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Walk
away from it
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30-Aug-11
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From
the website of the Lake
Keepit Soaring Club ...
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We're
always hearing that the
best flights are the
ones you walk away from. |
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Here's one of those. |
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The
flight took place at
Bruschal airstrip which
the DG factory backs
onto on April 24th 1988.
The glider was a club
glider flown by a pilot
of a certain age who had
experience dating back
many decades. |
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Spectators
claim that when the
glider was aerotowed off
the strip, the
air-brakes were seen to
be slightly open.
Whatever the case, the
glider and tow plane
struggled to gain
height, and when the
glider released from
tow, the pilot saw he
was not going to make it
back to the strip. |
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To
begin with, the pilot
decided his best bet for
an outlanding was the
main square in front of
the railway station in
Bruschal. Gutsy call and
all that, but fairly
soon, he realised that
he would not make even
that small square. He
skimmed over the railway
station signal box and
he hit the overhead
power lines above the
railway track like an
jet landing on an
aircraft carrier and
connecting with the
arrestor wire. |
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The
glider carried on for
some distance and struck
a goods wagon and broke
open its wooden side.
The wagon contained
sheep. The glider then
catapaulted backwards
and the sheep, realising
their good fortune,
squeezed out through the
opening. |
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The
nose of the glider
remained caught on one
set of wires, and the
tail ended up supported
by wires on the other
track, leaving the wing
dangling in space… |
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Where
it hit the car
transporter travelling
on the main Strasbourg
to Frankfurt line. The
transporter was carrying
50 new Volkswagen Golf
cars. One by one they
whacked into the low
wing of the glider,
flicking it upwards
until it fell onto the
next car. The train
driver had seen the
glider approaching and
braked as hard as he
could, so the impacts
between wing and cars
got slower and slower
until the train stopped.
Which is about what you
see in the picture. |
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Rail
traffic was stopped for
around 4 hours on the
main line while the fire
brigade freed the pilot
and the sheep were
rounded up. Needless to
say it cost a pretty
penny in insurance
pay-outs on the cars. |
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Fortunately
the pilot was relatively
unhurt. Hopefully he
dined out on the story
for many years as it
passed into legend. |
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And
the glider? |
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Apparently
it was repaired and is
still flying somewhere.
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