MISADVENTURES OF A COMPETITION PILOT
By G Dale
English pilot G Dale is an enormously experienced pilot. He and his partner Annie spend their lives gliding. During our winter they are flying and competing in England and Europe, heading back to their positions with Glide Omarama for our summer, where G instructs and Annie is a tow pilot. In spite of all his experience, G was involved in a mid-air collision at a gliding contest in July. G is happy to share his misadventure with SoaringNZ readers.
Those of you who know me well will also know that I am quite unashamed to blow my own trumpet. If I do well, I’ll talk about it. It’s part of the coaching process (or maybe I just have too big an ego). However, if I screw up I don’t mind talking about it as well. That is also part of the coaching process. I do plenty of flying and to be honest when I look back at each day, it just seems to be a litany of stupid mistakes. Usually I seem to get away with it, but this year my luck nearly ran out. Here is the main lesson I learnt: Don’t trust the other guy in the thermal (and always wear a ‘chute). It was Day Two of the Club Class Nationals at Cambridge and I was flying my DG100. I had a reasonable result on the first day, flying with my team mates Iain and Ken and looking for a result that would get me to the Europeans. The first day was horrible gaggle flying under some Cu. Everybody knows that gaggle flying in comps can be unacceptably dangerous but we all know as well that it can be unavoidable. So, in the team briefing for Day 2, we decided to try for an early start and for the three of us to get away from the rest of the field and the difficult gaggles. As it happened, we got hung up at the first turning point and the gaggles were going faster than the previous day because it was a bit easier in the thermals. We all piled into Newmarket together, somewhere above 1500 ft, looking for a climb. There were lots of gliders (20 plus) and more gaggles running into the back as well.
22
October 2012
I took the quieter route around the back of the town, looking for the blue thermals coming out of the warm / cool dividing line and sure enough I found one, but sadly, only the sink near it as it went through. Close, but no cigar. I could see a couple of gliders starting to turn half a mile upwind, so joined them and started a weak, slow climb. I don’t remember the next bit clearly but what I remember with absolute clarity was looking out of the turn before levelling the wings to move a bit and finding another glider RIGHT THERE!!!!! Shit! He hit me with a fairly gentle shove, up and under the rear of the fuselage, and my mind went into overdrive. Now this is interesting, so pay attention. If this happens to you, don’t worry that you will be scared and unable to function. I was terrified but due to good training and familiarity with the glider, I seem to have done the right thing on autopilot. First I pulled the stick back to stop the nose down pitch and pulled full brake. If you’re going straight down you want to limit the speed increase, right? Who cares if the wing breaks, you’re screwed anyway. The elevator bit for a second, just enough to make me think that maybe I would be able to fly away and then ...whack … the nose went straight down into the vertical. So there was no decision to make at all. Get rid of the canopy! I pulled the jettison knob and it didn’t bloody move at all, even with all my strength. And yes, I had followed the AD’s and greased
