0:44 The reason for this accident was that part of the seatbelt holding the pilot in the upside down cockpit came loose and hit the pilot Albert Falderbaum in the eye. Trough shock and pain he gave a wrong input to the planes controls hitting the tarmac with his vertical stabilizer. Falderbaum survived the Crash after two weeks in a coma. He was killed six years later when testing a new piston engine Aircraft (Siebel SIAT 222 Reg.: D-EKYT. Thanks for the video. Regards from Germany.
Thanks for details, but watching this video, the upside - down flight was executed MUCH TOO LOW. That proves the truth; pilots are getting crazy on airshows (sometimes). Regards
Interesting....and it's the reason I always fasten and pull tight the seatbelt of an empty seat next to me whenever I fly, commercial or otherwise. In turbulence or worse that buckle could brain you.
Albert Falderbaum was the pilot in the first crash and he probably got into gliding as a consequence of Germany being constrained (after 1918) in matters of military aviation and developed gliders and gliding in a big way. He did not die in the accident shown but was killed in trying to parachute out of a new sports aircraft (as a test pilot) six years later in 1961. [German Wikipedia]
My commercial airplane pilot father who started out in biplanes maintained that the three cardinal rules of flying were "1) keep your airspeed, 2) keep your airspeed and 3) God d*mnit keep your airspeed!". The fact that he survived 4 years of naval flying and 27 years of commercial flight during the dangerous 40s, 50s an 60s without a single incident or emergency shows how seriously he took those.
Your airline pilot father was equally as ignorant as the subject pilot in this video who like your father believes that stalling a plane is due to low airspeed when in reality airspeed has nothing to do with stalls. You can only stall an aircraft by pulling too much elevator causing the plane to reach its critical stall angle of attack. Only elevator input stalls a plane.
@@drizlerwrong the monster ONLY comes out when you pull excessive elevator. ONLY elevator input stalls a plane. airspeed, bank angle, slipping, G, all haver zero to do with stalls. A plane stalls at the sane aft stick pull every time. Called stall stick position. How this is not common knowledge with pilots is beyond me.
@@chipcity3016 - thanks, as a student pilot, you've given me an experiment to run (at a safe altitude). I like to have my understanding challenged and - upon verification - revised regularly.
As a relatively inexperienced pilot about 46 years ago I did almost exactly the same in a K18 from an airtow cable break at just under circuit height over the boundary hedge. I made a right turn back to land down wind and found that I needed to make a much tighter turn than I initially planned. I stalled and came in on the right wing and everything crumbled around me. I broke a lot of bones all down my right side and spent nearly 6 months in hospital, the worst being the physio. However within a further 6 months I was able to take up a flying scholarship. The crash taught me all about recognising an insipient stall/spin, I never entered an unintentional stall after that.
I'm an ex glider pilot and was at Shorham and saw the crash. Surprised when it appeared he was going for a down wind landing rather than just keeping the turn going and landing into wind. Conditions were breezy but I didn't think it was unflyable.
To my untrained eye, it looks like he tried to turn and land into wind but had lost too much air speed when he initiated the turn... so he didn't manage to complete the turn.
I have been flying RC planes for 18 years, but the principle is the same: if you fly low with or without an engine that no longer works, "never take sharp turns" because then you lose speed and control of your plane!
It's actually amazing how survivable accidents in gliders can be. Back in 90s I used to fly them. The one day we were watching a guy coming in very low & slow. We expected him to land in the corn fields which were on the end he was approaching from but he persisted. As he crossed the fence he had to make a 30 deg turn to align with the runway and at that moment his left wing decided to stop flying. He hit the ground at a near 90 deg bank and sheared of about half the wing. The glider then cartwheeled, rotated 180 without touching the nose and tore of the right wing followed by the tail. He was completely unharmed sitting in the front half of the fuselage.
Rolling upright without the tail is a miraculous outcome. It was a highly improbable trick so low to the ground without elevator control. Perfect momentum.
@@ladygardener100part of his harness was messed up and when he flew inverted it fell onto his face . This is certainly the worst case scenario even for a masterful pilot and I think we see his true skill in the recovery, not the lack of his skill in an equipment failure causing the tail-strike.
You can see the point of disaster strike at 1:47. He pulls up while still crosswind in a slightly climbing left turn, visibly losing airspeed and the stall kicks in immediately this happens. If he had kept the nose down that wing would have not stalled…but I think he was trying to tighten the base leg turn to line up with the strip before his energy bled away. Too slow, too tight….
I'm an ex glider pilot and was at the show and saw the accident. I think the mistake was made far earlier, possibly even before take off. Immediately after release he turned down wind and then popped the air brakes. I thought it was crazy trying for a down wind landing given his height and wind speed. I don't know if he could land straight ahead but he could easily have made a 360 and then landed into wind. I'm pretty sure his preflight briefing to himself wouldn't have included a down wind landing under those conditions. He ended up putting himself into a position where he was forced to change his plans and make a 180 at low level. I think most glider pilots would find that tight turn difficult in the conditions. It was quite breezy but not unflyable.
Thank you, I always learn something from your expert analysis and this is no different.. Sticking to solid fundamentals and procedures is the key to safe flying. Planning for the worst is the best way to avoid disaster. I'm happy the pilot survived, that was a very scary crash! Let's all stay humble and open minded about flying safely.
I would rather be down here wishing I was up there than being up there wishing I was down here. Instruction I was given when assessing weather conditions prior to flight.
Thanks for visiting this. Many lessons indeed, but the big one that strikes me, is giving in to pressure when you have a lot of cards clearly showing that are stacked against you. "No Old-Bold Test Pilots" eh? The survivors respect the deck, know how to read the cards and when to fold. On another note, many years ago I prototyped a voice alert system, that among several parameters monitored airspeed and rate of climb or decent and provides a "SLOW!" alert when a few kts. above stall, "STALL SPEED!" at indicated Stall speed, and "SINK RATE!" when airspeed was at or below normal approach speed and sink rate was above 1000 Feet per min. I test flew it in an old Bonanza I had, as I knew someone who stalled and killed himself and his wife in a Bonanza, and they are a bit insidious when it comes to approach and departure stalls. I found it a worthwhile safety feature, and I would be curious if you or anyone else has any opinion as to if such a device might be useful and of interest in a sailplane or other aircraft?
I agree, a system to alert the pilot to low airspeed situations could help to prevent stall/spins. Most digital avionics now have similar systems with voice alerts and chimes to focus attention. What I have not seen for general aviation is an AOA index ladder HUD, in the pilot's line of sight, adjustable for seat position and height. The engineering solutions I've seen are pretty crude and non-standard in their design. A smart company with a new approach can create an advanced solution, but the engineering needs to take a back seat to human factors in its design. Keep working on developing your project, it sounds like you are on the right track.
@@bernieschiff5919 Thanks for the thoughts and encouragement. AOA HUD system for general aviation would be great, and there have been some aftermarket systems introduced, but they never seemed to catch on. I suspect largely due to cost, installation complexities and having to be certified to each aircraft. I looked at doing an aftermarket AOA system decades ago but given that it's something that becomes a primary flight instrument rather than a warning accessory, getting it certified was a huge challenge as was product liability, and that was the reason I switched to the idea of a simple alert system. What I prototyped and tested was back in the mid-90's using mostly analog circuitry, and today doing it with an inexpensive micro-controller would be a lot less involved, and 'G' and pitch sensors could be added for additional stall warning. At the time My product price point was about $800 to $1200 depending on functionality, but a simple airspeed alert could might be produced and sold for a few hundred dollars, rather than $40k to $150k for a digital flight control system and panel, which might be more inline for vintage aircraft and sailplanes. I had sort of forgot about the system until last fall when a low-time pilot killed himself in a Bonanza in a low-speed, low-altitude stall-spin. As this video showed how even an advanced pilot in a forgiving sailplane can do it, I started thinking more about re-visiting the project. Thanks again.
Never noticed before but in the photo where the wing tip has struck the ground, you can see a big crease in the fuselage right through the logo..... glad to hear the pilot survived.
it's a physics problem of converting energies (P + V) into ripping material (metal and composite) bonds apart, hopefully enough to survive. Can you tell I'm an engineer? Interesting and cool video! thx
i have seen lots of discussion in the US about the impossible turn. This stall spin is the exact result of trying to return rather than landing straight ahead. It kills a high proportion of GA Pilots every year here. I think the only reason it didn't here was the lower velocity, closer to the ground, and the absolute total fragmentation of the cockpit. It would have been better if the cockpit cage hadn't been violated and other parts of the craft had instead broken, but the fact that so much broke loose ate a bunch of energy making it barely survivable.
I stopped going to airshows; showoffs cause too many tragedies. I have a UK PPL but also fly RC planes. I could see from my RC experience that he had no chance of a successful turn in that weather and altitude.
The cause was not having considered an early pull-off from the tow - and what would happen after that. Had he decided to abandon the aerobatics after ditching the tow, he'd likely have made a safe landing, and "endured" a short retrieval back to the flight-line. This is the same runway at Shoreham (21 as was) which the Hawker Hunter crashed parallel to.
But how did the slack get into the tow? The only way I can imagine is that the glider had picked up speed due to dropping it's altitude. If that was the case surely he'd have only needed to lift the nose to take up the slack. If he was worried about the towing plane having too much extra speed to take up the slack smoothly, then he just needed to drop the nose to pick up a bit of speed. Maybe it's my lack of knowledge, but I can't understand why he'd release at such a low altitude with such little momentum.
@@KenFullman If the cable becomes slack, it then retightens, applying a sudden shock to both the gilder and the tug. This can apply structural or aerodynamic forces to either which can damage or destroy them. Hence a weak-link. There's also a very dangerous effect called the slingshot effect, when iirc the glider gets high on tow, which pulls up the tug tail, causing it to dive and increase speed, causing the glider to pitch up more - and be unable to prevent it or to pull off, due to the tension on the rope. That's killed a few tug pilots over the years.
I’m not a glider pilot, but looking at the still shot at the 2 min 2 sec mark on the video it appears the wing spoiler is deployed, not sure why a pilot would do that in that attitude for a glider especially when lift is needed instead of drag.
@@KenFullman Good question! I think it's because of the gilder can get off to one side or the other, so the rope (not a cable on aerotows) is diagnonal between the tug and glider. This can easily happen if the glider fails to keep his wings precisely parallel to those of the tug aircraft. If the glider then corrects too quickly or too aggressively, slack is introduced into the rope. (The hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle being longer that the other two sides). That then jerks the glider forwards rapidly when the rope becomes tight again. This oscillation of tightening and slackening of the rope can increase in magnitude, so pulling off the tow is the cure if it can't be dealt with. Controlling these deviations and recognising them is the main object of aerotow training. TBH I've not flown a glider in 25 years or more, so others may have better explanations, but it's my belief the above is broadly correct!
The glider crashed for one reason and one reason only; he exceeded the critical angle of attack. Plain and simple. You do that, it stalls. It's not necessarily about airspeed; you can stall a wing at almost any airspeed if you exceed the angle of attack. For example, a wing will stall at a significantly higher airspeed when you pull Gs in a turn.
Actually it is about airspeed. The steeper the AOA... the greater your airspeed needs to be. Fighter jets routinely stall their wings performing combat maneuvers. The reason they don't crash is because they are moving so fast.
I'm glad you called the downwind to base turn stall the result of an optical illusion and not a change in actual airspeed experienced by the wing. It's amazing that the argument that TAS actually falls because of the decreasing tailwind component wind is ridiculous. Great breakdown!
My second solo (grob 103) I was playing with 4 golden eagles in a thermal and when I headed back I was low and did a straight in final. I was also determined to land at beginning of field so held it up by slowing down, instead of landing in the field across the street. I was maybe 60 feet up when a breeze took me over the parking lot.. about 80 feet left of field. I had to wrestle it over in a steep bank while staring at the wingtip only a couple feet from the grass. (Instructor thought I would cartwheel) I kept the nose down enough to not stall and straightened out right over the runway and landed pretty close to where I intended, but that minute or two holding back on the speed was a real learning experience. I’ve reflown that flight in my mind many times, I should have landed short across the street and just dealt with the embarrassment of waiting too long to head home. I probably shouldn’t have done a spin to follow an eagle when it folded its wings and dove either… but that part was fun
It was always hammered in to me not to stretch a glide, convert whatever height you have into speed and use that energy to pull up a little and gain height.
@@potrzebieneuman4702 I didn’t realize I was stretching the glide. I was a couple knots too slow, and might have brought the nose up 1 degree without knowing. It was decades ago, hard to recall every instant except the one when I realized I was over the parking lot, and a second later staring at the wingtip to prevent contact with the grass. From that instant on I remember every detail, not so much the minutes of straight in final. Also it handles very different solo vs dual, and only had maybe 35 minutes solo time, second landing, so chalk it up to inexperience with how it handled solo. I’m thin too, typically under 120 pounds, so the weight difference minus a 185+ pound instructor is even more pronounced.
Strange that when he flew downwind, he did have his airbrakes open, when he hardly had enough altitude to make his 180 degree turn to the land spot. It looks to me that there were 3 slices of cheese with a hole in it, that lined up. 1, the illusion of speed when flying downwind, high groundspeed, but not airspeed. 2:With airbrakes open, the part of the wing where the airbrakes are produce less lift, so the stall speed is higher, becouse the rest of the wing has to produce more lift. Tthat in combination with flying downwind, and have not checked his airspeed. 3: he forgot to fly his base leg. Glad that he was relatively ok!
I'm in flight school right now and last friday the point was made to not use your ailerons near stall speed. 4:11 onwards and especially 4:20 illustrate this very nicely.
Very true, but it is near impossible to resist initial aileron input for a wing dropping no matter how much you have practiced. As always, it's best to recognize the developing situation before it gets to the point of a tight maneuver at minimum controllable speeds.
I fly RC models and can recognise that particular "bobbling" motion before a stall. If you see that the wing airflow is very close to delamination. Even abruptly adding power can cause anti-torque induced roll sufficient to "knock" the airflow off the wings. I've learned to hold my breath and handle the controls very gingerly when I see it happening. Obviously you need to add energy by either gently opening the throttle, nosing down or whatever else you got available. But gently
@@Rapscallion2009 ''The biggest we make is the Adler, it has a 2m wing span, but it's not one of my designs, I only work on the powered models...'' ''He's crazy Lou. He builds toy aeroplanes..'' ''TOY'' aeroplanes?? Flight of the Phoenix 1965
Nice to see a gliding safety site like this. In retrospect, I'm curious why he didn't try to land after he released the tow? His track passes over the runway (downwind). He may have had enough speed and runway to do a downwind landing rather than dropping speed in a turn. I remember talking with my instructor about the "what if's". Maybe we just get too locked in to a regular routine, in this case, the pattern.
Had a friend wreck his glider after running out of enough lift to make it back to the field. He said one second he was sitting in the cockpit and the next he was sitting on the ground. The aircraft literally disintegrated beneath him, but it absorbed the majority of the impact so he wasn't badly hurt.
Funny you should say that, it's a common thought that the accident was caused by running out of lift. I've even seen that in accident reports! The problem though is never running out of lift, that is the nature of gliding, we can expect to run out of lift, often. The cause is more likely not being in range of a safe place to land. Glad he wasn't hurt though! that's the main thing.
My friend Bob was killed gliding in NZ a couple of years ago - one has to be so careful and attentive all the time, especially when coming up to ridges, etc.
@@PureGlide I"m glad you've got it. He was a top bloke - I'd known him for over 20 years in Queenstown. I'd lost contact for a year or so when I was overseas and only found out via his daughter when I returned.
Hi. I am an exgliderpilot in the UK. I first flew solo when I was 67 cand soon had my Bronze and cross country endorsement all this with no electronic devises. I appreciate modern electronic devices greatly increase the scope for flights especially difficult terrain but have they enhanced the feeling of achievement whe navigating with only a paper map. I was also a keen hillwalker and always depended on map and compass and never had to call on the mountain rescue services. Modern electronic devises are amazing but I think we had more fun with our limited use of these devices. Incidentally I am now 93 years old so maybe I feel behind the times. Alan Cumbria
What I don’t get is that he was going down wind at very low level with his air brakes extended. You would think that with that amount of wind you would save energy as you can easily stick it on a dime once you turn into wind......
I disagree with your point, the pilot hadn't kept an eye on the airspeed indicator, because there's no need for that. You hear the speed, unless you're tone-deaf and you feel the force of the wind in your rudder. You've mistaken that man for a rookie. Greetings from Germany.
Final rule.... if you don't have altitude.... land straight in front of you instead of attempting the impossible turn. If you are near stall speed and attempt a turn, you will spin the plane/glider. A low altitude spin is a pilot killer. Any low altitude spin has dire consequences. It is much safer to maintain level flight, keep the airspeed safe and land on whatever is in front of you! Maintaining control gives you a chance to survive. This pilot is incredibly lucky.
I seems to me that air-shows are about the most dangerous additional activities a pilot can engage in; from I've seen on UA-cam it is not wise to be a member of the audience either .
Mee too! I think air-shows are like bird's courtshipping. I've been on several air-shows and every time an accident or near-acident happened. Keep off!
@@haraldschallerl2973 I've been to a lot of airshows where nothing happened but amazing flying. Obviously we see more accidents from airshows since there are lots of flights, lots of people, and lots of cameras. Anyone flying at an airshow needs to avoid succumbing to the "watch this" and "plan continuation bias" risks. Pilots have done dumb and dangerous things that they thought would impress the crowd, but we have to keep in mind that mostly the crowd doesn't know the difference in skill or risk between a fast level fly-by and an aileron roll 10 feet above the runway. Avoid unnecessary risks.
@@happyduckling Is any aviation authority or association keeping airshow statistics which are published? I follow Dan Gryder's weekly roundup of serious incidents in the US and Blancolirio too and I have never heard mention of airshow statistics being mentioned.
I drove a car into a ditch one time, but the ditch had like a straight up 6 ft drop. They type of crash where your ass end takes some of the impact is worse than the type where you slam into the seat restraints. My tail bone was on fire for like a week, sitting was painful. And that's maybe a 40mph crash. This guy is lucky he's not a paralegic.
Shoreham again, geeeesh, the same airfield saw the terrible Hawker Hunter crash a few years back, also during an airshow, I used to visit this airfield as a young kid to watch the planes.
Also flonw by a dickhead with more confidence than ability. Andy Hill should have been jailed. Defending barrister managed to poll wool over the jury's heads.
I was here that day, it was a miserable murky day & very little aircraft were displaying, then this guy took to the air but he was forced to stay under the low cloud. He made a very tight turn but just didn’t have the altitude to keep gliding. Interestingly the police/air ambulance helicopter almost crashed at the scene. It’s also interesting that this crash marked the middle crash of three over a period of 8 years where there were crashes at the Shoreham airshow, the first was a Hawker Hurricane in 2007 & the last was of course the huge crash of the Hawker Hunter in 2015.
I think that part of the reason for the downwind turn effect is the wind gradient. As you descend through the wind gradient downwind the wind shear increases the air speed and pilots are tempted to slow down. The optical illusion of increased ground speed doesn't help. Then as you turn into wind descending the wind shear decreases the air speed rapidly. The Baleka accident had some similarities but sadly a much worse outcome
I'm not current at all having done gliding in Australia around 45 years ago but until now I've never heard of doing aerobatics whilst under tow. That sounds incredibly dangerous to me, especially being so low to the ground.
A long ago I was lucky enough to make a few hundreds flight with Swift, so I'd like to add a few points which may not be obvious from a non-aerobatic glider pilot standpoint: The Swift - with aerobatics measures - is a benign plane, but not so with glider measures. What that means? It is designed to be easy to drive into and out of autorotation figures (spins, snap rolls). So you may guess it doesn't require too much rudder to start a rotation at a high angle of attack situation. On the other hand if the thread was centered, only in negative direction it reacted with a bit of wing rocking when I pushed too violently on the stick but I cannot recollect even a single occasion when it wanted to snap out during positive maneuvers. So yes, the Swift flies very nicely till you are coordinated - but there is no guarantee for that when you are trying to save your ass with an emergency 180 turn at an extremely low energy situation. It may sound surprising first, but people who have done quite a lot of aerobatics with the Swift may not have too much experience on the slow-turning characteristics of the plane. The only figure where you want the bird fly slowly is the entry part of the spin. But being it positive or negative, starting it from upward or inverted flight, you always begin it in a symmetrical, wing-level attitude. On a very few occasions when the proper circumstances were given after completing my aerobatic sequence I attempted to gain some altitude in thermals by circling them. Certainly the Swift is not designed for that, so it was only two times when I was able to get back to some meaningful height and earn a free aerobatic ride by that, and in the majority of these attempts I was able to gain altitude very slowly at best - but at least I learned a bit how the plane behaves at slow speeds. With my weight the Swift's stall speed was around 90 km/h IAS, so it was circa 100 km/h which I felt as an optimal circling speed. As I said it didn't have any tendency to depart into a spin, but on the other hand the entering into stall was very distinctive compared to other gliders I've flown. In all other gliders I always learned to feel by pants the signs of an approaching stall (buffeting, unusual stick forces and air noise, etc.). On Swift you can enter into the stall very silently, the attitude is not changing significantly, the controllability isn't reduced - but if you look at the variometer you discover that the altitude rate which was +1-2 m/s a few seconds ago went down to -5-6 m/s. That thing I found totally different from the normal gliders I have known. So despite the unusual slow speed characteristics of the Swift may have been a factor in this accident, I don't think the outcome would have been significantly different with any other glider type. Even I think the Swift was the reason why the pilot survived the crash: its extremely sturdy and still flexible wing absorbed way more energy before breaking than it would happen on a normal glider. But starting a 180 from that altitude and speed - that is something I never want to try even in some benign two-seater. So I totally agree with 4 key learnings of this video, especially with the last one.
Thank you for your insights, they are amazing. Hopefully, you will be willing to share more of your cross country flights. They are a delightful way to experience the exotic vistas you call home. A 5 minute vid can be enjoyed while awaiting transit. A 15 minute vid can be enjoyed over a quick meal. A longer vid can be enjoyed after a session of toil, perhaps with a meal as well. All formats are appreciated, looking forward to more air time with your excellent narrative of the moment. Thanks for staying active. 🦊Riki2Tails
Subscribed immediately! Thank you for such an excellent debrief. I'm too old to learn to fly now but I wish I had. That airspeed problem became obvious to me flying models - trying to launch a glider into the wind would sometimes flip it right on its back before I could get control. The opposite the other way of course. When I studied the basics of wing design and some of the 6-pack instruments the penny dropped!
Beware the downwind turn! Beyond that, the pilot made a complete hash of the the turn itself. Left rudder, left rudder, left rudder! Glad he lived to tell the tale.
Also appears he extended the spoilers in the turn, having them deployed to impact or nearly so. Low altitude steep bank turn with spoilers extended is risky at best, if you’re not maintaining airspeed awareness, the stall spin crash is the likely outcome.
Some years back I watched a friend take off as instructor with a first lesson student. As the tow and glider made a lazy right turn shortly after T/O, the line snapped. It shot back like a whip over the glider wing and jammed the left aileron in position (right turn). Luckily this was farmland, and the forced right turn ended in a relatively smooth landing in wheat. Both walked away fine. Unclear if the student ever said yes to a new lesson.
Regardless of whether you’re an ATP flying an A320 with fancy autothrottles or a glider pilot doing aerobatics, item number 1 is item number 1: watch your airspeed.
Great summary. Absolutely caught out by the tailwind, though he corrected his turn initially which I thought would be him realising a stall was imminent, but then continued another tighter turn resulting in immediate stall.. That didn't make much sense.
I witnessed an almost identical glider stall/crash about 40 years ago at 9A9 glider wave camp. Crashed just off field in mud, demolished cockpit, both wings broke off, pilot broke back and both legs. I was about 200 ft. away and it sounded like an explosion. Pilot thought he could make a steep turn about 100 AGL and land opposite direction after low approach.
he actually stalled during the initial turn (crosswind) an immediate dive and turn into wind should have given him lots of knots. Although as we know descending through that last 10 to 20 metres into wind does suck airspeed. Turning down wind is the one that normally gets us hang glider pilots near the ground though
Sometimes, the weather consumes us, and we end up in an unintended situation. As your video correctly points out, airspeed is critical. I once got caught in a severe weather change at over 12,000 ft mount cook was the turning point, and I decided to head back to Omarama. No chance. As I crossed the lake, I encountered extremely strong downdraught and didn't think I'd make the other side. I was seriously considering ditching in the lake, but I knew the consequences were not good. So I pushed on thinking I could make an old airstrip on the other side of the lake. I was travelling at about 250 knots over the ground! My VNE was 165 knots, and I was close to it. I could see I wouldn't make the strip, so at about 1000 ft, I turned and faced the wind! I'm looking for anywhere I could land. I had slowed to 120 knots and realised I was going backwards with respect to the ground. I quickly understood the wind gradient would be brutal if I didn't have more airspeed. I pushed the nose down until I was at VNE and landed in an old river bed. My ground roll would not have been more than 4 feet. I held the nose down for about an hour before the storm abated, and I could get out and peg down a wing. I'm passing on this story in the hope that if you ever get caught like I did, don't be afraid to pour on the airspeed. If I had approached, slowly say 100 knots, I don't really like to think about how things would have ended. The wind was so severe, that the tussocks were being torn from the ground and my canopy was ripped off the glider after I pegged it down. I had to crawl out to the highway for fear of being blown away if I stood up. Several other gliders were broken that day. I believe, because of a lack of airspeed on approach. We are taught that excessive airspeed is dangerous on landing, but there are exceptions. I had over 2000 hours as PIC at the time and many of those hours as a B cat instructor. None of my students have ever been involved in gliding incidents.
Turn onto final should be a well banked coordinated turn. Do not 'rudder' it around (stall). Do not tighten the turn to line up with the runway, rather fly past and bring it back. I still remember my lessons though I haven't flown in years.
I imagine the pilot didn't look at his airspeed indicator because he already knew he was going down and was just trying to adjust for the gentlest crash possible.
If it was a windy day is could have been a gust of wind (wind sheer) that 1:52 made the glider pitch up. Once the gust has passed you suddenly are below stalling speed and if, as in this case, the glider was in a turn, the pilot had no chance to recover.
It's a little different for gliders, we don't have to be very high to have enough energy to turn around. But there are still limits, and obviously can't stall a wing!
Shoreham rwy 21 overshoot is an unenviable mix of coastal housing and sea with groins and steep pebble banks- to land ahead really means in the sea ( if you are fortunate the beach with the tide out)- it’s going to skew the decision making towards the highly risky turn back.
I only fly RC gliders but we also have to take downwind speeds (airspeed vs groundspeed) into consideration. We have no airspeed indicators so visual is all we have. We live through our crashes so we're probably more aware of that problem than a full scale pilot would be. VERY important. Gotta have AIR speed!
I live quite close to shoreham and been there quite a few times over the years for a few different things I did helicopter lesson there and a flight in a cessna from there to the isle of weight where I was allowed as much as I was allowed I have done a solo when I was 16 at raf west malling but could not afford to get a full license annoyingly.
He lost a lot of energy on the first turn. That turn was very fast and he turned in the direction the wind is blowing so his airspeed and hight dropped very fast.
I only have a few hours of flying gliders but I do remember that there is a formula for calculating minimum landing speed taking into account current wind speed. If its a windy day this formula becomes critical, surely? Is this formula not international.
It sure is, I mentioned "Safe speed near the ground" which is calculated. In NZ it used to be Stall speed + half wind speed + 10, but now there's a new calculation I can't quite remember which ensures even higher speeds, especially important in mountain conditions.
Why's there no mention of his air breaks being deployed? They're clearly out on downwind and during his stall. This looks to me like the primary reason the crash occurred.
Great video. The crash of the glider was in many ways like the crash that happens when a powered aircraft loses the engine once they are in the air on takeoff. Trying to make a 180 and landing on the runway they just took off from usually results in the same type of crash.
Nah although it depends which country you are in which term is used. USA tends to use 'sailplane' more than other places do. Here in New Zealand we almost always use the term glider instead of sailplane.
; @@PureGlide Nah, Not according to my friends in the northern fringes of Auckland New Zealand, they would never call a sailplane a glider! But not so in Northland NZ!
Great video! I couldn’t see the tow line in the video and how bad the slack may or may not have been, but there are other ways to deal with a slack tow line than releasing as all glider pilots know. Releasing seems to have been a very poor choice so close to the ground. Was the line looped behind the glider wing? If so, how did he let it get that bad? If not, why release? Second, though not in any flying handbook or manual that I have ever seen in 30 years of flying both airplanes and gliders, and after nearly 5,000 takeoffs and landings logged, I am confident in saying that a strong quartering tailwind when turning at low airspeeds in the pattern is absolutely “dodgy”. I believe the wind from the rear quarter further reduces the lift created by the inside (low) wing….if even just a little and if even just momentarily. Add a little skidding to that and you’re in for an unintentional stall/spin. Glad the pilot survived. Must have been very scary!
OK the pilot some credit. Once it was obvious that he was going to crash I think he recovered some control and used the left wing to cushion (Can't forget this pilot has some skills) imminent impact with the ground .❤
And he was dabbling the roll control with erratic guesses instead of making a smooth tracking descent turn as required for the elevation he had to work with. The pilot regressed. The turn attempt was too tight. Wasted his flying money into bankruptcy.
Without power, slow, at low altitude and just off from the runway end, in a strong head wind, is an absolute worst situation from the start. Every choice is a bad one.
Here in Germany some months ago a glider crashed next street between houses. He hit the ground so hard, the pilot was ripped apart into pieces and of course was instant dead. There were meat parts scattered on a lenght of over 50m. Terrible to see.
Always tempting to make a "spin-turn" with the rudder in a glider in order not to lose a column of air... a VERY BAD habit as you can see as you lose altitude because of skidding slowing you down and risk stalling every time the inside wing which stops flowing completely in the air. It is better, just like on a bike in a tight turn, to keep tight with downtick and keep some speed while coordinating control than use "air braking" with a side slip and use the rudder to cheat your turn. You might lose altitude faster that way but you also keep your speed hence keeping a decent glide ratio. Same thing on landing when too short, as you counter intuitively MUST DIVE down to MAKE the runway as you gain speed and thus increase your glide ratio instead of going down slowly but surely nearly vertically.
Is it just more or does it look like he slammed on the left rudder? He knew he couldn't make the turn so he added more and more rudder until he stalled
Whoever was at the controls of that glider somehow managed to stall and partially spin the aircraft at such a low an altitude that they lacked sufficent altitude for recovery. Anytime you practise, or are actually compelled to perform, a forced landing, one basic tenet is to use all th piloting skills you[possess to keep the indicated airspeed as low as possible above the stall at touchdown. Basically within a few knots of minmum flying speed, behind the power curve but stil controllable, nose high/tail low. The same way Sully did in the Hudson River in New York. His touchdown speed was about 20 knots lower than would be used for a typical approach to a long runway, likely a significant reason why there were no fatalities that day. For water landings-aka ditchings-if the aircraft has retractable landing gear, be sure to keep the gear stowed in the wheel wells on touchdown. This is because fixed landing gear, extended retractable landing gear and jet engine nacelles on the bottom of the wing or fuselage will do one of two things: dig hard into the water and act like giant speed brakes at lower approach speeds; or shear off if the touchdown speed is considerably higher than usual. Either way they force the nose violently downwad onto the water upon impact. If you touchdown nose low, you will minimize that effect. Land nose low and are in for a mightly rough impact and decelleration, which may be unsurvivable. Thisis also the case when ldoing a water landing a float plane. The lowest possible touchdown speed translates to the lowest amount of impact energy you have to dissipate upon contact with the water. Forced-landings onto solid and often uneven ground off airport are also normally attempted nose high/tail low at minimum touchdown speed, but with the gear down when flying a retractable gear plane. If you still have some or full engine power and plenty of fuel, then keep you wits about you! You may have several minutes to troubleshoot the problem and, if unsuccessful, look for good spots for forced landing the airplane. Attempt a somewhat firm touchdown, to shed as much kinetic energy as possible upon impact. But don't overdo it either. The most important thing is to arrive back onto the earth under control, above the stall, with minimum kinetic energy and sink rate, not out of control as the glider pilot did n this video. Airplanes don't fall out of the sky when the engine quits, they merely become gliders. If you have enough altitude and therefore time before you are forced to touch down, communicate your predicament to ATC. If you have the time and altitude margin to do so, state your approximate location, altitude, number of souls and hours of fuel onboard, whether or no you have survival supplies onboard and whether or not your plane has BRS built-in (Ballistic Rcovery System, a fancy term for a whole-irplane parachute.) Make sure you and your passengers remove any eyeglasses an any pens or other sharp objects from your/their pockets. Get the passengers in a good crash position, like they tell you on an airline flight, with neck and head bent low, hopefully with a pillow or soft luggage bag between your head and the instrument panel or the seat back in front of you. In a plane with just one door, usually next to the right front pilot or passenger, it helps to discuss an exit plan where you brief your passenge on how to get out quickly before taking off. Once th pane has stopped, have the right front pasenger open the door and exit. Next have the right passenge push the seat back in front of him/her forward and exit without delay, then the left rear passenger ca folow him/her out of the plane. fFinally the pilot should exit, once the rest are outside In aircraft like Cessnas, Aero Commanders, Beechcraft and some Pipers which have doors on each side of the front seat passengers, instuct the front seat occupants to exit the doors and the oe or two rear seat passengers push the sea back forward and follow the front seat passnge and pilot out wit n delay. As you near the ground or water, focus on your landing site and maintain the airplane's energy. Configure the airplane for landing, planning to arrive over the end of your chosen field or road or beach or sandbar or mountaintop at minimum touchdown speed. Before landing, crack open the doors and windows of the airplane to prevent them from jamming upon impact and trapping you inside. Shut of the electrical system and the fuel selector at about 500 feet above ground, to shut down the engine and propellor, to significantly reduce the fire hazard post-impact. After you've exitted the aircraft after a survivable forced-landing, immediately find the wind direction and walk or run toward it, butonly after you are fully clear of the aircraft and any post-crash explosions, fire or smoke. Pull out your cell phone and call 911. Or a friend for help and a ride home. You'd better hope you dressed well that day, with warm clothes.Don't go back for yor baggage or coat or hat or whatever, until the airplane is declared safe to do so. Last thing. If an airplane quits on you, don't get focussed on saving the machine, or minimizing its damage, or worrying about the consequences. The safety and comfort of the humans lives inside the plane are all that matters at a time like this.
0:44 The reason for this accident was that part of the seatbelt holding the pilot in the upside down cockpit came loose and hit the pilot Albert Falderbaum in the eye. Trough shock and pain he gave a wrong input to the planes controls hitting the tarmac with his vertical stabilizer. Falderbaum survived the Crash after two weeks in a coma. He was killed six years later when testing a new piston engine Aircraft (Siebel SIAT 222 Reg.: D-EKYT. Thanks for the video. Regards from Germany.
Interesting thanks!
Thanks for details, but watching this video, the upside - down flight was executed MUCH TOO LOW. That proves the truth; pilots are getting crazy on airshows (sometimes). Regards
Interesting....and it's the reason I always fasten and pull tight the seatbelt of an empty seat next to me whenever I fly, commercial or otherwise. In turbulence or worse that buckle could brain you.
Bollocks. The whole thing started going wrong before they even got into the aircraft
Is this mixing two accidents?
Albert Falderbaum was the pilot in the first crash and he probably got into gliding as a consequence of Germany being constrained (after 1918) in matters of military aviation and developed gliders and gliding in a big way. He did not die in the accident shown but was killed in trying to parachute out of a new sports aircraft (as a test pilot) six years later in 1961. [German Wikipedia]
Schön, daß dies erwähnt wurde. Falderbaum ist für mich als Flieger ein Begriff.
they say if you been in one accident, you are more likely to be in another. ... guess that explains car insurance lol
He was damn good!
@@jamescollier3That's because they're not accidents, you are the common denominator/catalyst.
My commercial airplane pilot father who started out in biplanes maintained that the three cardinal rules of flying were "1) keep your airspeed, 2) keep your airspeed and 3) God d*mnit keep your airspeed!". The fact that he survived 4 years of naval flying and 27 years of commercial flight during the dangerous 40s, 50s an 60s without a single incident or emergency shows how seriously he took those.
Ya gotta watch those sharp banks too . The stall monster comes out faster the slower you are going / steeper bank!
Your airline pilot father was equally as ignorant as the subject pilot in this video who like your father believes that stalling a plane is due to low airspeed when in reality airspeed has nothing to do with stalls. You can only stall an aircraft by pulling too much elevator causing the plane to reach its critical stall angle of attack. Only elevator input stalls a plane.
@@drizlerwrong the monster ONLY comes out when you pull excessive elevator. ONLY elevator input stalls a plane. airspeed, bank angle, slipping, G, all haver zero to do with stalls. A plane stalls at the sane aft stick pull every time. Called stall stick position. How this is not common knowledge with pilots is beyond me.
@@chipcity3016 You sir obviously have no sense of humor…
@@chipcity3016 - thanks, as a student pilot, you've given me an experiment to run (at a safe altitude). I like to have my understanding challenged and - upon verification - revised regularly.
As a relatively inexperienced pilot about 46 years ago I did almost exactly the same in a K18 from an airtow cable break at just under circuit height over the boundary hedge. I made a right turn back to land down wind and found that I needed to make a much tighter turn than I initially planned.
I stalled and came in on the right wing and everything crumbled around me. I broke a lot of bones all down my right side and spent nearly 6 months in hospital, the worst being the physio. However within a further 6 months I was able to take up a flying scholarship.
The crash taught me all about recognising an insipient stall/spin, I never entered an unintentional stall after that.
Thanks for sharing
Some are wise upfront, some after.
I'm an ex glider pilot and was at Shorham and saw the crash. Surprised when it appeared he was going for a down wind landing rather than just keeping the turn going and landing into wind. Conditions were breezy but I didn't think it was unflyable.
To my untrained eye, it looks like he tried to turn and land into wind but had lost too much air speed when he initiated the turn... so he didn't manage to complete the turn.
@@JayCGypsyagreed . He tried a very close circuit and stalled in on turn to finals
I have been flying RC planes for 18 years, but the principle is the same: if you fly low with or without an engine that no longer works, "never take sharp turns" because then you lose speed and control of your plane!
I hit the subscribe button because you sold it so well! "It doesn't cost anything, and it really helps the channel out". Brilliant!
Thx from a gliding rookie, interesting as not just a show, but an explanation and advises.
It's actually amazing how survivable accidents in gliders can be.
Back in 90s I used to fly them.
The one day we were watching a guy coming in very low & slow. We expected him to land in the corn fields which were on the end he was approaching from but he persisted.
As he crossed the fence he had to make a 30 deg turn to align with the runway and at that moment his left wing decided to stop flying.
He hit the ground at a near 90 deg bank and sheared of about half the wing. The glider then cartwheeled, rotated 180 without touching the nose and tore of the right wing followed by the tail.
He was completely unharmed sitting in the front half of the fuselage.
lol. sounds like the wings took a lot of the impact, luckily
Walked away? That's a _GOOD LANDING._
@@dancarter482There are loads of ways to land better than just GOOD.
so what ? Is your comment an excuse for good airmanship ????
Always helps to have zero fuel on board! LOL
That first pilot who clipped off his rudder was a master pilot he kept his cool and made a better landing than you could expect
Rolling upright without the tail is a miraculous outcome. It was a highly improbable trick so low to the ground without elevator control. Perfect momentum.
He didn’t lose elevator control but “only” the rudder.
Not Good enough to fly that manoeuvre, end of story,
@@ladygardener100 true
@@ladygardener100part of his harness was messed up and when he flew inverted it fell onto his face . This is certainly the worst case scenario even for a masterful pilot and I think we see his true skill in the recovery, not the lack of his skill in an equipment failure causing the tail-strike.
You can see the point of disaster strike at 1:47. He pulls up while still crosswind in a slightly climbing left turn, visibly losing airspeed and the stall kicks in immediately this happens. If he had kept the nose down that wing would have not stalled…but I think he was trying to tighten the base leg turn to line up with the strip before his energy bled away. Too slow, too tight….
I'm an ex glider pilot and was at the show and saw the accident. I think the mistake was made far earlier, possibly even before take off. Immediately after release he turned down wind and then popped the air brakes. I thought it was crazy trying for a down wind landing given his height and wind speed. I don't know if he could land straight ahead but he could easily have made a 360 and then landed into wind. I'm pretty sure his preflight briefing to himself wouldn't have included a down wind landing under those conditions. He ended up putting himself into a position where he was forced to change his plans and make a 180 at low level. I think most glider pilots would find that tight turn difficult in the conditions. It was quite breezy but not unflyable.
Thank you, I always learn something from your expert analysis and this is no different.. Sticking to solid fundamentals and procedures is the key to safe flying. Planning for the worst is the best way to avoid disaster. I'm happy the pilot survived, that was a very scary crash! Let's all stay humble and open minded about flying safely.
I would rather be down here wishing I was up there than being up there wishing I was down here.
Instruction I was given when assessing weather conditions prior to flight.
Ouch!! Very glad the pilot survived this. Incredible that he even crawled out unaided!! 😮
Thanks for visiting this. Many lessons indeed, but the big one that strikes me, is giving in to pressure when you have a lot of cards clearly showing that are stacked against you. "No Old-Bold Test Pilots" eh? The survivors respect the deck, know how to read the cards and when to fold.
On another note, many years ago I prototyped a voice alert system, that among several parameters monitored airspeed and rate of climb or decent and provides a "SLOW!" alert when a few kts. above stall, "STALL SPEED!" at indicated Stall speed, and "SINK RATE!" when airspeed was at or below normal approach speed and sink rate was above 1000 Feet per min. I test flew it in an old Bonanza I had, as I knew someone who stalled and killed himself and his wife in a Bonanza, and they are a bit insidious when it comes to approach and departure stalls. I found it a worthwhile safety feature, and I would be curious if you or anyone else has any opinion as to if such a device might be useful and of interest in a sailplane or other aircraft?
I agree, a system to alert the pilot to low airspeed situations could help to prevent stall/spins. Most digital avionics now have similar systems with voice alerts and chimes to focus attention. What I have not seen for general aviation is an AOA index ladder HUD, in the pilot's line of sight, adjustable for seat position and height. The engineering solutions I've seen are pretty crude and non-standard in their design. A smart company with a new approach can create an advanced solution, but the engineering needs to take a back seat to human factors in its design. Keep working on developing your project, it sounds like you are on the right track.
@@bernieschiff5919 Thanks for the thoughts and encouragement. AOA HUD system for general aviation would be great, and there have been some aftermarket systems introduced, but they never seemed to catch on. I suspect largely due to cost, installation complexities and having to be certified to each aircraft. I looked at doing an aftermarket AOA system decades ago but given that it's something that becomes a primary flight instrument rather than a warning accessory, getting it certified was a huge challenge as was product liability, and that was the reason I switched to the idea of a simple alert system.
What I prototyped and tested was back in the mid-90's using mostly analog circuitry, and today doing it with an inexpensive micro-controller would be a lot less involved, and 'G' and pitch sensors could be added for additional stall warning.
At the time My product price point was about $800 to $1200 depending on functionality, but a simple airspeed alert could might be produced and sold for a few hundred dollars, rather than $40k to $150k for a digital flight control system and panel, which might be more inline for vintage aircraft and sailplanes.
I had sort of forgot about the system until last fall when a low-time pilot killed himself in a Bonanza in a low-speed, low-altitude stall-spin. As this video showed how even an advanced pilot in a forgiving sailplane can do it, I started thinking more about re-visiting the project.
Thanks again.
Technology is there, but certification process and layers of bureaucracy multiply the final cost of any aviation-related product.
@@stjepannikolic5418 Very much so. Product liability insurance in many cases even more.
Never noticed before but in the photo where the wing tip has struck the ground, you can see a big crease in the fuselage right through the logo..... glad to hear the pilot survived.
Yeah I saw that too, interesting eh!
it's a physics problem of converting energies (P + V) into ripping material (metal and composite) bonds apart, hopefully enough to survive. Can you tell I'm an engineer? Interesting and cool video! thx
Good catch.
i have seen lots of discussion in the US about the impossible turn. This stall spin is the exact result of trying to return rather than landing straight ahead. It kills a high proportion of GA Pilots every year here. I think the only reason it didn't here was the lower velocity, closer to the ground, and the absolute total fragmentation of the cockpit. It would have been better if the cockpit cage hadn't been violated and other parts of the craft had instead broken, but the fact that so much broke loose ate a bunch of energy making it barely survivable.
I stopped going to airshows; showoffs cause too many tragedies. I have a UK PPL but also fly RC planes. I could see from my RC experience that he had no chance of a successful turn in that weather and altitude.
The cause was not having considered an early pull-off from the tow - and what would happen after that. Had he decided to abandon the aerobatics after ditching the tow, he'd likely have made a safe landing, and "endured" a short retrieval back to the flight-line. This is the same runway at Shoreham (21 as was) which the Hawker Hunter crashed parallel to.
But how did the slack get into the tow? The only way I can imagine is that the glider had picked up speed due to dropping it's altitude. If that was the case surely he'd have only needed to lift the nose to take up the slack. If he was worried about the towing plane having too much extra speed to take up the slack smoothly, then he just needed to drop the nose to pick up a bit of speed.
Maybe it's my lack of knowledge, but I can't understand why he'd release at such a low altitude with such little momentum.
@@KenFullman If the cable becomes slack, it then retightens, applying a sudden shock to both the gilder and the tug. This can apply structural or aerodynamic forces to either which can damage or destroy them. Hence a weak-link.
There's also a very dangerous effect called the slingshot effect, when iirc the glider gets high on tow, which pulls up the tug tail, causing it to dive and increase speed, causing the glider to pitch up more - and be unable to prevent it or to pull off, due to the tension on the rope. That's killed a few tug pilots over the years.
I’m not a glider pilot, but looking at the still shot at the 2 min 2 sec mark on the video it appears the wing spoiler is deployed, not sure why a pilot would do that in that attitude for a glider especially when lift is needed instead of drag.
@@Fidd88-mc4szBut how did the cable become slack in the first place?
@@KenFullman Good question! I think it's because of the gilder can get off to one side or the other, so the rope (not a cable on aerotows) is diagnonal between the tug and glider. This can easily happen if the glider fails to keep his wings precisely parallel to those of the tug aircraft. If the glider then corrects too quickly or too aggressively, slack is introduced into the rope. (The hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle being longer that the other two sides). That then jerks the glider forwards rapidly when the rope becomes tight again. This oscillation of tightening and slackening of the rope can increase in magnitude, so pulling off the tow is the cure if it can't be dealt with. Controlling these deviations and recognising them is the main object of aerotow training. TBH I've not flown a glider in 25 years or more, so others may have better explanations, but it's my belief the above is broadly correct!
The glider crashed for one reason and one reason only; he exceeded the critical angle of attack. Plain and simple. You do that, it stalls. It's not necessarily about airspeed; you can stall a wing at almost any airspeed if you exceed the angle of attack. For example, a wing will stall at a significantly higher airspeed when you pull Gs in a turn.
Actually it is about airspeed.
The steeper the AOA... the greater your airspeed needs to be.
Fighter jets routinely stall their wings performing combat maneuvers. The reason they don't crash is because they are moving so fast.
I'm glad you called the downwind to base turn stall the result of an optical illusion and not a change in actual airspeed experienced by the wing. It's amazing that the argument that TAS actually falls because of the decreasing tailwind component wind is ridiculous.
Great breakdown!
Yip, the only thing that changes airspeed is the pitch on the glider, controlled by the pilot!
My second solo (grob 103) I was playing with 4 golden eagles in a thermal and when I headed back I was low and did a straight in final. I was also determined to land at beginning of field so held it up by slowing down, instead of landing in the field across the street. I was maybe 60 feet up when a breeze took me over the parking lot.. about 80 feet left of field. I had to wrestle it over in a steep bank while staring at the wingtip only a couple feet from the grass. (Instructor thought I would cartwheel) I kept the nose down enough to not stall and straightened out right over the runway and landed pretty close to where I intended, but that minute or two holding back on the speed was a real learning experience.
I’ve reflown that flight in my mind many times, I should have landed short across the street and just dealt with the embarrassment of waiting too long to head home.
I probably shouldn’t have done a spin to follow an eagle when it folded its wings and dove either… but that part was fun
birds can VTOl you cant
It was always hammered in to me not to stretch a glide, convert whatever height you have into speed and use that energy to pull up a little and gain height.
@@potrzebieneuman4702 I didn’t realize I was stretching the glide. I was a couple knots too slow, and might have brought the nose up 1 degree without knowing. It was decades ago, hard to recall every instant except the one when I realized I was over the parking lot, and a second later staring at the wingtip to prevent contact with the grass. From that instant on I remember every detail, not so much the minutes of straight in final.
Also it handles very different solo vs dual, and only had maybe 35 minutes solo time, second landing, so chalk it up to inexperience with how it handled solo. I’m thin too, typically under 120 pounds, so the weight difference minus a 185+ pound instructor is even more pronounced.
wow, that black and white footage is incredible
At my field a wind gradient is really common, because of the sea and dunes so we always learn to have a bit more speed than needed.
The old stall spin, will we ever learn. I really like the still photo right before the crash. Elevator full up!
Strange that when he flew downwind, he did have his airbrakes open, when he hardly had enough altitude to make his 180 degree turn to the land spot. It looks to me that there were 3 slices of cheese with a hole in it, that lined up. 1, the illusion of speed when flying downwind, high groundspeed, but not airspeed. 2:With airbrakes open, the part of the wing where the airbrakes are produce less lift, so the stall speed is higher, becouse the rest of the wing has to produce more lift.
Tthat in combination with flying downwind, and have not checked his airspeed.
3: he forgot to fly his base leg. Glad that he was relatively ok!
I'm in flight school right now and last friday the point was made to not use your ailerons near stall speed. 4:11 onwards and especially 4:20 illustrate this very nicely.
Very true, but it is near impossible to resist initial aileron input for a wing dropping no matter how much you have practiced. As always, it's best to recognize the developing situation before it gets to the point of a tight maneuver at minimum controllable speeds.
I fly RC models and can recognise that particular "bobbling" motion before a stall. If you see that the wing airflow is very close to delamination. Even abruptly adding power can cause anti-torque induced roll sufficient to "knock" the airflow off the wings. I've learned to hold my breath and handle the controls very gingerly when I see it happening. Obviously you need to add energy by either gently opening the throttle, nosing down or whatever else you got available. But gently
@@Rapscallion2009 ''The biggest we make is the Adler, it has a 2m wing span, but it's not one of my designs, I only work on the powered models...''
''He's crazy Lou. He builds toy aeroplanes..''
''TOY'' aeroplanes??
Flight of the Phoenix 1965
@@Rapscallion2009 I immediately thought of Flight of the Phoenix...
Nice to see a gliding safety site like this. In retrospect, I'm curious why he didn't try to land after he released the tow? His track passes over the runway (downwind). He may have had enough speed and runway to do a downwind landing rather than dropping speed in a turn.
I remember talking with my instructor about the "what if's". Maybe we just get too locked in to a regular routine, in this case, the pattern.
That is explained in the video. He wanted to end up at the right end of the runway for a quick turnaround.
Had a friend wreck his glider after running out of enough lift to make it back to the field. He said one second he was sitting in the cockpit and the next he was sitting on the ground. The aircraft literally disintegrated beneath him, but it absorbed the majority of the impact so he wasn't badly hurt.
Funny you should say that, it's a common thought that the accident was caused by running out of lift. I've even seen that in accident reports! The problem though is never running out of lift, that is the nature of gliding, we can expect to run out of lift, often. The cause is more likely not being in range of a safe place to land. Glad he wasn't hurt though! that's the main thing.
My friend Bob was killed gliding in NZ a couple of years ago - one has to be so careful and attentive all the time, especially when coming up to ridges, etc.
Yeah very sad. I now have Bob’s trailer, I left his contest rego on it for him.
@@PureGlide I"m glad you've got it. He was a top bloke - I'd known him for over 20 years in Queenstown. I'd lost contact for a year or so when I was overseas and only found out via his daughter when I returned.
Hi. I am an exgliderpilot in the UK. I first flew solo when I was 67 cand soon had my Bronze and cross country endorsement all this with no electronic devises. I appreciate modern electronic devices greatly increase the scope for flights especially difficult terrain but have they enhanced the feeling of achievement whe navigating with only a paper map. I was also a keen hillwalker and always depended on map and compass and never had to call on the mountain rescue services. Modern electronic devises are amazing but I think we had more fun with our limited use of these devices. Incidentally I am now 93 years old so maybe I feel behind the times. Alan Cumbria
Love your channel thank you for all the hard work in making them peace Rolfie
What I don’t get is that he was going down wind at very low level with his air brakes extended. You would think that with that amount of wind you would save energy as you can easily stick it on a dime once you turn into wind......
I disagree with your point, the pilot hadn't kept an eye on the airspeed indicator, because there's no need for that. You hear the speed, unless you're tone-deaf and you feel the force of the wind in your rudder. You've mistaken that man for a rookie. Greetings from Germany.
Final rule.... if you don't have altitude.... land straight in front of you instead of attempting the impossible turn. If you are near stall speed and attempt a turn, you will spin the plane/glider. A low altitude spin is a pilot killer. Any low altitude spin has dire consequences. It is much safer to maintain level flight, keep the airspeed safe and land on whatever is in front of you! Maintaining control gives you a chance to survive. This pilot is incredibly lucky.
I seems to me that air-shows are about the most dangerous additional activities a pilot can engage in; from I've seen on UA-cam it is not wise to be a member of the audience either .
I couldn’t agree more!
Mee too! I think air-shows are like bird's courtshipping. I've been on several air-shows and every time an accident or near-acident happened. Keep off!
@@haraldschallerl2973 I've been to a lot of airshows where nothing happened but amazing flying. Obviously we see more accidents from airshows since there are lots of flights, lots of people, and lots of cameras. Anyone flying at an airshow needs to avoid succumbing to the "watch this" and "plan continuation bias" risks. Pilots have done dumb and dangerous things that they thought would impress the crowd, but we have to keep in mind that mostly the crowd doesn't know the difference in skill or risk between a fast level fly-by and an aileron roll 10 feet above the runway. Avoid unnecessary risks.
On UA-cam , one only see the crashes at airshows, yet there are a lot of excellent airshows where there's a lot of flying with no incidents at all.
@@happyduckling Is any aviation authority or association keeping airshow statistics which are published? I follow Dan Gryder's weekly roundup of serious incidents in the US and Blancolirio too and I have never heard mention of airshow statistics being mentioned.
Anyone else spot Picard, Jean-Luc Picard in the spectators. Seriously though, thanks I learned from this as I always do with your content.
I drove a car into a ditch one time, but the ditch had like a straight up 6 ft drop. They type of crash where your ass end takes some of the impact is worse than the type where you slam into the seat restraints. My tail bone was on fire for like a week, sitting was painful. And that's maybe a 40mph crash. This guy is lucky he's not a paralegic.
Shoreham again, geeeesh, the same airfield saw the terrible Hawker Hunter crash a few years back, also during an airshow, I used to visit this airfield as a young kid to watch the planes.
Also flonw by a dickhead with more confidence than ability.
Andy Hill should have been jailed. Defending barrister managed to poll wool over the jury's heads.
I was here that day, it was a miserable murky day & very little aircraft were displaying, then this guy took to the air but he was forced to stay under the low cloud.
He made a very tight turn but just didn’t have the altitude to keep gliding.
Interestingly the police/air ambulance helicopter almost crashed at the scene.
It’s also interesting that this crash marked the middle crash of three over a period of 8 years where there were crashes at the Shoreham airshow, the first was a Hawker Hurricane in 2007 & the last was of course the huge crash of the Hawker Hunter in 2015.
why is the 3 interesting
I think that part of the reason for the downwind turn effect is the wind gradient. As you descend through the wind gradient downwind the wind shear increases the air speed and pilots are tempted to slow down. The optical illusion of increased ground speed doesn't help. Then as you turn into wind descending the wind shear decreases the air speed rapidly. The Baleka accident had some similarities but sadly a much worse outcome
It’s not just about airspeed an aircraft will stall at any speed, It’s about angle of attack and wing loading also
I'm not current at all having done gliding in Australia around 45 years ago but until now I've never heard of doing aerobatics whilst under tow. That sounds incredibly dangerous to me, especially being so low to the ground.
A long ago I was lucky enough to make a few hundreds flight with Swift, so I'd like to add a few points which may not be obvious from a non-aerobatic glider pilot standpoint:
The Swift - with aerobatics measures - is a benign plane, but not so with glider measures. What that means? It is designed to be easy to drive into and out of autorotation figures (spins, snap rolls). So you may guess it doesn't require too much rudder to start a rotation at a high angle of attack situation. On the other hand if the thread was centered, only in negative direction it reacted with a bit of wing rocking when I pushed too violently on the stick but I cannot recollect even a single occasion when it wanted to snap out during positive maneuvers. So yes, the Swift flies very nicely till you are coordinated - but there is no guarantee for that when you are trying to save your ass with an emergency 180 turn at an extremely low energy situation.
It may sound surprising first, but people who have done quite a lot of aerobatics with the Swift may not have too much experience on the slow-turning characteristics of the plane. The only figure where you want the bird fly slowly is the entry part of the spin. But being it positive or negative, starting it from upward or inverted flight, you always begin it in a symmetrical, wing-level attitude. On a very few occasions when the proper circumstances were given after completing my aerobatic sequence I attempted to gain some altitude in thermals by circling them. Certainly the Swift is not designed for that, so it was only two times when I was able to get back to some meaningful height and earn a free aerobatic ride by that, and in the majority of these attempts I was able to gain altitude very slowly at best - but at least I learned a bit how the plane behaves at slow speeds. With my weight the Swift's stall speed was around 90 km/h IAS, so it was circa 100 km/h which I felt as an optimal circling speed. As I said it didn't have any tendency to depart into a spin, but on the other hand the entering into stall was very distinctive compared to other gliders I've flown. In all other gliders I always learned to feel by pants the signs of an approaching stall (buffeting, unusual stick forces and air noise, etc.). On Swift you can enter into the stall very silently, the attitude is not changing significantly, the controllability isn't reduced - but if you look at the variometer you discover that the altitude rate which was +1-2 m/s a few seconds ago went down to -5-6 m/s. That thing I found totally different from the normal gliders I have known.
So despite the unusual slow speed characteristics of the Swift may have been a factor in this accident, I don't think the outcome would have been significantly different with any other glider type. Even I think the Swift was the reason why the pilot survived the crash: its extremely sturdy and still flexible wing absorbed way more energy before breaking than it would happen on a normal glider. But starting a 180 from that altitude and speed - that is something I never want to try even in some benign two-seater. So I totally agree with 4 key learnings of this video, especially with the last one.
Thanks for the info!
When you said "you can see the glider approaching the runway" I nearly had an aneurism
This just popped up randomly in my recommendations, but it was very interesting
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks! I have a number of similar videos if you want more :)
Thank you for your insights, they are amazing. Hopefully, you will be willing to share more of your cross country flights. They are a delightful way to experience the exotic vistas you call home. A 5 minute vid can be enjoyed while awaiting transit. A 15 minute vid can be enjoyed over a quick meal. A longer vid can be enjoyed after a session of toil, perhaps with a meal as well. All formats are appreciated, looking forward to more air time with your excellent narrative of the moment. Thanks for staying active. 🦊Riki2Tails
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you're enjoying them :)
Subscribed immediately! Thank you for such an excellent debrief. I'm too old to learn to fly now but I wish I had.
That airspeed problem became obvious to me flying models - trying to launch a glider into the wind would sometimes flip it right on its back before I could get control. The opposite the other way of course.
When I studied the basics of wing design and some of the 6-pack instruments the penny dropped!
Beware the downwind turn!
Beyond that, the pilot made a complete hash of the the turn itself.
Left rudder, left rudder, left rudder!
Glad he lived to tell the tale.
Also appears he extended the spoilers in the turn, having them deployed to impact or nearly so. Low altitude steep bank turn with spoilers extended is risky at best, if you’re not maintaining airspeed awareness, the stall spin crash is the likely outcome.
Some years back I watched a friend take off as instructor with a first lesson student. As the tow and glider made a lazy right turn shortly after T/O, the line snapped. It shot back like a whip over the glider wing and jammed the left aileron in position (right turn). Luckily this was farmland, and the forced right turn ended in a relatively smooth landing in wheat. Both walked away fine. Unclear if the student ever said yes to a new lesson.
and he's got his damn spoilers out the whole time!
That had to be intentional suicidal tendencie,unless it was his first day flying
That glider pilot didnt know how to make short approaches without stalling.
Patrick Stewart doppelganger in the crowd.
Regardless of whether you’re an ATP flying an A320 with fancy autothrottles or a glider pilot doing aerobatics, item number 1 is item number 1: watch your airspeed.
Great summary. Absolutely caught out by the tailwind, though he corrected his turn initially which I thought would be him realising a stall was imminent, but then continued another tighter turn resulting in immediate stall.. That didn't make much sense.
I witnessed an almost identical glider stall/crash about 40 years ago at 9A9 glider wave camp. Crashed just off field in mud, demolished cockpit, both wings broke off, pilot broke back and both legs. I was about 200 ft. away and it sounded like an explosion. Pilot thought he could make a steep turn about 100 AGL and land opposite direction after low approach.
The instructor that taught me used to say there's old pilots and there's bold pilots but there's no old bold pilots 😊
he actually stalled during the initial turn (crosswind)
an immediate dive and turn into wind should have given him lots of knots.
Although as we know descending through that last 10 to 20 metres into wind does suck airspeed.
Turning down wind is the one that normally gets us hang glider pilots near the ground though
Sometimes, the weather consumes us, and we end up in an unintended situation. As your video correctly points out, airspeed is critical.
I once got caught in a severe weather change at over 12,000 ft mount cook was the turning point, and I decided to head back to Omarama. No chance. As I crossed the lake, I encountered extremely strong downdraught and didn't think I'd make the other side. I was seriously considering ditching in the lake, but I knew the consequences were not good. So I pushed on thinking I could make an old airstrip on the other side of the lake. I was travelling at about 250 knots over the ground! My VNE was 165 knots, and I was close to it.
I could see I wouldn't make the strip, so at about 1000 ft, I turned and faced the wind! I'm looking for anywhere I could land. I had slowed to 120 knots and realised I was going backwards with respect to the ground. I quickly understood the wind gradient would be brutal if I didn't have more airspeed. I pushed the nose down until I was at VNE and landed in an old river bed. My ground roll would not have been more than 4 feet. I held the nose down for about an hour before the storm abated, and I could get out and peg down a wing.
I'm passing on this story in the hope that if you ever get caught like I did, don't be afraid to pour on the airspeed. If I had approached, slowly say 100 knots, I don't really like to think about how things would have ended.
The wind was so severe, that the tussocks were being torn from the ground and my canopy was ripped off the glider after I pegged it down. I had to crawl out to the highway for fear of being blown away if I stood up.
Several other gliders were broken that day. I believe, because of a lack of airspeed on approach.
We are taught that excessive airspeed is dangerous on landing, but there are exceptions. I had over 2000 hours as PIC at the time and many of those hours as a B cat instructor. None of my students have ever been involved in gliding incidents.
Turn onto final should be a well banked coordinated turn. Do not 'rudder' it around (stall). Do not tighten the turn to line up with the runway, rather fly past and bring it back. I still remember my lessons though I haven't flown in years.
I imagine the pilot didn't look at his airspeed indicator because he already knew he was going down and was just trying to adjust for the gentlest crash possible.
was just talking about downwind speed illution recently, good topic
and I just flew in marginal weather and had a predictably bad time.
what a coinkidink!
That was a sad ending to a perfectly functional Swift.
So, why did he release early? Did I miss it? Maybe I didn’t pay attention? Or did we not address it?
I mentioned it: due to excessive slack in the rope on tow during a aerobatic manoeuvre
@@PureGlide Yeah, I definitely missed that. Thanks.
Brings back to the 3 rules : 1: speed, 2:speed and 3 : speed
If it was a windy day is could have been a gust of wind (wind sheer) that 1:52 made the glider pitch up. Once the gust has passed you suddenly are below stalling speed and if, as in this case, the glider was in a turn, the pilot had no chance to recover.
I think it’s called the Impossible Turn, and from what I’ve seen, pilots trying it are responsible for a large number of general aviation deaths.
It's a little different for gliders, we don't have to be very high to have enough energy to turn around. But there are still limits, and obviously can't stall a wing!
That's pretty good quality for a FILM camera.
Remember the old adage. It's better to be on the ground and wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground.
@@UguysRnuts thanks, typo corrected.
Gliding looks like so much fun but I'm sure I would be absolutely terrified to be in one and I would totally ruin my pants.
Making that tight of a turn that close to the ground just seems like crazyness
Shoreham rwy 21 overshoot is an unenviable mix of coastal housing and sea with groins and steep pebble banks- to land ahead really means in the sea ( if you are fortunate the beach with the tide out)- it’s going to skew the decision making towards the highly risky turn back.
I only fly RC gliders but we also have to take downwind speeds (airspeed vs groundspeed) into consideration. We have no airspeed indicators so visual is all we have. We live through our crashes so we're probably more aware of that problem than a full scale pilot would be. VERY important. Gotta have AIR speed!
All good advice and interesting video, thanks. I prefer to say 'crash' as the term accident rather implies that the cause is unknown.
A classic example of running out of altitude, airspeed and ideas all at the same time; never a healthy place to be.
The situation to be aware of is sometimes the runway is not the best place to land.
I live quite close to shoreham and been there quite a few times over the years for a few different things I did helicopter lesson there and a flight in a cessna from there to the isle of weight where I was allowed as much as I was allowed I have done a solo when I was 16 at raf west malling but could not afford to get a full license annoyingly.
He lost a lot of energy on the first turn. That turn was very fast and he turned in the direction the wind is blowing so his airspeed and hight dropped very fast.
Another example of trying to save the aircraft instead of yourself.
Wow , he actually survived that !
"Maintain thy airsoeed, lest the ground shall rise and smite thee."
Unknown
I only have a few hours of flying gliders but I do remember that there is a formula for calculating minimum landing speed taking into account current wind speed. If its a windy day this formula becomes critical, surely? Is this formula not international.
It sure is, I mentioned "Safe speed near the ground" which is calculated. In NZ it used to be Stall speed + half wind speed + 10, but now there's a new calculation I can't quite remember which ensures even higher speeds, especially important in mountain conditions.
First seconds of the movie: the weather is unstable, critical - dont fly - and i am not a pilot.
Why's there no mention of his air breaks being deployed? They're clearly out on downwind and during his stall. This looks to me like the primary reason the crash occurred.
Great video. The crash of the glider was in many ways like the crash that happens when a powered aircraft loses the engine once they are in the air on takeoff. Trying to make a 180 and landing on the runway they just took off from usually results in the same type of crash.
If Hollywood did a story on this there would have been an explosion on impact.
I was taught "Gliders" were the things used in war to deliver men & material Vs/ a "Sailplane", designed to catch thermals & sail like a bird!
Nah although it depends which country you are in which term is used. USA tends to use 'sailplane' more than other places do. Here in New Zealand we almost always use the term glider instead of sailplane.
; @@PureGlide Nah, Not according to my friends in the northern fringes of Auckland New Zealand, they would never call a sailplane a glider! But not so in Northland NZ!
Jean-Luc Picard among the spectators!
😂
As grandma always said! Be careful, don't fly to high, don't fly to fast and be slow around the corners!
Great video! I couldn’t see the tow line in the video and how bad the slack may or may not have been, but there are other ways to deal with a slack tow line than releasing as all glider pilots know. Releasing seems to have been a very poor choice so close to the ground. Was the line looped behind the glider wing? If so, how did he let it get that bad? If not, why release?
Second, though not in any flying handbook or manual that I have ever seen in 30 years of flying both airplanes and gliders, and after nearly 5,000 takeoffs and landings logged, I am confident in saying that a strong quartering tailwind when turning at low airspeeds in the pattern is absolutely “dodgy”. I believe the wind from the rear quarter further reduces the lift created by the inside (low) wing….if even just a little and if even just momentarily. Add a little skidding to that and you’re in for an unintentional stall/spin.
Glad the pilot survived. Must have been very scary!
OK the pilot some credit. Once it was obvious that he was going to crash I think he recovered some control and used the left wing to cushion
(Can't forget this pilot has some skills) imminent impact with the ground .❤
To quote myself, always land mostly straight ahead.
Also, his turn was very tight, further decreasing the airflow velocity over the inboard tip.
And he was dabbling the roll control with erratic guesses instead of making a smooth tracking descent turn as required for the elevation he had to work with. The pilot regressed.
The turn attempt was too tight. Wasted his flying money into bankruptcy.
Without power, slow, at low altitude and just off from the runway end, in a strong head wind, is an absolute worst situation from the start. Every choice is a bad one.
Here in Germany some months ago a glider crashed next street between houses. He hit the ground so hard, the pilot was ripped apart into pieces and of course was instant dead. There were meat parts scattered on a lenght of over 50m. Terrible to see.
Always tempting to make a "spin-turn" with the rudder in a glider in order not to lose a column of air... a VERY BAD habit as you can see as you lose altitude because of skidding slowing you down and risk stalling every time the inside wing which stops flowing completely in the air. It is better, just like on a bike in a tight turn, to keep tight with downtick and keep some speed while coordinating control than use "air braking" with a side slip and use the rudder to cheat your turn. You might lose altitude faster that way but you also keep your speed hence keeping a decent glide ratio. Same thing on landing when too short, as you counter intuitively MUST DIVE down to MAKE the runway as you gain speed and thus increase your glide ratio instead of going down slowly but surely nearly vertically.
Is it just more or does it look like he slammed on the left rudder? He knew he couldn't make the turn so he added more and more rudder until he stalled
That's what I wondered but I couldn't tell from the video.
Whoever was at the controls of that glider somehow managed to stall and partially spin the aircraft at such a low an altitude that they lacked sufficent altitude for recovery. Anytime you practise, or are actually compelled to perform, a forced landing, one basic tenet is to use all th piloting skills you[possess to keep the indicated airspeed as low as possible above the stall at touchdown. Basically within a few knots of minmum flying speed, behind the power curve but stil controllable, nose high/tail low. The same way Sully did in the Hudson River in New York. His touchdown speed was about 20 knots lower than would be used for a typical approach to a long runway, likely a significant reason why there were no fatalities that day.
For water landings-aka ditchings-if the aircraft has retractable landing gear, be sure to keep the gear stowed in the wheel wells on touchdown. This is because fixed landing gear, extended retractable landing gear and jet engine nacelles on the bottom of the wing or fuselage will do one of two things: dig hard into the water and act like giant speed brakes at lower approach speeds; or shear off if the touchdown speed is considerably higher than usual. Either way they force the nose violently downwad onto the water upon impact. If you touchdown nose low, you will minimize that effect. Land nose low and are in for a mightly rough impact and decelleration, which may be unsurvivable. Thisis also the case when ldoing a water landing a float plane. The lowest possible touchdown speed translates to the lowest amount of impact energy you have to dissipate upon contact with the water.
Forced-landings onto solid and often uneven ground off airport are also normally attempted nose high/tail low at minimum touchdown speed, but with the gear down when flying a retractable gear plane. If you still have some or full engine power and plenty of fuel, then keep you wits about you! You may have several minutes to troubleshoot the problem and, if unsuccessful, look for good spots for forced landing the airplane. Attempt a somewhat firm touchdown, to shed as much kinetic energy as possible upon impact. But don't overdo it either. The most important thing is to arrive back onto the earth under control, above the stall, with minimum kinetic energy and sink rate, not out of control as the glider pilot did n this video.
Airplanes don't fall out of the sky when the engine quits, they merely become gliders. If you have enough altitude and therefore time before you are forced to touch down, communicate your predicament to ATC. If you have the time and altitude margin to do so, state your approximate location, altitude, number of souls and hours of fuel onboard, whether or no you have survival supplies onboard and whether or not your plane has BRS built-in (Ballistic Rcovery System, a fancy term for a whole-irplane parachute.) Make sure you and your passengers remove any eyeglasses an any pens or other sharp objects from your/their pockets. Get the passengers in a good crash position, like they tell you on an airline flight, with neck and head bent low, hopefully with a pillow or soft luggage bag between your head and the instrument panel or the seat back in front of you.
In a plane with just one door, usually next to the right front pilot or passenger, it helps to discuss an exit plan where you brief your passenge on how to get out quickly before taking off. Once th pane has stopped, have the right front pasenger open the door and exit. Next have the right passenge push the seat back in front of him/her forward and exit without delay, then the left rear passenger ca folow him/her out of the plane. fFinally the pilot should exit, once the rest are outside In aircraft like Cessnas, Aero Commanders, Beechcraft and some Pipers which have doors on each side of the front seat passengers, instuct the front seat occupants to exit the doors and the oe or two rear seat passengers push the sea back forward and follow the front seat passnge and pilot out wit n delay.
As you near the ground or water, focus on your landing site and maintain the airplane's energy. Configure the airplane for landing, planning to arrive over the end of your chosen field or road or beach or sandbar or mountaintop at minimum touchdown speed. Before landing, crack open the doors and windows of the airplane to prevent them from jamming upon impact and trapping you inside. Shut of the electrical system and the fuel selector at about 500 feet above ground, to shut down the engine and propellor, to significantly reduce the fire hazard post-impact.
After you've exitted the aircraft after a survivable forced-landing, immediately find the wind direction and walk or run toward it, butonly after you are fully clear of the aircraft and any post-crash explosions, fire or smoke. Pull out your cell phone and call 911. Or a friend for help and a ride home. You'd better hope you dressed well that day, with warm clothes.Don't go back for yor baggage or coat or hat or whatever, until the airplane is declared safe to do so.
Last thing. If an airplane quits on you, don't get focussed on saving the machine, or minimizing its damage, or worrying about the consequences. The safety and comfort of the humans lives inside the plane are all that matters at a time like this.