Article: Broken wings

Aren't you afraid while entering a dynamic manoeuver with your old wing? Maybe you should!
After throwing two ripped wings into the rubbish, my friend Gábor Kézi share his stories, in the hope that it will never come to pass with You.

It was in August 2005 when I tored away from the canopy . Not fully but it was quite hard. I flew a Firebird F18 that time. It happened in Spain while entering a dynamic sat to the left side: the canopy shot forward and suddenly I heard a strange noise that I haven't heard before. At first I didn't know what was happening. After the first turn I felt that the wing does not fly well, I looked up and saw that the right side of the canopy was trying to escape. The noise didn't stop, I saw some more lines tearing and I felt the left side of the wing is completely uncontrollable. I decided to throw the rescue…

I landed on rocks on the side of the mountain, I crashed actually, I hit myself a bit, but globally I was ok. I had a pain in the back for a couple of weeks.

It was awful to see my glider in such a condition. Not only lines were broken, some lines tore away from the canopy with their complete fixing loops and there were pieces of skytex on the ends of some lines that were torn out from the canopy. I knew that it won't be able to fly anymore.

The glider was a prototype, it was almost 3 years old, I was the second owner. The glider is pretty small, 18 squaremeters and gets a big load, especially while doing acro manoeuvres. And I did a lot! I l learned the helico, dynamic sat, tumbling with it, but I did quite a big number of dynamic fullstalls, misty flips, mac twists etc.

During the summer I felt it was time to change the lines. I had the possibility to change only the main lines.

None of them were broken, but the gallery lines! After the crash we tested the remaining gallery lines and they were so weak that I could brake them with my own two hands. It took me about 20 hours of flying that week to be confident with myself and trust the equipment again.

But it was not enough...

Eclipse>In Autumn 2005 I didn't have an own glider to fly with so I borrowed my friend's old Sol Eclipse (2 years old). One tiny MacTwist was enugh to have the trailing edge torn away from the canopy and to brake more than 10 lines. Oh, not again! I thought I have to use the rescue again. I was above a lake and I didn't want to swim. I was lucky, I managed to stabilize the remainig half of the wing, I could turn also and my sink was about 3-4 m/s.

Finally I landed in the landing zone (that's what it's for, or not?) without problem fortunately.

Another glider in the rubbish...

It was still not enough. A local pilot saw my troubles, he was really kind because he lent me his Gin Gangster and Edel Millenium to test some manoeuvres with them. I could hardly believe but the brakeline broke on the Millenium while entering a Sat. It was in such a good shape, I thought.

It was enough! That afternoon I had time to think about all this staff. I love to fly, to play with the glider, to see the ground behind the canopy but if I fly like this, I have to use the right equipment that is in a suitable condition every time.

If it's time, change the lines! If it's time, change the glider!

Until now I was lucky. After this I'll be careful.