Video of midair with tow rope

Has anyone asked him who was holding the video camera of his incident?
He was!

Damned fool.

CNN calls it a "near mid-air". It WAS a mid-air collision.
Unfortunately the commentator does not discuss the fate of the tow and
glider pilots. Can any of our French pilots out there tell us their
fate ? The accident took place near Gap, in the French Alps.

Cheers anyhow, Charles

Gap! What a shock. Gotta keep your eyes wide open around there.

> Has anyone asked him who was holding the video camera of his incident?
> He was!
>
> Damned fool.

Dear Damned Fool,
According to the people who manufacture the kit for the airplane he was
flying, the camera was mounted in the plane.

K Urban

Following is a translation of the French text posted regarding this
incident:

"The team (tow plane & glider) had just taken off and was in its
initial climb at speed between 110 & 130 kmh (68 - 81 mph), a normal
climb speed with a Duo-discuss on tow. A witness on the ground
confirmed that the ultralight and the towplane flew pretty much at the
same speed with converging tracks. The towplane did come from the
right but did not cross his path. As can be seen on the film, the
pilot of the ultralight, busy with filming the other
ultralightabsolutely did not react to avoid the accident. No avoidance
maneuver is seen on the film. This was confirmed to me by the witness
on the ground. The ultralight did not move to avoid the tow plane.
The tow plane, a DR400, turned knife-edge to the right (one sees the
belly of the plane on the film) in order not to take the full brunt of
the ultralight. I am a tow pilot and can assure you that one very
seldom banks over 30 degrees with a glider on tow. Furthermore the tow
pilot released the rope even before he felt the contact with the
ultralight. The accident would have been much worse if he had not done
so. The glider pilot also maneuvered to avoid the out-of-control
ultralight. His altitude allowed him to return to his field with part
of the cable below his port wing and trailing behind the glider.

Luckily the use of the ballistic parachute on the ultralight proved its
undeniable advantage as can be seen on the other video of the spin
tests of the MCR 01.

Other comments:

I confirm that the two ultralight pilots are Germans. The pilot was
not on the correct frequency, he merely followed his pal and filmed
him. When one knows the volume of traffic at Tallard (between 80,000
and 90,000 flights per year), that's frightening. Either that guy had
not studied navigation or his neurons were not all connected."

Cheers, Charles

> On the bright side, the video should make useful evidence in a
> prosecution: failing to spot a glider and tug was completely
> inexcusable and I hope they throw the livre at him.
>

See and be seen means just that. If indeed this was a tug and glider
there were at least two other sets of eyes that were supposed to be
looking!! Let us not be too quick to cast stones. This is another in
a long list of incidents we should be aware of and learn from.
Thankfully this one ended well.

Fly SAFE--

Skip Guimond

jguimondjr@erols.com wrote:
> > On the bright side, the video should make useful evidence in a
> > prosecution: failing to spot a glider and tug was completely
> > inexcusable and I hope they throw the livre at him.
> >
>
> See and be seen means just that. If indeed this was a tug and glider
> there were at least two other sets of eyes that were supposed to be
> looking!!

.... in a combination whch had right of way over our hero.

> Thankfully this one ended well.

Inasmuch has he is a) alive and b) deprived of his aircraft, yes, I
think we can count it a happy ending.

Ian

Michael Ash wrote:
>Supposedly they do practice engine-off landings but I get the impression
>that they really don't like the idea at all.

Not sure if that was aimed at trike and utralight pilots or power
pilots in general. My observation is that most trike landing are made
with engine at idle but I have not flown one.

As a power pilot and instructor I practice and teach accuracy landings
with simulated engine failure. It's not quite as easy to land exactly
on the chosen spot as with a glider but it's just as much fun to try.

Some power pilots even look out of the windows as they fly!

Andy

Michael Ash wrote:

> I don't mean to denigrate power pilots in any way, I just get the
> impression that having your engine quit is a lot more stressful than just
> not having one in the first place, and this sort of emergency could easily
> put a pilot into a frame of mind where he loses confidence in himself and
> just hits the parachute.

A "pilot" who lacks confidence is a passenger. And yet he is all too
common. The more of them you deal with the less confidence you will have
and the more energy you'll expend looking out the window.

All in all, a very much more healthy state of mind.


Jack

Vaughn Simon wrote:
> "Roger" <rogerdoger1@mac.com> wrote in message
> news:1168054652.774146.132140@51g2000cwl. ...
>
>>Of course the Tug and glider would have the right of way.
>
>
> I don't think that accident happened in the US of A, so do we really know
> that? Do tug & glider have the right of way everywhere in the world?
>
In France where that accident happened the rule apply. I think this is
an ICAO rule, so it should apply in any country conforming to these rules.