The ThermAirborne XT 912, Outback 582, Air Creation Tanarg 912, Wings = Streak 11B, Streak 111, Arrow, Bionix, Air Creation 582 Buggy, KISS 400 Wing

Nickenbah- Private Airfield YHBA YCOR YYWG EGCF

A very strange incident

Last updated by The Therm Comments (2)

Categories: Safety

Apparently he was trying to do a 360 loop

http://www.20min.ch/ro/videotv/?vid=295199&cid=124

 

Comments

  • white eagle

    Therm awesome video thanks for posting.looks maybe like his loop was initiated down wind according to chute drift but hard to tell.glider held up well inverted.that would scare the neweechies rite out of me.hope my hand held chute performs as well when needed.not that I would attempt a loop but good to answer the common question of do you believe in brs yes or no. I bet he does :-P

  • XC Triker

    Hey guys, that was a blown loop in a rigid wing (high aspect ratio, weight-shift in pitch / flaps for roll) HG.  The video was post-processed to keep the horizon level- the original wingtip video obviously followed the HG and so the video to our eyes seems to flip over and over-- so they corrected it to stabilize the horizon so we could see it as if we were watching from a very nearby helicopter.

    He dives for speed, then starts his vertical-  at the top of the loop he runs out of speed/energy and you can see his arms stretch as he falls toward the sail ( at the top of the loop, the sail is below him).  If he had managed his energy correctly, his chest position over the bar would have been the same as he approximated 1G over the top, and he never would have fallen away from the bar.  At that point he's screwed, the glider stalls upside down at the top of the loop and is floating down on it's back (usually tumbling occurs), he falls off the back edge of the wing and throws his laundry.  As the chute comes out, he is yanked up into the camera view again.

    Rigid wing HGs are heavier, much higher aspect ratio (longer/more narrow / less triangular) wings with AWESOME glide ratios and energy retention.  The little wing on the back of the keel helps compensate for the high aspect ratio keeping it from having a tendency to tumble.