A Question of Safety

ACCIDENTS

Four accidents were reported in the last couple of months of 2010. One pilot suffered relatively severe injuries.

The first occurred on a training flight, where a ‘brake jammed open’ exercise was planned. The circuit commenced satisfactorily, but curl over from a local feature appears to have increased the rate of descent, and action to close brakes and increase speed could not prevent contact with a pine branch and gorse, which arrested the glider. The pilots were not injured but the glider was damaged.

The second occurred at an outlanding, with the wingtip touching the ground and initiating a ground loop. The pilot was not injured but the glider was damaged.

The third occurred in a contest, where an outlanding became necessary in rough country. The pilot suffered injuries and the glider was substantially damaged.

The fourth involved landing short and impacting trees on approach. The glider was substantially damaged but the pilot not hurt.

There is nothing particularly new in the recent accidents. They involve the sort of circumstances and consequences that have happened previously.

2010 – A Review. Fourteen (14) glider accidents / occurrences were reported in 2010. There are 355 gliders on the aircraft register so the 14 represent 4% of the glider fleet.

Fortunately there were no fatalities in the accidents, but one relatively seriously injured pilot and one with minor injuries.

Of the 14;

Six (6) landed short of the runway and often hit obstacles on approach, generally at home airfield.

Five (5) were at out-landings, including one at a contest, and two where engine non-start problems featured.

One (1) a non-standard circuit / landing training flight. One (1) bush / terrain impact. One (1) extreme sink with out-landing in street. One (1) winch takeoff incident. One (1) aero retrieve take-off. One (1) maintenance related. (An occurrence may have more than one factor involved so numbers may not reconcile)

Clearly most accidents are in the landing phase of flight either at the home field or out-landings, (11 occurrences).

Three gliders were reported destroyed and nine substantially damaged.

The number of 2010 accidents (14) was the same as 2009. The consequences in 2009 were much more severe, with three fatalities and four serious injuries.

As noted above, there is really nothing new in the factors involved in the accidents. The issues have occurred before and are recognised in gliding.

The series of articles prepared by Arthur Gatland and published in recent issues of SoaringNZ on Threat and Error Management (TEM) provide good advice on techniques to reduce the errors that lead to these sorts of accidents. The articles are well worth a reread.

Biennial Flight Reviews (BFR). GNZ has recently revised the Advisory Circular, consolidating longstanding requirements for BFRs. The intention in refreshing and consolidating was to see if we could improve the quality of reviews and support pilots in their safe flying. It is generally expected that review flights would be no more onerous than in the past.

It is recognised that completing a review confirming the pilot is up to speed for the privileges to be exercised needs an individual approach, rather than a ‘one size fits all’.