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Video: A Crash Landing From The Pilot's Point Of View
Talk about a crash landing. While flying over Cleveland National Forest, Larry E. Hockensmith, a student glider pilot and licensed power pilot of almost 40 years, thought he was going in for a smooth landing. Unfortunately, he didn't notice the nearby mailbox, which caught the right wing of the sailplane about 8 inches from the tip.
While many would be embarrassed about the guffaw, Hockensmith instead is choosing to own up to his mistake of lingering on the "lee-side of a ridge over rough terrain," and to make the crash into a learning experience. Not only did his soaring club host a safety meeting where they watched the full 16-minute video and participated in discussions, but Hockensmith also posted the video to the YouTube community, asking them how they thought the differences between the training of a power pilot and glider pilot could have affected the outcome.
"Going into that turn I wanted to make sure I did not stall and added a bit too much airspeed," Hockensmith explains. "Next time, hitting the spoilers, dropping airspeed and putting the skid down fast might produce a better outcome."
If you found this interesting, the pilot will be posting more videos on this in the near future. You can click here to follow his YouTube account.
Filed under: Learning, Stories, North America, United States, Video, Transportation
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
hwyman Jul 13th 2012 9:07PM
A plane with no engines an emergency? really.
nastynorm Jul 13th 2012 11:00PM
Only a couple of garbage cans.Hitting one of those house's would of been exciting.
Mr. Clutch Jul 13th 2012 11:13PM
In my opinion, the pilot acted quickly and effectively in a dire situation. His aircraft was clearly a glider and no, contrary to what the author’s style of writing might suggest, a two lane road is not listed as a suitable landing strip to a pilot. That is, under normal circumstances. When a glider is towed to altitude by a smaller, prop-driven aircraft, it is not limited to the altitude at which it is released. Glider pilots take advantage of the gliders specially designed airframe that is strong and light with long narrow wings that both decrease drag and increase lift to allow for a glide ratio of 70:1. More experienced glider pilots can search out thermals, or columns of rising air, to increase the aircrafts altitude. You might see a bird rising without flapping its wings in the same manner. Another technique is to use the "windward" side of some topographical feature like hills or mountains. The wind rushing up and over the hill or mountain must rise to surmount the elevation change, resulting in a localized updraft. The pilot states that the trouble arose on the "leeward" side of a hill. Here, the air that has just crossed over the hill is spilling back down along the ridgeline. This creates a localized downdraft and once a glider is in its wake, there is little a glider pilot can do but try to escape the descending air and look for another opportunity to gain altitude. Since he was unable to do so, he had no choice but to set it down in a residential neighborhood. Still, considering that a glider's wingspan is substantially larger than the width of the average two lane road, I think he did a stellar job of avoiding as many obstacles as he did.
Walt F Jul 13th 2012 11:54PM
I posted an earlier scathing comment on this video.
Unfortunately I failed to give credit to the pilot Larry for having the integrity to publish this video, to learn from his mistakes, and to educate the rest of us.
Kudos to Larry. Thank you.
Walt
zoseph Jul 14th 2012 1:54AM
"Guffaw?"
If you don't own a dictionary, Google "guffaw."
a320tech Jul 14th 2012 8:32AM
Well, any landing you're able walk away from...is a successful one! Good job sir!
Ross Jul 14th 2012 6:21PM
I don't now why they put mail boxes on runways anyway.
Mark Jul 14th 2012 10:11AM
This man pulled off something for which I would have surely killed myself, if not others. Great job / superior skills.
Jon Jul 14th 2012 11:18AM
Good landing. MIght have started his final turn a little late. On the other hand, it looks like he had to slip off a little altitude and speed, so that may have been why.
John C. Billingsley, Jr. Jul 14th 2012 12:50PM
I flew all of my younger life, my father was a Pilot and he taught me to fly and most of the time I did while he slept. One of the things he taught me was, If you can walk away, then it was a good landing.
ECS Jul 15th 2012 11:55AM
The fail here is the writing. This was not a "guffaw"-- it was a "gaffe." As many have pointed out, gliders can only go where the thermals provide lift. Forty years of powered flight time does not provide the ability to find updrafts and avoid downdrafts.
lindalu1 Jul 14th 2012 1:44PM
OMG what a horrible crash landing. Seems the biggest casualty was a bag of garbage. Yawn.
Bob Jul 14th 2012 3:23PM
It's amazing, each second as he gets closer to the ground could have been his last, and in each second he's making decisions , and still remain calm. Great job!
Lucky the road was there, (or the Hudson River)
Scarr Jul 14th 2012 1:51PM
Biggest lie of a headline....this was not a crash landing....this was a glider landing and coming to a stop and clipping a mailbox.
David Lucas Jul 15th 2012 6:24PM
Like others, I really hate to second guess this guy. He got his plane down safely with minimal loss of property and walked away without injury.
That said, I think he missed a couple of decent fields that he could have gotten down in. But hindsight is always perfect, and you must remember that he was a student glider pilot despite his years flying powered aircraft.
I think even the pilot notes that he would do a number of things differently if he had to do it again, and he should be commended for making his video available to others for training purposes.
be careful Jul 14th 2012 4:02PM
The glider handbook states clearly about the importance of altitude allowance to make it back to your original LZ. He may have been set off course, but may have "released" at too low a ceiling. Just saying.......
bukfut Jul 14th 2012 4:11PM
This is a real bukfut!
You littered that guys lawn.
And now someone dont get mail.
Craig Jul 14th 2012 6:12PM
His mistake was made long before the landing. In a "sailplane" you always know where there is a landing strip is and how high you are above the landing strip elevation. You make landing decisions long before the point of no return.
Mayor Mike Jul 14th 2012 7:14PM
OMG thats my sisters son. He has advised me on rocket launches and large potatoe cannons. Think I'll wait on the glider thing. It was a great landing until the U.S.P.S got involved.
Tom Jul 14th 2012 7:30PM
There seems to be a lot of ignorance about gliding. It is actually incredibly safe. I don't know for sure now but you used to be able to fly alone in a glider at age 14. If you have a remote landing as he did, the wings disassemble to allow the glider to be put on a trailer and brought back to it's "airport". I think in the last 35 years there has been only one death in a glider (keep in mind NOT hang gliding) and they think it was due to a heart attack. The problem this pilot had was landing on this particular road with the gliders wide wingspan. He would have been better off landing in a field but he felt at the time this was good.