14 Soaring • August 2019 • http://www.ssa.org
A tale of two incidents ....
First incident
While I was finishing my college
coursework, I was privileged and chal-
lenged to be the one and only glider
instructor for the just-formed Penn
State Soaring Club at Penn State Uni-
versity. We primarily flew out of the
old State College grass strip airport.
However, we did explore many other
fields (including Karl Striedieck’s
present airfield before he purchased
it) that had ridge proximity, and this
activity, along with helping fellow club
members learn to fly, was very gratify-
ing and pleasurable.
Since we exclusively used either
winch or car tow launch methods
(which were inherently slow due to
the tow wire handling) my weekend
involvement of getting all of our club
members up for a few lesson flights re-
quired long hours on both Saturdays
and Sundays. These long days got me
into trouble on a couple of occasions.
One of these days happened during a
late last flight on a typical fall Sunday
afternoon when I relaxed a little too
soon before my last flight was com-
pleted, and therefore managed to chal-
lenge myself to the maximum!
It was typical for the student to help
fly the glider during the last flight’s
landing. Since the setting sun was
low on the horizon, and also shin-
ing through our 2-22’s crazed and
scratched front canopy – making my
rear seat visibility difficult – I was hap-
py on this particular Sunday to turn
over the flight to my advanced student.
The intention for the last flight of the
day was for the glider to end its final
leg with a roll to a stop near the gas
pumps and hangars. From there the
club members could easily push it theadditional short distance to its hangar.
At first, our final seemed to be go-
ing per expectation. When the student
pulled out the T-handle to actuate the
2-22’s top-of-wing (and out of sight)
spoilers so that we would be on the re-
quired glide slope to stop near the gas
pumps and hangar, I relaxed a little,
thinking that all was well and my day
was nearly over. Only a few seconds
passed before I looked out to the side
from my backseat at a situation that
was terribly wrong! We were much too
high, so I shouted to the student, “I
got it!” as I simultaneously pulled out
the spoiler T-handle to take over the
actuation that supposedly my student
was already holding with his left hand.
I instantly realized that my actuation
of the spoiler T-handle was happen-
ing for the first time during our flight,
and it was also clear that my student
was now releasing his pull of the tow
release T-handle rather than the spoiler
T-handle!
Reflex action prompted me to vigor-
ously initiate a slip for a few seconds
before I realized it was too late to cor-
rect our glide enough to end up at our
intended stop spot. I straightened out
from the slip and proceeded to where
no flying aircraft had ever flown before- 3 to 5 ft over and past the gas pumps
and through a constricted pathway
proceeding between the ends of two
hangar rows, and under the lower
limbs and also between the trunk of
a qualifier for the biggest lowest limb
tree east of the Mississippi River! This
direction was also toward the terminal
end of the dirt road from town, and
Vicissitudes of a
Soaring Club Instructor
Duane Sprague
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