It’s likely highly unrelated and I want to make it clear that I’m not insinuating anything by this, I’m just sharing an experience:
I don’t like taking random guests along anymore. I used to do this, whenever some came to the club who would want a ride in a glider. They asked around who would want to take them, and I volunteered. Of course you want to get new members for the club, you want to share the fun and most people are eager to try it themselves – what harm is letting someone fly a curve?
At one point I had to scream at the guy in the back seat to let go of the stick as I was fighting to take control again. He had wild eyes and a death grip and that experience was harrowing. Since then, I take pilots or friends any day, but no longer random strangers.
The “criminal investigation” suggests that suicide was suspected so presumably some evidence of that remained. Radio calls?
I would also not fly with complete strangers although this is what instructors have to do!
@Peter wrote:
I would also not fly with complete strangers although this is what instructors have to do!
There have been a few cases of students or passengers freezing on the controls. FIs need to be taught how to handle this. There isn’t time to “fight” over the controls – a sharp jab in the throat or covering the eyes seems to be the currently suggested actions in this case. Neither of these would work in a tandem aircraft. The only time I’ve flown with my rear stick in place in my RV8 is when I had one of my buddies, who’s an aerobatics instructor, giving me lessons.
Primary training in a side-by-side would be my preference.
For the record Peter moved my posts here in a way that makes it look like I posted them myself – I didn’t.
I posted in the other thread without opinion, yet here it looks like I hold one so strongly I brought a topic from 2022 back to life. I don’t!
It is hard to always get this right. The post was totally off topic in the other thread, which was about poeple being voyeuristic on accident sites.
Now you have made it doubly clear you have no view in the cause of this one, that clarifies it.
Don’t the police investigate all unexplained deaths? I’m not sure how much can be inferred from the phrase “criminal investigation”. The police news release doesn’t seem to suggest a new investigation (i.e., different to the original investigation which started on the day of the crash) has been opened.
Inkognito wrote:
I don’t like taking random guests along anymor
When I was still in gliding we made a decision to take the stick out of the back seat when a passenger is taken along, for this exact reason. I remember it being fairly easy in an ASK-21.
In Unterwössen a story is told (haven’t checked whether it’s true) that a passenger got so scared from the rope launch takeoff that he grasped the stick and hold it all the way back. The pilot flying in front had been heard ON GROUND screaming so loud at the guest to let off the stick, but apparently he didn’t. The wreck was found with both metal sticks bent, the front one to nose down attitude, the back one towards nose up. The pilot could (and in retrospect: should) have jumped out, but who would’ve done that?
@UdoR wrote:
a passenger got so scared from the rope launch takeoff that he grasped the stick and hold it all the way back.
This is also a briefing failure. While we can’t always put ourselves into the minds of someone that knows nothing about flying, I think collectively we need to describe in as much detail as possible what will happen, and what the passenger should and should not do. Sights, sounds, feelings will all be unusual to the passenger, but if they are briefed the passenger will likely be more comfortable.
I read a story about a guy that put his very small child into the right seat strapped into a front-facing car seat. When he rotated, the kid grabbed the yoke and pulled, and the pilot was astonished at how much force the child could pull. After reading this, I always put the seat way back when my kids were flying with me, and of course briefed them where they could hold on.
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
When he rotated, the kid grabbed the yoke and pulled
I had once a small son on the right seat in a microlight, he was maybe 2. When we landed the stick was close to his legs and guess what he did with a lot of strength. He kicked the stick forward when I tried to flare. I first thought the stick was blocked somehow until I realized that he was holding against. The microlight was very easy to fly, just a tad more gas and you don’t sink. I sorted his legs and still had enough runway to go.
Yes. There are lots of surprises out there.
Clipperstorch wrote:
Apparently around 5% of deadly car accidents are confirmed or suspected suicides.
Although I don’t have figures, the situation is said to be similar with people being run over by trains.
