Don't see this every day
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... unway.html
Lucky he didn't break both legs and his pelvis.

Very lucky indeed. I suppose pilot preference is to blame here but the man appears to be wearing a chute but no helmet. I don't get that one. Aerobatic glider pilots please shed some light.

Parachute's required, helmet's not.

Pilot's option, in other words.

Look at all the motorcycles you see on the road. What's the percentage of riders wearing helmets?

MTV

should be re-titled to say "Short landing contest winner". Talk about on the numbers.

Any other questions before you purchase a Swift S-1 Glider?

Good thing the runway cushioned his fall Really, that is one lucky guy. What are the little things trailing his wingtips?

The pictures have maid me a little confused.

It appears that the aircraft travels backwards as it crashes. The airplane ends up before the line on the runway, yet when it's above the runway it is after the line. Looks to me that it's the same runway marking in each picture.

Would some one explain to me what I am missing?

Thanks

Paul

XKV8R wrote:The pictures have maid me a little confused.

It appears that the aircraft travels backwards as it crashes. The airplane ends up before the line on the runway, yet when it's above the runway it is after the line. Looks to me that it's the same runway marking in each picture.

Would some one explain to me what I am missing?

Thanks

Paul

I had missed all that until your comment. I suspect stall / spin set the whole event in progress.

Glidergeek wrote:

I had missed all that until your comment. I suspect stall / spin set the whole event in progress.[/quote]


I suspect the same thing.

I still don't see how it could be traveling in that direction. I wish we could see a few pictures that were taken earlier in the crash sequence.

I figured somebody would say "it's simple,you missed this"

I would like to know what the deal is.

Thanks Z

I figured it was a steep turn stall.

Shouldn't the aircraft still be traveling forward? Am I the only one that finds this od?

I would think it would be traveling forward and sideways.

Thanks

Paul

Well it may not have had much forward horizontal momentum, and then when it hit, it may have...in a sense...bounced back. Or once it was sitting on the wheel the wreck caused it to roll back a bit.

Well, think about what happens when a car switches ends in a skid, or a taildragger in a ground loop.

Go throw some sail plane models on the ground and see if you can replicate it. I don't think it's any aeronautical mystery, because the aircraft has stopped flying.

It does seem pretty simple (but I could be wrong). Think of it this way... He is in a left turn with one vector of the turn perpendicular to the wings (think of g forces or angular acceleration). When he stalls, the wings lose lift and the glider moves in the direction of this force.

Think of Newton's first law: An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an opposite force. You have many forces involved here but the main ones are lift, momentum (or angular acceleration) and gravity. Lift is helping him turn, gravity is pulling him down and momentum is pushing him perpendicular to the turn (at least until the turn is completed and the forces are equalized). Lose the lift and gravity and momentum take over.

Thats how I would explain the fact that he traveled backwards.

Probably his ass puckering so hard that it sucked the wreck backwards.

Gump

I was going to suggest recoil from peeing his pants, but Gump's answer is better.

GumpAir wrote:Probably his ass puckering so hard that it sucked the wreck backwards.

Gump

Kinda like a Reverse Fart. Hell. I think I'll head home and scare myself some clean carpets.

Now where the heck did that cat get too?

It looks to me like he got quite a gust of wind right at the end of his downwind by the way the wings were rocking. When he turned base steeply the wind was pushing him backwards or in the downwind direction. He retained no forward momentum. So when he stalled and hit he was actually moving in the downwind direction which made him hit and slide backwards.

But, hey, what do I know!

check out the youtube vid at the 29 second point: that sure looks like Captain Piccard from the Starship Enterprise! Dead ringer anyway. That glider did a great job of absorbing the impact sequentially, not many crashes you get to see the pilot like that, pretty amazing.

Spoilers are out. Spoiled the lift as advertized. Lucky to crawl away indeed. I have seen 2 fatal glider stall spin accidents.