I fully agree with Kevin, My own club, the VMFG has had a Puchacz for almost as long as Kevin's club (Geelong gliding club) and I and to my knowledge non of the other instructors have ever had any problems with the spin characteristics (unlike the IS28's we had prior to the Puchacz which could be very unpredictable).
The Puchacz is in my view an excellent training glider with predictable characteristics. It is my understanding that the accidents that have occurred during spinning in the UK have been the result of commencing the spin at relatively low altitude ie. from the top of a winch launch. Personally I would never deliberatly initiate a spin at 1000 ft AGL IN ANY GLIDER, to do so is asking for trouble, let alone quite illegal since all aerobatics must be carried out above 1500 ft AGL. The suggestion that the importation of the Puchacz should be banned as unsafe is absolute and utter nonsense. John parncutt VMFG -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kevin McGowan Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 1:19 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] Accident in Barossa valley My club has also safely flown a Puchacz for many years, its spinning charachteristics are as good or better that most if not all two seat gliders, it is started and stopped exactly as stated in "the book" The thing that is different with the Pooch is that it will lose more height than most two seat gliders when spinning and recovering. I suspect that the Poms would spin from a 1000Ft or lower winch launch, as they would do with a K13 or similar, and would have insufficient height to recover. The cure is simple start higher. Some years ago to speed up a decent a couple of our instructors did over twenty (20) rotations in our Pooch with no ill affects to themselves or the aircraft. McG >Harry, > Flame suit required. > >My club has had many years of safe Puchaz operations, and we plan to >continue that way. If a pilot flies an aircraft inside its flight >envelope, >as trained, and inside their weather thresholds, there is a very low >possibility there will be a problem. > >My personal belief is that the importation of gliders with a poor safety >record, such as the Puchaz with its history of spin related crashes should >be discouraged or banned by the GFA. Wait a minute before replying until I >don my flame resistant suit! > >Harry Medlicott > _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
