From: raveling@Unify.com (Paul Raveling)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.piloting,rec.aviation.soaring
Subject: Re: Stay off the rudder!
Date: 7 Oct 92 20:23:35 GMT
Organization: Unify Corporation (Sacramento)


	Here's a repost of one followup that I saved from rec.aviation
	on cloud escape techniques, dating back a mere year.  It
	applies specifically to sailplanes, but was a response to
	an uncomfortable encounter with a power plane.

	In addition to spinning as an escape maneuver, it lists
	two more tactics:  Using terminal velocity dive brakes and
	doing a benign spiral.  Much of this is sailplane-specific,
	but perhaps many powered aircraft will do a tolerable benign
	spiral when using full flaps instead of full dive brakes.


------------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@Unify.com


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In article <1991Sep12.144719.14918@cs.umn.edu>, standers@cs.umn.edu (Steven Anderson) writes:
> In article <1991Sep12.124536.2865@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> steve@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Steve Bridges) writes:
> 
> ... a description of a close encounter with a glider:
> 
> >I was tooling along at 3,000 feet, ...
> >As I looked to my left, I was a glider pop out of a cloud, nose down,
> >pointed right at me, ...
> 
> >... Question:  What are the requirements for gliders to stay clear of clouds
> 
> The same as any other VFR traffic, of course.  < Mess of FARs omitted> 
> The important one here is 500' BELOW cloudbase.

	Remember also that minimum clearance goes up to 1,000 feet
	below cloudbase when you're above 10,000 feet.

> it was unquestionably illegal, unsafe and immoral.

	I'll second that.


	This deserves some afterthoughts to imagine how the glider
	pilot may have gotten himself into a mess and what he may
	have been doing to try to get out of it.

	Many areas sought out for good lift while soaring have strong
	convective conditions, hopefully not strong enough to generate
	a thunderstorm while you're there.  Sane sailplane pilots don't
	want to mess with a cumulo-nimbus, but they may well seek out
	towering cumulus that could develop into a cunim.

	It's possible to get sucked up in these conditions.  In some
	sailplanes you can see at least 500 fpm of climb with the
	dive brakes/flaps/whatever fully applied.  One element of
	aviation in gliders is "plan ahead to avoid getting sucked
	into a cloud".

	There's a possibility the glider in question didn't plan
	ahead well enough.  If he did, he should have recognized that
	he was in deep dung without instruments.  There are three
	ways to escape such a situation:

	    1.  If the sailplane has terminal velocity dive brakes,
		haul them out and try to point the nose straight down,
		or at least somewhere approaching that attitude.
		The airspeed indicator provides a crude clue to how
		close you are to "pointed down".

	    2.	Initiate a spin and stay in it until you drop out
		the bottom of the cloud.  However, not all airframes
		can be held in a spin.

	    3.  Try to set up a benign spiral.  This involves using
		full dive brakes & hands off while trimmed for a low
		airspeed.  Not all airframes do these safely, and
		turbulence in a convective cloud could increase the risk.

	In all cases "your milage may vary" considerably depending on
	the type of sailplane.  It's possible that you saw one very
	rattled pilot who got in over his head and took escape #1 or
	escape #2; it's also possible that mother nature was doing
	the flying at that point and the pilot wasn't.  If the pilot
	wasn't rattled, the FAA ought to serve us his head on a platter.

	The best solution for the "suck up" scenario is to anticipate
	it and to beat it out of the lift under the cloud while
	there's still adequate clearance.


------------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@Unify.com