Volume 32 No 1 Feb-Mar 1981.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

KNOWING WHEN TO SAY NODEAN CARSWELLOnce upon a time many years ago, therewas a gliding club so sma'll and so poorthat its only flying as,set was an agedT-21 (or perhaps bits of two or three,consideringils lopsided manner of flying)which was operated from a lonelymoor. This lack of facil,ities was, however,more than compensated by theenthusiasm of its small and faithful bandof members.~.. ~_... ;: \ ---;~- ...,,-lWiftChl ...BO-G --; /;.k.'Off ~~)~... ~ \.Iancling, mound .~l~ ~--, ~ '~.~~._~.~~.,/_. ~>l(,&.0 AircrafthutA few words of description of the siteare in order, When described as a moor,it perhaps does not demonslrate ,the factthat it was a heather bog with outcrops ofrock joining two small mounds of firmerground Iyi,ng about one thousand yardsapart, in an east-west direction, one usedfor the winch and the other as the launchpoint. Any journey between the tworequired use of waders, and any landingother than on one of the mounds meantcertain damage to the aircraft. Thelaunching cable was pulled out by a smallretrieve winch. The mound ut the eas ­ern launch. point was the shape of anupturned spoon, about U)() yards long, 50yards across alils widest point and 15fthigh at the centre with a rough surfacewhic,h just about permitted the T-21 toland without harm. The T-21 I'ived in avery small hut adjacent [0 the southernedge of the mound, and was riggedbefore (lying each day.My experience with this site was fairlybrief, and started through a plea for hdpfrom the club for an instructor. The CFIwas heaviJy commilled with his professional,activities, and (perhaps wisely)rarely came near the site. He emigratedto Australia very soortly after the eventsdescribed. The only time I saw him wasthe first time I wenl along when I had mycheck flight,. and was left to get on withit. It was immediately obvious that noab-initio I'ilo,t was ever going to go onfirst solo from the site.. Every touchdowninvolved arriving at the same spot withthe sort of p~ecision that I imagine aPnanlom pilot requires to catch the thirdarrestor wire on his aircraft carrier ahUl1dre,d times oul of a hundred. To befair to the club aodits members. considerablecare was lavished on the equip-18ment, and Ihe cable was meticulouslyexamined each day before flying. So fm;as I kflOW, there had never been worsethan minor damage to the aircraft,caused by stones, during the whole timeof operation from this site. Old membershinted darkly that their previous site, acow pasture, had been altogether tooshort .and sloping - the imaginationboggles!Tile club had some difficulty attractingnew members, and in an attempt to gainwider publicity, a joumalist from a localnewspaper had been invited along on thisparticular day, accompanied by thejunior photographer. The first couple ofhlU'nches were uneventful, but the thirdhad to be discontinued about two thirdsof the way up as the winch succumbedto an acute attack of asthma.A little apprehensiveThe fourth tlig'ht was for the local pressman,;having been fully briefed by theclub Ohairman, he was now ready to seefor himself. All the club membersgathered round, anxious Ihat only goodPR was going to be generated. On theother mound the winch could be heardsnorting in the distance. At Ihis point,. Iwas dislracted fmm my concerns andintroduced to the pressman as the localexpert who wou'ld fly him round. Itquickly became apparent Ihat the 4ft II inrepresentative of the· fOUl"lh estate wasnot just a little apprehensive - he waspetrified to the exlenl that his kneeswere literally trembling. As a consequence,about nine-tenths of the pre-flightbriefing was concerned with reassuringthe unfOrtunate passenger that nothingwould go wrong. and even if it did, everyeventuality (including launch failure) hadbeen calered for.Around the time my passenger wasfirmly strapped into the T -21 someonesaid that the winch driver thought thew.inch was OK. Full of hearty encouragementand enthusiasm, and concernedles't my passenger collapsed with nervousexhaustion in mere anticipation ofhis ordeal, I quickly had the cableattached and commenced the launch.Sounds of encouragement to pressman- all out -initial g,entle climb. As theaircraft rotated into Ihe full climb, mypassenger let out a scream followedalmost immediately by total failure of thewinch and removal of' encouraging grinfrom local expert.The ai'rcran, I suppose, was at somewherebetween 150 and 200ft wilh ap,ilot. for once, speechless. The onlycoherent thought remaining was thatwhatever I did the aircraft was almostcertain to gel broken - so al least Imight as well break it where the walk toIhe "hangar" was shortest, hack on thetake-ofT mound. This e:lucidation ofHobson's choice led, in less time than ittakes to say, (passenger now just groaningfeebly) to a sloppy chandelle and theaircraft going downwind aiming for lhegap between the mound and the hangar.By this time, the suicidal tendencies ofthe ,pilot had been grasped by the 20 or sosupporting cas,t waitililg on the mound,who proceeded to run in every direction.We arr,ived opposite the hangar pointingdownwind, about 10 or 15ft abo,ve theground. A left turn as steep as I daredwithout stubbing the winglip on theground brought the T-21 on to a northerlyheading, level wilh the top of themound. Nothing could stop the aircraftgoing right over the top and nosingslraight i-nto the bog at lhe bottom of themound.The slowest spectator just moved outof sight of the corner of my eye behindthe winglip as we came over the lop of,the mound. Then it happened. Suddenlurbulence and just sufficient lift to raiseIhe aircraft three or four feet up - presumablythe north-west wind was justs,trong enough to provide a little hill lift.Head in his handsNeeding no second chance we executeda final flat turn to the left and succeededin bringing the T-2 I1 10 a standstill bymisuse of the nose skid, a few yardsshort of the west end of the mound andbog. I then remembered my passenger,who had completed the second half ofthe flight with his head in his hands, missingIhe best part, and tried ,to convincehim that really, every even'tual,ity hadbeen thought of, and H was all free fromrisk, just as originally promised.Turning to the purpose of this articlethere are a number of object lessons cryingout to be learned. Never was· ,there abetter example of the need to h~lVe ac1ear,ly thought out plan to cope with a'launch failure - and that was not necessarilyturning instan,taneously downwindin a situation where the only sensib'lelanding place might make a downwindlanding preferable. Secondly. it makesSAILPLANE & GLIDING