Incident Reports

April to May 2023 - no incidents to report which is somewhat unusual.

The Ops Newsletter did however publish an opinion from a BGA instructor entitled 'Where to look during a winch launch' following a launch site discussion where different opinions were expressed. Publishing this comment caused concern from some other instructors that the thoughts may be taken as 'gospel' by those who read it, so for balance, below is the BGA instructors comment and a response from an NZ Senior A Cat instructor.

BGA Instructor Comment

I teach the student pilot to look out at the wingtip during the rotation. Why do I do this? Because this is the only climb angle reference available and it prevents the horrendous overrotation, close to the ground, that we have witnessed both in the UK and in NZ. As I'm sure you are all aware, a well-controlled climb angle is critical at the beginning of the launch if you want to recover from a cable break close to the ground. Looking out laterally and adjusting the climb angle mid-climb is too late in my opinion, you might be in a heap of fibreglass wreckage before then. Also, consider the visual information available ahead during the rotation; it's simply all blue (grey in UK!) and offers no pitch angle reference. When I was flying with (one trainee pilot in particular) I encouraged them to adopt this method of judging the climb angle during the rotation and their launches improved dramatically. The previous, variable, over-rotations to 60 degrees or more were eliminated and they consistently rotated smoothly to around 45 degrees climb angle. If you're not looking out laterally during the rotation yourselves I'd encourage you to try it, and then teach it. I hope that you'll find the rotation to a safe climb angle is far easier and more consistent.

A Cat NZ Instructor Comment

I have concerns regarding the winching advice given, which is in my opinion wrong and potentially very dangerous if taken as gospel as what to do, and what to teach our students to do.

I suspect it may be the product of poorly describing in writing what we do, i.e., where do we look during a winch launch to gain and maintain spatial awareness, including knowing our pitch attitude, to safely control the glider.

The over-emphasis on looking at the wing tip during the rotation into the full climb attitude is dangerous. Telling someone to ‘look at the wing tip’ is exactly what they will do, with their focus being just that, on the wing tip.

It is not the way to prevent “horrendous over-rotation" or provide a “fix” for those who show a lack of consistency in their pitch rate and timing. Stating specific degrees of climb angle is also erroneous as we have no way of telling the angle in the climb.

During the initial part of the launch we need to be teaching where to look for the visual cues during the launch, and should focus more on using what we see in our peripheral vision either side of the nose so we can judge the rate and amount of pitch attitude change along with detecting any turning away from the desired track line we are climbing on (e.g. detecting if a wing is down)

Prolonged focus at a wingtip, particularly during the initial pitching is more likely to induce disorientation during the high acceleration phase of the launch and could well explain why some pilots show a tendency to unknowingly apply aileron input during this critical phase of the launch.

There is evidence that even very experienced pilots miss detecting this and it is only accepted when they are shown video / photographic evidence of it happening during their launch.

The discussion should also look at some of the causes of over rotation. Some pilots will suffer ‘startle effect’ particularly during the first few flights and then react and pull back too hard on the stick as they have been told not to get too fast. This is a sign of poor instructional technique! It must be considered too, that this problem may be induced by poor winch driving technique or possible poor location of the belly hook on some gliders.

When considering how some students respond to the initial acceleration combined with rapid increase in control effectiveness, some fall victim of the somatogravic illusion that is created when the inner ear senses the acceleration as a rapid pitch up, so they involuntarily push the stick forward. Most learn to deal with it by believing the visual cues if, they are looking ahead. To look towards a wingtip could create even more dire unintended aileron control inputs.

You can access all back copies of the Ops Team Talking newsletters.

These have been placed on the Gliding NZ web site under News > Safety Bulletins A link to the GNZ incident reporting form (OPS 10) can be found in the very top menu bar on the GNZ homepage, just to the right of the 'Classified Adverts'. You can now fill this form out on your phone at the airfield so no excuses.

OPS 10 link: http://gliding.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OPS10v7f.pdf

In the case of an accident, asap please phone: 0508 ACCIDENT (0508 222 433)