Friends- If you haven’t heard, Quebec Delta was grounded a little while ago when one of our members had flown it and found that it was badly out of trim. The adjustment was so far out that the glider ballooned up unexpectedly on takeoff, and required full forward trim and forward stick pressure for the entire flight. When Jack disassembled the glider to investigate, he found that the pushrod that controls the elevator trim had been badly bent. Fortunately Jack was able to straighten the pushrod and reassemble the glider. If the pushrod had been bent any more, we would have had to order a new one from Germany, and the glider would probably have been grounded for months.
Kiting on Tow
If you look through the NTSB database, as far back as the records go, you will find that the US loses a tow plane pilot every few years. The official reports use phrases like “loss of control”, “upset”, “divergent”, or “kiting”. I am not going to be so polite. What they really mean is that … Read more