since this video and the discussions here I keep my hands on the release! Much better, but I need to be sure not to pull the release by mistake like a sudden reaction or reflexes… thank you for your kind feedback! 😃
If you think that a cable-break at low altitude is dangerous, think of an engine failure at take off and low altitude. You don't even have these 3 seconds, reaction has to be instantaneous to push the nose down. The really challenging question is how much, which will depend on your altitude and speed already achieved.
@@flyneur ... My instructor "failed" the engine a few times on take off at different altitudes during pilot training. The one we practiced more frequently was let's say a couple hundred feet above the ground. That one is no big deal. You are already at best climb speed which is typically very close to best glide so you lower the nose to recover best glide and find the best spot to crash-land straight ahead or with small turns left or right. The "best place" might still be hardly survivable (imagine taking off over a densely populated neighborhood) but I say it's not big deal in the sense that it's not difficult to do the best that can be done, whether that's good enough is a different question but not useful because you can't do better than the best. You have to understand and assume the risks you are taking, decide beforehand what you'll do if the risks materialize, and then stick to the plan. A couple of simulated engine failures after take-off were several hundred feet above the ground. While the prospect outcome for these ones are better, that is actually a bit more complicated from a decision-making perspective. Do I attempt to troubleshoot and re-start the engine or do I focus on the landing strategy? Now I have much more distance and turn angles (even 180 degrees) to look for the best possible site (better if you had identified the potential sites before take-off), etc... Even returning to the field may be an option (an option I attempted only once when we had a strong quarterly headwind during take-off so I was still very close to the field when the engine "failed", but while I was correct in my estimation that I would be able to safely reach the field, I underestimated the effect of that head (now tail) wind and ended up touching way too long and a too high ground speed, I would likely not been able to stop in the remaining but the good thing about a simulated engine failure is that the engine is still working, so I just added power and took off again instead of stopping. Had it been a real engine failure and had I overrun the runway it would have still been survivable and most likely with no injuries, but the plane may have been damaged. The nastiest one, in my opinion, is the "just-after-lift-off" one. From a procedure point of view, it is relatively easy. And whether you have enough (or any) runway ahead is irrelevant because there is nothing you can do about that and it doesn't change what you have to do which is... don't stall and touch down at a landing attitude (don't hit with the nose). However, it is the most difficult and dangerous one because it requires very quick and sharp pilot execution. You are below best-climb/glide, nose is high, drag is high, power is lost and you speed will go down very quickly. There is no altitude to trade for airspeed. You definitively need to INSTANTLY pitch forward, the question is how much. You need to reduce that AoA to prevent a stall, reduce the drag and stop the climb to stop trading airspeed for altitude (which is what you have been doing since the engine failed), so that's a minimum. If the failure happened immediately after rotation, just a few feet in the air, that may be enough. Due to the low speed "level flight" will be with the nose somehow up, and then as you loose more speed the plane would descend and settle on whatever is underneath (hopefully some runway on which you can at least slow down as much as possible before going off). But what if you are somewhere between 10 and 100ft high? Then just leveling off will not work. You would loose The idea would be to assume a "best glide attitude" (you will never achieve the best glide speed though) and then flare "as normal". The problem is that. depending on your altitude, you may need to start the flare while you are still pitching down to (but before reaching) best glide attitude. All this process requires the pilot to judge a lot of things at the same time, and then execute flawlessly, all in an extremely short time span. REALLY challenging.
@@adb012 wow, thank you so much for sharing your detailed insights. I appreciate a lot and it was tense to read! One day I will fly with engine...I hope.
@@flyneur ... One day I will fly a glider, I hope. We powered-airplane people se you glider guys as the creme of the creme of pilots. For us "no engine" means we are living one of our worst nightmares. For you it's Tuesday.
Great video my friend! Nicely done! Here's one note, take it or leave it, I'm not critiquing, it's just something to consider. The moment the cable is connected - hand touching next to the release (at the base of the tubing that the cable slides in) and it stays there. I fly way too many gliders to keep track of location to try to use muscle memory for finding it. It the winch operator accidentally gets a call to go, it could result in disaster. Again, just a note. How often do you guys do failure training?
Very good point! Yes, especially when you change glider types the search for the handle can steel valuable reaction time. I absolutely agree to keep the hands close to the handle (I guess I need to train this again), but not directly grab it, in order to avoid a sudden release by reflex or acceleration of the glider. Thank you for refining the topic, I appreciate your comment! At Unterwössen airfield pilots are obliged to train cable-breaks at the winch (high and low) and tow (low) once a year.
@@flyneur The British Gliding Association (who produced an excellent set of training material for winch launching, to reduce the number of fatalities they'd experienced) recommend putting your hand ON the release knob, not next to it. The French are the same, and I agree. If you drop a wing during the launch, fractions of seconds count.
@@lautoka63 Thanks for adding this point. I will check the documents out for sure. It does make sense, as long you are sure not to pull the release by mistake. 😃🙏
Durant un remorquage, seulement quelques vols sur un monoplace (libelle club), je me suis trop écarté au roulage pendant l'accélération. J'ai voulu larguer: ma main n'est pas tombé naturellement sur la poignée, j'ai cherché la poignée du regard, avec les rebonds au sol ma main n'a pas agrippé immédiatement la poignée, j'ai perdu. 2-3s. Quand j'ai tiré et regardé devant moi j'étais carrément a droite du remorqueur. Mais rien de cassé, juste l'adrénaline !
Yes, I agree in general. In an emergency any field nearby and in sight has priority. On this specific airfield every gilder pilot has to fly the return every year once with an instructor. With enough height and the very good glide ratio of a sailplane it is possible to return safely. But this does not apply to powered aircrafts of course. Thank you for completing!
Sehr spannend inszeniert! Gut, dass Du dieses wichtige Thema aufgreifst und allgemein verständlich beleuchtest!
Viele Fliegergrüße
Andrea
Danke für dein Feedback! 😃
Great videos!! We were always taught to hold the release from the start, in case a wing tip touches the ground, needing immediate release. 🙂
since this video and the discussions here I keep my hands on the release! Much better, but I need to be sure not to pull the release by mistake like a sudden reaction or reflexes…
thank you for your kind feedback! 😃
Great work!
Very good safety thoughts here. Thanks for the video.
خيلي عالي و هيجان انگيز هست ويدئو 🤩✌️🙏🏽
If you think that a cable-break at low altitude is dangerous, think of an engine failure at take off and low altitude. You don't even have these 3 seconds, reaction has to be instantaneous to push the nose down. The really challenging question is how much, which will depend on your altitude and speed already achieved.
I agree, enginge failure must be a nightmare...especially when low and already end of the runway...
@@flyneur ... My instructor "failed" the engine a few times on take off at different altitudes during pilot training. The one we practiced more frequently was let's say a couple hundred feet above the ground. That one is no big deal. You are already at best climb speed which is typically very close to best glide so you lower the nose to recover best glide and find the best spot to crash-land straight ahead or with small turns left or right. The "best place" might still be hardly survivable (imagine taking off over a densely populated neighborhood) but I say it's not big deal in the sense that it's not difficult to do the best that can be done, whether that's good enough is a different question but not useful because you can't do better than the best. You have to understand and assume the risks you are taking, decide beforehand what you'll do if the risks materialize, and then stick to the plan.
A couple of simulated engine failures after take-off were several hundred feet above the ground. While the prospect outcome for these ones are better, that is actually a bit more complicated from a decision-making perspective. Do I attempt to troubleshoot and re-start the engine or do I focus on the landing strategy? Now I have much more distance and turn angles (even 180 degrees) to look for the best possible site (better if you had identified the potential sites before take-off), etc... Even returning to the field may be an option (an option I attempted only once when we had a strong quarterly headwind during take-off so I was still very close to the field when the engine "failed", but while I was correct in my estimation that I would be able to safely reach the field, I underestimated the effect of that head (now tail) wind and ended up touching way too long and a too high ground speed, I would likely not been able to stop in the remaining but the good thing about a simulated engine failure is that the engine is still working, so I just added power and took off again instead of stopping. Had it been a real engine failure and had I overrun the runway it would have still been survivable and most likely with no injuries, but the plane may have been damaged.
The nastiest one, in my opinion, is the "just-after-lift-off" one. From a procedure point of view, it is relatively easy. And whether you have enough (or any) runway ahead is irrelevant because there is nothing you can do about that and it doesn't change what you have to do which is... don't stall and touch down at a landing attitude (don't hit with the nose). However, it is the most difficult and dangerous one because it requires very quick and sharp pilot execution. You are below best-climb/glide, nose is high, drag is high, power is lost and you speed will go down very quickly. There is no altitude to trade for airspeed. You definitively need to INSTANTLY pitch forward, the question is how much. You need to reduce that AoA to prevent a stall, reduce the drag and stop the climb to stop trading airspeed for altitude (which is what you have been doing since the engine failed), so that's a minimum. If the failure happened immediately after rotation, just a few feet in the air, that may be enough. Due to the low speed "level flight" will be with the nose somehow up, and then as you loose more speed the plane would descend and settle on whatever is underneath (hopefully some runway on which you can at least slow down as much as possible before going off). But what if you are somewhere between 10 and 100ft high? Then just leveling off will not work. You would loose The idea would be to assume a "best glide attitude" (you will never achieve the best glide speed though) and then flare "as normal". The problem is that. depending on your altitude, you may need to start the flare while you are still pitching down to (but before reaching) best glide attitude. All this process requires the pilot to judge a lot of things at the same time, and then execute flawlessly, all in an extremely short time span. REALLY challenging.
@@adb012 wow, thank you so much for sharing your detailed insights. I appreciate a lot and it was tense to read! One day I will fly with engine...I hope.
@@flyneur ... One day I will fly a glider, I hope. We powered-airplane people se you glider guys as the creme of the creme of pilots. For us "no engine" means we are living one of our worst nightmares. For you it's Tuesday.
Great video my friend! Nicely done! Here's one note, take it or leave it, I'm not critiquing, it's just something to consider.
The moment the cable is connected - hand touching next to the release (at the base of the tubing that the cable slides in) and it stays there. I fly way too many gliders to keep track of location to try to use muscle memory for finding it. It the winch operator accidentally gets a call to go, it could result in disaster. Again, just a note.
How often do you guys do failure training?
Very good point! Yes, especially when you change glider types the search for the handle can steel valuable reaction time. I absolutely agree to keep the hands close to the handle (I guess I need to train this again), but not directly grab it, in order to avoid a sudden release by reflex or acceleration of the glider. Thank you for refining the topic, I appreciate your comment! At Unterwössen airfield pilots are obliged to train cable-breaks at the winch (high and low) and tow (low) once a year.
@@flyneur The British Gliding Association (who produced an excellent set of training material for winch launching, to reduce the number of fatalities they'd experienced) recommend putting your hand ON the release knob, not next to it. The French are the same, and I agree. If you drop a wing during the launch, fractions of seconds count.
@@lautoka63 Thanks for adding this point. I will check the documents out for sure. It does make sense, as long you are sure not to pull the release by mistake. 😃🙏
Thanks @TheSoaringChannel and @lautoka63 for adding important points, that it is highly recommended to keep the hands ON the release for the launch.
Durant un remorquage, seulement quelques vols sur un monoplace (libelle club), je me suis trop écarté au roulage pendant l'accélération. J'ai voulu larguer: ma main n'est pas tombé naturellement sur la poignée, j'ai cherché la poignée du regard, avec les rebonds au sol ma main n'a pas agrippé immédiatement la poignée, j'ai perdu. 2-3s. Quand j'ai tiré et regardé devant moi j'étais carrément a droite du remorqueur. Mais rien de cassé, juste l'adrénaline !
Returning to the airfield of departure should not be a priority ! Hashtag "Impossible Turn" 🤔
Yes, I agree in general. In an emergency any field nearby and in sight has priority. On this specific airfield every gilder pilot has to fly the return every year once with an instructor. With enough height and the very good glide ratio of a sailplane it is possible to return safely. But this does not apply to powered aircrafts of course. Thank you for completing!