Glider Winch Launch Crash 💥 Instructor Reacts

Dragging a wing while winch launching can be incredibly dangerous. In this video I analyse this accident, where a number of factors combine to create this accident including long grass, not enough wing running, and failure to release in time.

Official report in french:

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Original video:

British Gliding Association Winch Accident Simulations:

British Gliding Association Safe Winching Guidance:

British Gliding Association Stop the Drop presentation:

Bill's excellent video on how winch launching works:

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📷 Equipment Used to Make this Video:

00:00 Intro
00:50 Keeping wings level
01:14 Wing Running
02:09 Torque
03:41 Long Grass
04:35 Wind
05:10 Releasing too Late
06:16 Pre-Flight Thinking
07:14 Conclusion
08:15 Me landing badly outro :)

[granthamilton]

I’m the CFI of a winch launch club and I can tell you there would be no launches with grass that long on my watch! The long grass is too much of a risk at take-off and landing.

[rhhmunro]

Great video - wish I 'd seen this 24 years ago. Dropped a wing on a Skylark 4 in 1997 while winch launching. I was new to the type and didn't get to the cable release in time. Smashed left leg up so bad it was amputated below the knee three months later. The best advice here is to hang on to the cable release and pull that sucker if the wing goes anywhere near the ground. Take it from someone who knows. BTW I do OK with 1.5 legs - just so glad to be alive which I very nearly wasn't

[colinkellynz]

As a newly winch rated Pilot, this great video vividly demonstrates to me how quickly things can turn to custard. Thanks Tim.

[jamieholwill-steel]

We keep it simple at our club…. Eventualities brief: During the ground run, if you can’t keep the wings level, release immediately! Safest approach to this issue. Great video and we’ll done! 👍🏻

[marcellom]

As a beginner hang glider pilot, your content has been super helpful and informative as far as the physics of flight. The production value is also high. Well done.

[overrd]

74 years on and still learning i don't know it all. thanks

[nadiabentuler]

We had an instructor cartwheel his ASW20 to his death barely 2 years before that. In France, too. +200 member club. Similar winch. We made considerable efforts to analyse the accident into its smallest factors and make the national sailplane community as aware as we could about winch cartwheeling, including circulating the excellent BGA resources you point to. Seeing the first shot of this thing here sit, ready to go, in the middle of tall grass made me scream out loud.

So sad to see those 3 (yes, the wingwalker too) replicating every mistake we tried so hard to call attention to. And on a shoulder winged aircraft, no less. Imagine a duo discus with water balast instead... That they could walk away from it is a testament to the build quality and gracious behaviour of the venerable ASK-21.

One recommendation missing from the report, you do point to, but i really want to stress: When running through your checklist, the two final items should be to check the wind and state your actions in case of mishap, including "if a wing drops, pull the release". You do so out loud and thoughtfully, even when alone. This primes your short term memory and will give you precious tenths of seconds in reaction time. There is a significant startling factor here. Even with your hand on the damn thing, you have to be poised to actually pull it :D I have witnessed quite a few who just didn't and got away by sheer luck.

Also, as a wingwalker: when you level the wings, that means you agree to the situation (hook choice, seating, spoilers, canopy, dolly, pattern space, *runway*). It is your reponsability to say no if anything is out of order.

[gliderboy]

I had a similar accident to this one, also in France with long grass, in 1990. I did pull the release as soon as my wing went into the grass but be aware that the release is much harder to pull when under a lot of load. My hand slipped off the release and by the time I had got back on it and pulled it, the glider was rotating towards the ground from 20 or 30 feet. I was very lucky not to die. It went in nose first and fell onto its back.

[sidtp]

Great video. I’ve done 600+ winch launches and this was still informative

[jts]

Hello Tim!
Thank you for bringing an important matter like this on the table!
If I remember it correctly 30 years ago our flight instructor told us that
according to the Segelflugbetriebsordnung (SBO)
it was strictly forbidden to guide hold the leeward wingtip in a crosswind scenario!

When the helper on the lu ward wing is lagging you're turned into the wind contributing to your
aileron authority instead of diminishing it.
And the wing pointing into the wind remains always low because a slow runner is automatically holding the wingtip back and down instead of rising it up high towards
an accident. Just my 2 cts (sorry for my poor English)

[greghart]

Cutting the grass at the launch site would be a good start, probably a little difficult too run through knee high weeds

[adrianmiller]

Valuable instruction as always. As an experienced glider pilot and winch driver, can I add a couple of points. Unless you are an instructor with experience of pulling the release for simulated cable breaks, you have no idea how much effort it takes to pull it under full load. It can be quite a lot more than expected. I recall an accident report of a few years ago that commented on woolly gloves contributing to the accident- hindering effective grip on the shiny knob. Be aware of this in colder weather. Wear good grippy leather gloves or none.
I think winch drivers could do more to make the start less of a jerk, I was taught to open the throttle gently, whilst swiftly, so not to throw the pilot all over the place at a critical moment.

[fritzdit]

Lost a friend like this....😪 hope pilots were OK. Thanks 4 educating us.

[Jopesi]

Spot on Tim, excellent training aid. I've seen several winch accidents some with severe results. The one sure way to stop this type of accident is pull off if you can't keep the wings As an instructor I find ending the flight right there if the wings aren't level grabs the students attention like nothing else and its a training opportunity. Debriefs like "You let the wing go down a bit" don't work.

[drmartinyoung]

I trained on the winch, coming to aerotow fairly late. I think complacency sets in quite quickly when only winch launching. The long grass was the obvious thing here to me … On winch launching things happen so quickly …. Great video - will help save many pilots in the future …

[malibu]

Long grass also affects "wind gradient" and can cause a significantly different air speed over the port and starboard wing panels, even before the glider is moving.

[christaylor]

I was taught as a wing runner to stand slightly forward of the wingtip. so that the tip would not be snatched out of my hand the moment it started to move, but would travel past me as i started my run. It just gave a few more seconds in which i was supporting the wing. Standing behind the wing you've no chance of keeping up with it...It also had the advantage that the pilot could see me holding his wing during the take up slack.

[ADZJ]

Nice video, all good points. A couple thoughts - In a crosswind, the wing runner should not necessarily hold the wings level, but keep the upwind wing down a bit so the glider balances. At least as much as practical, that helps keep the wind from picking up the wing as soon as you let go. We can only launch from one direction and so have to deal with crosswinds fairly often. A slow winch start makes this problem worse, I think that is more of an issue with the tension-controlled winches. A smooth but rapid acceleration is a good thing.

[johankroes]

I have been flying for 8 years in Soesterberg (acvz) in the netherlands. And one of the rules we never broke was If the grass is longer than 15cm = no flying!, first mowing the lawn!😁👍

[thomaslemay]

Good video glider pilots / wing runner hear. One of the local pilots had a self launch glider he preferred I run his wing even over his family because when I run a wing I run hard and fast even when I was 65 years old.