Comments from an instructor at the club the heavy landing happened: The Puchacz pilot flies at my club, The Gliding Centre Husbands Bosworth UK He missed a number of things on the day 1 He should have called the tug to establish radio communication. 2 He should have checked his A/B had been locked. 3 He should have heard the radio call from the tower, "Take up the slack" 4 he should have heard the radio call from the tower, "ALL OUT " 5 He did not have the radio on.! 5 He did not monitor the speed or the rate of climb 6 Both the tower and the tug had called "BRAKES OPEN" but he did not have the Radio on! 7 The tug pilot had hoped to get over the trees but could not do it so dumped the glider. He is still flying after a long stay in the hospital. I have flown with him a number of times and survived. We have changed our checklist 1 Controls Full and free movement 2 Ballast .. Checked 3 Straps and security 4 Instruments, Radio on frequency check COMS 5 Flaps (Set) 6 Trim 7 BRAKES Full open,1/2, Closed & locked checked 8 EVENTUALITY S unable to keep the wings level, Poor rollout. Quit division if we are not airborne by X crosswind consideration. 9 If all are satisfactory, check, Winch, weak link colour, or A.T. rope OK to be attached? 10 CLOSE AND LOCK THE CANOPY If all is in order, We are good to go, "hook up" I also suggest, "Look at the sky before you fly" as often in the UK, we have witching days with a 1000 ft cloud base. Nothing puts a student off more than going into the cloud. unexpectedly. The Puchacz pilot flies at my club, The Gliding Centre Husbands Bosworth UK He missed a number of things on the day 1 He should have called the tug to establish radio communication. 2 He should have checked his A/B had been locked. 3 He should have heard the radio call from the tower, "Take up the slack" 4 he should have heard the radio call from the tower, "ALL OUT " 5 He did not have the radio on.! 5 He did not monitor the speed or the rate of climb 6 Both the tower and the tug had called "BRAKES OPEN" but he did not have the Radio on! 7 The tug pilot had hoped to get over the trees but could not do it so dumped the glider. He is still flying after a long stay in the hospital. I have flown with him a number of times and survived. We have changed our checklist 1 Controls Full and free movement 2 Ballast .. Checked 3 Straps and security 4 Instruments, Radio on frequency check COMS 5 Flaps (Set) 6 Trim 7 BRAKES Full open,1/2, Closed & locked checked 8 EVENTUALITY S unable to keep the wings level, Poor rollout. Quit division if we are not airborne by X crosswind consideration. 9 If all are satisfactory, check, Winch, weak link colour, or A.T. rope OK to be attached? 10 CLOSE AND LOCK THE CANOPY If all is in order, We are good to go, "hook up" I also suggest, "Look at the sky before you fly" as often in the UK, we have witching days with a 1000 ft cloud base. Nothing puts a student off more than going into the cloud. unexpectedly.

Big respect to the pilots who released their videos for us to learn from, I think that requires a good deal of intestinal fortitude.

Hi all, In the video that starts from 06:04 I was flying the tug. Before reaching the trees I was absolutely not sure that I would make it over them. Very unfortunate position to release but I felt I had no other choice. Now I know I should have released it during roll out but I had absolutely no idea even the main switch was off in the glider so it did not help shouting on the radio. I was off the ground when I realised the airbrakes were fully open because the mirror stopped vibrating. Of course, during ground roll something was not right but I didn't know what. I made another wrong decision with giving him a little time to realise what was wrong and I thought we could make it over the trees. When we got closer, it was not so obvious. My speed indicator showed 55 kts or below and I was towing a huge drag behind me. He had some serious back injury but recovered completely. Next time I'll know better.

Very important video! And I think you said it: if interrupted, do the checks again -- from the beginning. On a related note, a thing that always stunned me when I was instructing was that I could be sitting in the back seat listening to a pupil run through their checks, and a club member would wander up and start telling me about their holiday, or something of the sort. Often the most experienced pilots would do this. I could never understand it. I guess it was complacency -- nothing had happened for years, so it wasn't going to happen. And I cannot count the number of times I dropped the rope on the ground because someone had hooked me on before I asked -- a kind of automatic behaviour. Complacency is one of the biggest enemies of safety.

I had a brakes open takeoff in my clubs' PW-5 as a B Cert pilot, recently certified in this single. I was nearing the end of my pre flight checks when my wing runner interrupted me to ask to connect the rope to the hook. I hooked up, the wing runner indicated OK and lifted my wing. The tow plane took up slack and we were rolling shortly after. The first thing that got my attention was the super fast rolling speed just as the tow plane lifted off, I was still on the ground! Normally I would be in the air well before the tow plane. Pulling back more and full up trim all I could do was get the glider to hop off the ground before landing again at speed. I was just ready to release to abort (still plenty of grass ahead of me) I looked down my left wing and saw the brake panel open, fully. I immediately slammed the brakes closed, 70kts+, and the little Smyk launched into the air like a rocket. A little shaken I continued a normal aerotow, release and short unnoteworthy flight. Upon return I was wondering if I would get a bollocking from the DI, but no-one mentioned anything. So I sheepishly brought it up, "Did anyone see me launch with my brakes open?" (crickets)

I was an instructor at the Mynd where the video was shot. The pilot holds it on the wheel brake while the ground crew walk down the hill stretching the bungee. A tail holder is present as well. The glider in the video had the wheel brake on the stop of the airbrake lever. He clearly was focused on getting in the air, it is quite a weird experience, and nerves probably came into play. He didnt close the handle fully as he launched and moved his hand to the cable release.

Thanks to both of these pilots (and you) for sharing your experiences so we don’t have to experience them ourselves. One contributor to interrupted checks is the bully ground crew or duty pilot who makes their displeasure with slow checks abundantly clear, thus flustering the pilot, who is probably low hours, not current or under confident. This pilot then flubs their checks AND launches in a state of mental agitation. I’m a strong believer that the space between wingtip and cockpit during pre-launch should be a sterile zone, where the only ground person allowed inside during checks is the ‘competent crew’, who should only speak when spoken to or as part of the set challenges/responses (small ring, airspace clear etc).

In our club before raising the wing the wing runner has to check that airbrakes are closed before raising the wing. We listen for the "clack" of the locking mechanism to make sure they close properly. Not a foolproof method but it definitely helps with safety and adds a bit of redundancy to the checks.

Done it! In the motorglider with an extremely stiff lock. I remember the thought process as I realised I wasn't climbing: check airspeed, fly the aircraft, check engine instruments, fly the aircraft, look out on the wing, oh that's the problem! I learned a lot from that.

At our club (Staffordshire Gliding Club, UK), the person attaching the rope or cable is required before doing so to challenge the pilot "brakes closed and locked, canopy closed and locked?", and has to get a positive response before continuing. This gives another opportunity to catch this error.

It is why I developed the habit of checking brakes during the launch in the regular intervals. Sometimes instructors on check flights ask me why I push the airbrakes lever forward every 20-30 seconds :). This video shows me that I am not paranoid :)

Great that pilots post their story. It's something they're not proud of. But they and others can learn. This instructor does a hell of a good job, explaining what we can learn.

Early morning, I was preparing our double seater with the instructor and the other students as one of the most experienced pilots on our airfield (1500km wave flight in the Alps, nothing more to add...) took off in his Ventus 3T with full ballast. Right before the end of the runway his brakes chucked open and he slammed back onto the concrete runway. The wings (as I said full of water) bent down heavily because of the inertia and he pushed the brakes in again and climbed away safely. My heart skipped a beat and I thought he was gonna pull down the tow plane as well but luckily didn't happen. This shows: It can happen to the best and most experienced pilots, do your checks properly!

I'm not a pilot, but after watching this video I will NEVER forget that glider pilots need to check their airbrakes before take off. 🥴

Something to note on the crash video is the pilot instinctively pulled the stick into his lap as he clipped the trees and held it there. This is a very hard instinct to overcome. Had he jabbed it forward for just a second, he could have brought it into ground effect and softened the landing/crash. He was entering a stall/spin from 20 feet up, and using ailerons to arrest the spin. Only training and practice could overcome this instinct.

A really good vid on how we can miss the obvious. At my local club ground crew go through a number of checks before launch (aero tow only) one of which is 'brakes in and locked' and we expect the pilot to put their hand on the brake handle and confirm the brakes are locked in. @Tim I absolutely sympathise with being stuck behind MCF/BXP, you will get to altitude.... eventually.

Such a fantastic compilation. I recently ran through my pre-flight after switching gliders. Ballast, controls, etc. Flew successfully and on the return a fellow pilot asked me if the ballast was still in (I fly without) and sure enough there it was. Thankfully I was still within limits for that particular flight, so no flight safety incident. But it was a little un-nerving and a good reminder to me that simply verbalizing the checks (which we're taught to do) is not enough. You must do the check every time. Complacency kills. Thanks for your channel. I share it more and more.

Amazing flying for the first guy. Wow.

Hi, I was CFI at the time of your second video. I can confirm that the tug actually dumped the glider as he wasn't going to get over the trees. The glider pilot was badly injured and was airlifted to hospital where he remained for some time with bad back damage. The glider was a Puchacz which was written off - the pilot was extremely lucky as the glider was only prevented from dropping over the edge of a quarry with deep water by a small earth berm. Fortunately, the pilot is back with us and flying again. Lessons learned - PRE FLIGHT CHECKS EVERY TIME!! Great videos - keep them coming - we can all learn and, hopefully, all learn from them. (And - Yes - I have taken off with unlocked brakes too - DISTRACTION!!!!

Long steady beep in the DG-1001 is a gear-up alarm, meant for when you're in final using airbrakes. The first time I used the glider while descending from wave I had the same reaction.

Excellent video that provides experience for the training of pilots... congratulations to the team! keep in that way.

Excellent video as usual Tim. Although this has never happened to me, I've seen it happen to someone else. It happened at a very small club in the Midlands, UK. A fairly experienced pilot was awaiting the return of the tug aircraft whilst sitting in the cockpit of the club's Ka6 CR single seater. While waiting he chatted with some of the groundcrew and fellow pilots on the field that day. I was curious as to why he didn't do at least some of his pre-take-off checks as the tug entered the circuit. When the tug landed and taxied back to the launch point another glider entered the circuit from the high key area. Instead of waiting the pilot decided he would rather go before the other glider got near to finals. However, in his haste to do his checks he got himself into a real panic and failed to lock his brakes. As the combination gathered speed along the bumpy surface the brakes sprung fully open and the pilot failed to close them. The tug struggled to gain enough speed to take off and eventually released the glider before climbing away to re-join the circuit. The glider on circuit managed to land safely. It was a lesson I never forgot.

Fogot to do my FUST checks before joining in circuit, undercarrage raised for doing spin training. Instrcutor and I both did not notice. Landed with the gear up. Hopped outside the glider, instructor takes one look at the aircraft, "ah s@#t". I didn't even notice untill he pointed it out. No damage was done to the glider (L-13 Blanik). A great lesson learnt. Now I never forget to do them.

My feelings about leaving air brakes out are you are more likely to make these mistakes the more experienced you are. It’s the old story , familiarity breeds contempt. Less experienced pilots tend to be very methodical.

The chopper guy was more interested in making a big impression with the girlie.

Great video and great series to all glider pilots, seasoned and green !

I witnessed the same thing during a visit at the Innsbruck airfield (Austria) back in the 80's. A lot of planes in a row, waiting for their winch launch and one guy took off with his airbrakes out. We saw him staggering around the pattern, barely making it over the nearby street and the airfield fence on final. After landing, nothing happened for a few minutes, the canopy remained closed. Then the airbrakes went back in... On some planes the wheel brake is engaged with the airbrake-lever, so it wasn't unusual to see airbrakes out prior to takeoff. He just forgot to put them back in.

Very good analysis.

I've had my door come open in flight on a solo cross country flight. The standard Piper cockpit door has a double latching system that you need to latch both or it will come ajar as suction caused by wind passing over the fuselage will pull it open. I did exactly the thing you said, it was a hot day and I had it slightly open to stay cool while I did my pretakeoff checks and in a chronic case of get-home-itis forgot to latch the second lock before taking off. The wind noise was so loud I couldn't hear the radio even though I had a headset on. Fortunately the airfield was quiet so I was able to rejoin the circuit and land without delay. I relatched the door properly, collected my wits and took off for an uneventful flight home.

The hard landing video genuinely scared me. Especially since you can't really blame pilot error there. Spoilers opened on their own. I've actually accidentally opened spoilers before in an ask21 when pulling the release knob. With an instructor luckily. Scary stuff

The pilot fell short on checking the list before departing, but from there he handled the situation nicely. He kept flying the glider, managed to keep the speed up and even to succesfully put it - and himself - on the ground. Thanks for sharing!

Wow. That first video is a great learning experience for all of us. I fly the Airbus and it’s true that you can get yourself locked in and tunnel vision closes in when you’re stressed. Looking at that sink rate I couldn’t figure out what was wrong either. I just thought maybe it flew like a 152 with an engine failure.

Very important video, great job once again! As I restart my preflight check after any possible distraction my learning wasn‘t only the proper check but also to think about: Why is the climbrate so low? First quick look would be to the airbrakes and the problem is solved. Thanks to the pilots who let others learn from their mistakes!

I'm not a full-scale pilot. I fly radio control planes, but the principles still apply. When my son was young, I brought him to the flying field and I was assembling my giant-scale model Extra 300 for a day of flying. Just like the real thing, the models have wing bolts to hold the wing root against the fuselage. Well, didn't my son distract me while I was performing that part of the assembly and I forgot to install the wing bolt on one of the wings. About half-way into my 15-minute flight, that wing rotated on the wing tube and the plane went into a flat spin and pancaked into the weeds just off the runway. Glad it wasn't a real plane and that I wasn't in it.

Excellent reminder presentation! Lucky the pilots avoided serious injury. In training, a valuable lesson was to LOOK out at the wings to confirm the position. A glider went into the trees on final and the pilot had confused the air brake lever. The pilot was in total denial the the air brakes were fully open and not closed!

Please make more videos like this one. This is great learning!

First pilot was incredible

I remember one incident when I was landing in nice weather. I was bit low on final and closed the brakes. Or so I thought. Somehow I got confused and instead of pushing the brakes close I pulled them open and to my horror glider started sinking rapidly! It must have took only few seconds before I figured out what was wrong and I managed to land fine but I swear that moment felt like eternity. I had done hundreds of landings at that point and never before (and never since) used the brake lever wrong direction. Brain can do weirdest thing sometimes.

Never seen this happen. But then we're quite diligent with our checklists. A similar thing that did happen though was on a simulated emergency outlanding with go-around in a Super Dimona where I didn't close the brakes for the go-around. Luckily I noticed after a few seconds of not properly climbing at full power. Flight instructor hadn't figured it out but I'm sure he made a mental note afterwards.

This happened at our club to two experienced instructors in a Janus A. It was a combination of multiple factors, as with all accidents and incidents. They didn't notice at first. It was scary. Luckily they managed to get over the powerlines and just skimmed the trees. Everybody was ok, just the wings were a bit green...

Im a tow plane pilot. Thanks for sharing these experiences, very informative.

Damn...very dangerous situation! That s why we pay so much attention spoilers closed and locked while taking off

Wing runners, it's the pilot's sole responsbility to check this stuff but when I run a wing I always say: "brakes closed and locked? (have them show me) Canopy closed and locked? (have them demo), then I'll give the signal to the tow pilot.

I mostly do winch launches, rarely aero tow. I had the airbrakes coming out one or two times. Happend when the runway was bumpy, it just jumped out. Since then I always have my left hand applying a bit of push on the brake lever during launch.

Long finals in A Blanik, crossing the quarry, left hand out to set flaps, lever felt odd, quick glance..it was the spoilers, so found correct lever, landed ok on airfield not in quarry. Glad designers made the 2 handles feel different size and shapes.

Due to another rushed launch I've also launched that ASw 20 with the canopy unlatched Jeez gliding seems to be so benign, but it can go so wrong so quick

The first guy, goddamn what a save.

Pilot from Itxassou, France (LFIX) here. In our club, we use redundancy. Some items are checked by both the pilot and assistant who holds the wing. The canopy locked, tail wheel trolley off and airbrake locked are checked by both pilot and assistant. The gear down and locked is called on the radio together with the enter downwind announcement. If the call is not made, the person on the ground (if he is attentive) will comment.

Great video, well presented with excellent analysis and lessons to be learnt. I'll be watching all of these in the future so I can learn from other peoples mistakes. Thank you to the pilots who share their experiences. Subscribed today!

Thanks for posting yet another fascinating video. On a couple of sites on "KZfaq", there are two different American young female pilots who regularly post up, "Powered flight," videos. Between the two there are most likely over 100 videos. They NEVER, ever, miss a checklist item and sometimes duplicate checks in reference to checking other systems. A key part of their flights is that they are uneventful for the most part. Neither pilot, let's a minor difference in their procedure develop into a fault, let alone an incident. They do it by the numbers and ABSOLUTELY STICK LIKE GLUE to their personal minimums. Not a bad mantra for all pilots.

That 1st clip was at the Long Mynd. I have flown from there a couple of times. Great video. Thanks Michael

I was not the pilot, but saw a similar incident when brakes were not properly locked in place on an ASK13. Winch launch and the glide roughly mid course when the brakes fully deployed. The pilot did a very good job on quickly retracting and locking them (it was a solo flight).

Great video!!! Thanks....

man that first clip was mad, the way he skirted through and over them trees

I'm a bit surprised that the failure to climb doesn't make one immediately check speed brakes.

thanks for the video

Great video, thx.

Somewhat similar to your brakes out tow mishap, i found myself unexpectedly first in line for a winch launch and promptly proceeded to accelerate ... with the tail trolley still firmly attached. An LS1 with well over 2kg ballast in the tail being wildly out of balance. Instant lift off, with no elevator feel until the IAS got past 100km/h (Vs0 is around 70km/h) at a pitch angle i am still occasionally having nightmares about. A spectacular ride that could have had a rather brutal ending. Your flight starts long before you settle into you craft, literally. Never allow yourself to be rushed into anything. When wing-walking, always assume the pilot is in a forgetful mood. ^^

Great Video. Thank You. In about 83 I was a passenger / early student in the back of a Blanik with the club President flying. Joining the circuit He said gear down but I could see it was not...twice I asked him to check it again .. but I was risking stressing him out and messing up on finals so I 'braced for impact'...but all that happened was the wheel flaps/doors were damaged. And a very embarrassed club pres...

I was instructing on the winch in a K21. We did all the checks as normal and hooked up for the launch with P2 flying. I was monitoring with my feet on the pedals, right hand on the stick and the release ball in my left hand. The K21 has this nifty feature where you can place the palm of your hand on the airbrake handle while still holding the release. About half way up the airbrake unlocked and the handle plopped into my left palm. I just shoved it back into the locked position and all was ok. P2 didn't notice. Presumably the airbrake hadn't been pushed fully over-centre so that they were locked. You have to push very hard on a K21 to get the brakes locked (with quite a clunk) and if you're used to, say, a K13 then a surprising amount of force is required. It wasn't a huge deal in the end, due to the excellent positioning of the release and airbrake lever in the K21, but there is a lesson there about making sure those airbrakes really are locked.

Useful to have ground crew look at the wings after t/o to check for brake deployment. Can (hopefully) radio to pilot.

Love your analysis ! compelling truth !

Quite a few years ago, a club at my flying place lost a Ka7 trainer by taking off with spoilers open; the tow plane was a Rallye 180CV, it was not able to take up its climbing speed after a first climb of a few dozen meters. Actually, the pilot was not able to turn without risking a stall so he went straight on above the nearby village. The glider did not answer the radio calls, and the towplane pilot would not risk a stall (possibly a spin) by waving the tail (signal for airbrakes open). Finally, the plane pilot had to release the cable so he would clear a tree line ahead; the instructor aboard the Ka7 chose then to crash-land on top of a tree line : there was absolutely no free land available (houses, small gardens,...); miraculously, the glider went down in the trees and came to a stop when the left wing beam hit a trunk, a half-meter from the cockpit, at 3-4 meters from the ground. The glider was lost but the crew was shaken but unwounded. It's possible that the airbrakes were not properly locked, but it also sometimes happens that they unlock themselves from a bump while rolling on the ground. The student was too much of a beginner to realize what was happening (unsufficiently briefed). The level of the radio was not high enough so that the instructor would hear the calls, and the student probably did not understand them. More than one mistale certainly. Hovever, to me the takeaway from this story is this : when the student asked him what was wrong, the instructor just answered "the tow plane is probably having a problem, just fly on". In this kind of situation, NEVER assume that the other pilot/aircraft is the source of what's happening before doing FIRST your own cockpit check. From where he sat in a Ka7, the instructor just had to look 90° right or left to see the spoiler blades, and the glider would still be flying today.

Regarding the airbrakes out video: from the pilots I've talked to, there's different schools of thought for where your free hand should be on takeoff: holding the release or somewhere else. While holding the release on takeoff might be a good thing if you're in an area with limited options as far as landing out, I can see why it would be a good idea to keep your hand near it to save a second or two of having to reach for it. However, I've known of a few instances where pilots have released accidentally when taking off through turbulence, or just pulled it because something happened and it was the first thing they were holding onto. I got into the practice of resting my hand behind the locked spoiler handle during takeoff instead - this lets me feel/catch the airbrakes if they start coming out on takeoff (I've also had a few passengers pull them on accident, so I like to keep my hand braced there just in case they try anything).

Never managed to take off with brakes open. Had them slam open and jam solid 'Overlocked'. on an SF27, Bowden cable adjustment out, and the moment lift came off the wing as I touched down they freed up, took it back up again aware it might happen again and it did, put on some negative 'G' and it freed up. Did manage to forget to close the flaps on a Blanik one afternoon after launch, now that was interesting, lucky for me recognised the sink rate and turned into the field, only then recognised the problem as I quickly ran through landing checks, we all have the ability to make mistakes when under pressure so as we know prevention is better than cure, ignore distractions and if you can't then start again.

Thanks a lot. As always your insights are great. My first flight in my PW-5 (which was my first solo flight in anything other than a Schweizer), I ran through my check list and actually performed all checks. There was a problem that had developed with my built in radio (which I later learned was from mice getting into the plane chewing up wires), so a fellow member handed me his handheld. I took off and quickly noticed I had a hard time seeing the tow plane. I’d push my head up to keep track of it. We climbed and climbed. Around 1200’ or so, I did hear something over the borrowed hand held to check my brakes. I looked to my left and they were fully deployed. I pushed the handle forward and locked and suddenly seeing the tow plane wasn’t such a feat. As it turned out, I did close the brakes, but due to inexperience with the place , I didn’t lock them properly. As the plane gained speed and airflow over the wing increased, the low pressure above the wings sucked the brakes open. This was actually confirmed by footage of my takeoff that showed the brakes popping open right as we were starting to get off the ground. Fortunately, I was being towed by a Pawnee that could have kept going up whether I had wings or not. It was a learning experience without any negative consequences and I ALWAYS make sure I feel that brake lock now.

🛫📖🛬 Tim, Excellent teaching video.

First one was great speed management.

This isn't speed brake related, but a similar story on C172. My buddy and I were flying a C172 the other day, he was PIC, and he pulled right up to the hold short line to do his runup. Normally he would pull up way short of the hold short line, turn the plane 45 degrees, and do the runup, like he had done 100 times before. I didn't think much of it, but when he finished his runup he started to taxi onto the active runway, without clearance from tower...I stopped him with the front gear just over the hold short line, and to top it all off there was a plane on short final. We talked about it afterwards, and it was all about him departing from his routine. Thanks Pure Glide, good stuff.

A golden rule that we had was to hold the brake handle closed with left hand during take off because our grass strip was somewhat bumpy. We had a variety of sailplanes including a couple of L13 Blaniks . They would rattle like empty kerosene tins and sometimes, if you let them, the handle would pop up and commence sliding back . Our tug was an old Piper Tri pacer which one day, the pilot was forced to dump a Blanik that had its brakes deployed.because he was unable to lift his tug over the fence. The tug barely made it but the Blanik went through the fence causing extensive damage and slight injuries to the front occupant. That was back in the 70s and it made us all aware of the importance of being aware of your airbrake handle at all times when on tow . Cheers from over the pond.🇳🇿🇦🇺👍

Great video. Christ that second video was a tough landing

It's over 30 years since I flew gliders (or anything) and I was only a weekend club flyer in ASK13's, never going single seat, but I can still recite CBSIFTCB without a problem.

2 time I've watched this ...Thank You... I saw a 2 seater take off with the dolly still in once... lucky it just fell out on lift off ...but it did bounce fairly high... ps I watched a lot of that Heli channel in the R44.. because I'm doing some training in Heli's for my Mosquito.... I picked up the check fail back then as well. Thanks for posting... I'll get back to NZ for a fly one day !!! I'm really intetested in the ridge stuff👍

I think the first one had to hold his breaks while the bungee was stretched. After releasing he did not lock them properly or was so shocked by the launch that he was just holding on to the stick..

I don't know why, but I love seeing those Air Trucks still flying. They're so weird looking, but also neat.

Confession time: Winch start after doing all the checks properly. Started roling and the winch had a hick-up so I released and pulled the brakes to come to a stop. Guess what, I didn't redo the cockpit check and started with brakes opening wide (they got sucked out). Someone on the ground noticed and told me. Other failures in my career: belly landing, unlocked canopy and no seatbelts.

Phew! I admire your modest viewpoint on errors: we can all make them, and hopefully not suffer serious consequences. I’m at my limit trying to fly my new drone. I’ll just stick to that!

Some pilots like to have their hand on the release during the initial launch phase. I prefer to have my hand on the spoiler handle because the ground bumps can easily cause the spoilers to unlock. I find this particularly true on SZD gliders (the guy that hit the trees was in a Puchacz, I think.) Having my hand on the spoiler ensures it won’t unlock and it is a comfortable place to rest my hand which is also forward and near enough to the release.

I once taxied a C-172 from tarmac to grass where the tie downs were & heard a "ping" as my nose dipped transitioning onto the grass. Was in a hurry so dismissed the noise. Next day again late & in a hurry, did quick preflight. Applying take off power the 172 vibrated noticeably. Got my attention, _but I was in a hurry._ Vibration almost stopped reducing power to cruise. Parked at the pumps back at school, went in pilot center to check plane back in, mechanic walks in and says "what the hell did you do to that airplane?!" He walked me out & showed me 1/2 inch shaved off one prop blade! The ping was me hitting the prop on the steel tie down cable or hook in the grass! Prop imbalance caused vibration. My quick preflight meant I didn't run my hand over the prop! Mechanic told me the engine could've vibrated off the engine mounts! I'll never hurry another preflight!

I was sitting in the furthest back seat on the right side of a Dash 8-100 for a short commercial flight in Norway. The plane was being refueled. When refueling was done I noticed the fuel hatch was not secured. I was thinking that somebody would surely come back and do that. Didn't happen so when the stewardess started to prepare for safety instructions I pushed the button in the ceiling to call for her attention. She came and I showed her the open hatch through the window. She immediately ran to the captain and he went outside to fix it. He came to the back afterwards and thanked me personally. Being a commercial helicopter pilot myself I told him that I was trained to look for stuff like that and he said "well, I was lucky to have you on this flight today, because you saved my ass!" :D This kinda stuff can happen to anyone, even professional pilots. Learn from it and stay safe!

It's the same alarm you get in some motor planes when you set flaps into their landing position. Basically the plane saying "Hey, I'm configured for landing but my gear's not down".

The Puchasz video is missing the very first bit, where the pilot pushes the elevator trim fully back and then fully forward. I am guessing he was thinking this was locking the airbrakes. Not so much. Maybe a new type?

On the topic of checklists, I was flying today at my usual club in Lincolnshire in the North of the English East Midlands. It was a quiet day, the weather was iffy and there weren't many people at the club- a couple of very early pre-solos, a few instructors, and a few solo pilots of varying experience. At morning brief it was decided to only get out two twin seaters, a K21 and a Grob Twin II Acro. Because of rapid canopy fogging on the ground, we decided that everyone was going to only close the canopy after the cable was on, but before wings are leveled. The canopy down and locked is easy enough to remember when you're holding it half open, but it made me think a bit. It would have been pretty easy to go straight from canopy down and locked to switching to the left hand on the release, right hand on the controls as you'd usually have them. But what have you forgotten? Check resists upward pressure. Remember that only twin seaters with two separate canopies were out today. What if the rear canopy was left unlocked and you had forgotten to check before you got in- you've not got that safety net of checking it's actually locked down and will stay down now. The K21 has a linkage between the front and rear canopies that means the front cannot be locked with the rear unlocked- although on older K21s where the linkage is made from nylon this has been known to fail, my club has metal parts instead- but the Acro with its simpler side opening canopies has no such mechanism. What if you've mainly flown the K21 when flying a two seater, have you become complacent when solo in a two seater, not checking the back canopy resists upwards pressure? Now you might be in the Acro where you can lock each canopy on its own. You forgot to check it before you got in, now you've locked it and want to keep a hand on both the controls and release as your wings are about to go level. But you don't really know for sure that the rear canopy is really locked and secure. Of course, I thought of this so it was on my mind while running through the checks. I more often fly the Acro so I don't think I'm likely to get caught out by the lack of linkage between them, but I'm still aware of it.

This raises a very interesting and important topic that doesn’t seem to be covered: Quickly identifying what checklist item could have failed while in flight. It’s almost as though you’re taught that checklists are foolproof.

If you use the same checks and flows, every time, you’ll never forget. Not flown a glider in 33 years but I still remember my before take off and post launch checks. They became second nature. Especially in a low altitude emergency, like a tow cable braking or the winch dying, this becomes critical.

I was trained to keep my hand on the brake lever instead of the disconnect during take off. I think thats appropriate because that way I will never take off with brakes out, and I can quickly reach the disconnect if needed. There are no landing spots ahead of our rwys where I used to fly, hence the choice for making sure brakes are always in. Thanks for sharing the videos.

At our club, the individual who connects the cables asks P1 “brakes closed and locked?” and “canopy closed and locked?” And gets 2 positive responses before connecting the cable to the glider.

I flew the polish gliders like Pirat, Bocian Puchacz similar like this in the video. What we learned in the beginning of our flying training was to place the left hand on the brake handle. Not to hold it, but to feel it. In addition it is very dangerous to hold the rope release handle during take of. Thank you for sharing the accidents. So everyone can learn from it.

I'm a power pilot not a glider pilot... that being said I video everyone one of my flights. 75% so I can grade my flight performance, 24% for making KZfaq videos, and 1% so that if something bad happens there will be a record of what happened so someone could hopefully learn something from the incident even if I'm not around afterwards to tell the story.

there is a reason why we do the pre checks. In my club in Canada it's standard procedure before we hook up for the assistant to ask. Airbrakes in and locked? And the pilot has to check one more time and say airbrakes in and locked before we hook up.

There are two checks to check your airbrakes. The first is during the preflight check, the second when you release the cable. At some types (Ka7, Ka8 and such) the brake over center lock is pretty weak, so keeping your left hand on the brake during starts is a good habit. It has been said here, but repetition works: do your checks or get into trouble.

Thanks!

I’m 29 seconds into this video, and already I can see how useful it will be as part of my training to watch the videos of these crashes, so that I may be prepared should I be in the same situation someday. Thank you for sharing! 2:05 He didn’t complete his preflight? He left the air brakes open on launch? He “…just forgot to do his preflight checklist”? It takes 15 to launch a glider with a bungee. Where was the launch coordinator? The launch coordinator at our club always checks with the pilot: “Canopy closed and locked?, Airbrakes closed and locked? “

I did a take off in #Waikerie in a Nimbus 2 with my air brakes open, I remember the late Murray Bradney saying that their powerful Pawnee tug always managed to tow up gliders with open air brakes any, but I was suitably admonished anyway, lovely man.

On my first flight in a new glider type, Standard Cirrus, I went through all my checks but didn’t realise that my air brakes were closed but NOT locked. I took a winch launch that suddenly became noisy, my air brakes had cracked open. I was able to close and lock the air brakes and continue with the launch. The air brakes felt like they were locked as in the K8 and K13 but needed a more positive action in this glider type.

If I remember correctly tow pilots are usually poised in a position to check whether or not the glider's dive brakes are open before the tow starts or else you just sit there until you figure it out for yourself. As a reminder the check list stares right at you on the instrument panel.

I have a Stemme S12 (self launch). If you fail to lock the airbrakes on the ground (their weight keeps them closed on the ground), on takeoff, when you hit between 50 feet and 150 feet, usually by 50, suddenly the brake handle will fly back to full open, the Stemme instantly pitches hard over, and as long as you instantly slam it forward, pitch back level, and yell "That was stupid", all is well. I've done it and now my checklist has the brake check in two places, and I've watched an instructor do it as well.

Good vid ... only a RC pilot of gliders as teenager, but still love these machines. Yep. Sh* can happen. Breaks off🙂😆

that's one of the positive aspects of towing on the COG-clutch: you have to use your brakes to stay put to get the rope tight and therefor you'll (hopefully) retract and lock the brakes during TO

At our club, ,we adopted a check procedure prior to takeoff involving the wing runner ( trained ) After the pilot has completed their checklist, and is ready to tow, the wing runner will confirm with the pilot that the canopy is locked, the spoilers are locked ,the tailwheel dolly has been removed ,and check for traffic. Only after this has been confirmed by both pilot and wing runner ,will the wings be leveled. This policy was brought into place after an incident where a very experienced pilot had climbed into his glider without removing the tailwheel dolly .( caught by an astute wingman ) Martin Boycott -Brown makes some very good points about being distracted by other pilots prior to takeoff. Adding to that, being rushed because of incoming aircraft constitutes a good reason to push off the active and wait.