What I question was his failure to side slip and bleed off energy once in the ground-effect over the road, instead of floating down the road all day. Then, as you say @Inverted25, he could have put it down and used the skid. No reason for him to have used up all that roadway.

Watching the video, I was waiting for a car or child on a bicycle to pull out into his path. As it turned out, he eventually found a mailbox and some garbage cans. The garbage cans were good symbolic stop for this landing.


Forward Slip to bleed off energy - common glider technique
 
Slipping a glider in ground effect is almost always a bad idea. Too much wingspan, even a little slip is going to dig a wingtip into the ground.

Spoilers, mail wheel, and use the brakes..
 
drunkenbeagle said:
Slipping a glider in ground effect is almost always a bad idea. Too much wingspan, even a little slip is going to dig a wingtip into the ground.

Spoilers, mail wheel, and use the brakes..
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OK. But that's what I was taught, never had a problem. Still see it being done, like in the video. Bring me up to speed. Do you still see it being done, but you disagree with it? Or do you not see it being done where you are? Or are you just suggesting that it be completed a few feet above ground effect to be on the safe side? (That makes sense to me, maybe that's how I should have described it.)

Reason I'm interested........it was my glider instructor who also demanded spin proficiency before solo. Required that I be able to do a minimum 1 full rotation and then roll out exactly on a heading he assigned during the spin. Did spin practice every flight, then I was cleared to do them alone from my second solo.......Fast forward a few years and now I hear that "spin training is a bad idea, too dangerous." The philosphy has changed. I get these looks now when I suggest spin training :eek2: . :eek: . Sometimes flat refusal :def: . Even for sailplane training. Philosophy change since I trained.

So, since when did the forward side slip become dangerous? Or are you just suggesting that it be completed with a few extra feet of cushion?
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drunkenbeagle said:
Slipping a glider in ground effect is almost always a bad idea. Too much wingspan, even a little slip is going to dig a wingtip into the ground.

Spoilers, mail wheel, and use the brakes..
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Yeah. And what's this "mail wheel" thing? That must be new also. Man, I am so out of date. :)
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