Disaster on the way to Perry and the road to recovery Article by: Scott Fletcher Thank you: Soaring Magazine, August 2014 Thursday 4:25 pm I wrapped up everything at work and I was on my way home from the Spartanburg Airport with my glider, so that I could pack to leave for the upcoming Region 5 North contest in Perry, South Carolina, Friday afternoon. Three miles from my exit, traffic on all three lanes of I-85S came to a stop. I looked in the rear-view mirror as the white truck behind me in the right-hand lane came to a stop several car lengths back. I remember thinking, “Oh good I’m not going to get hit.” I glanced in my rear-view mirror a second time and saw a red pickup truck blasting down the center lane as it suddenly veered right, drawing a direct bead on the back of my ASW27’s Cobra trailer. The South Carolina Highway Patrol took two hours to arrive. It was shift change and the wreck was very near the county line. The dispatcher identified it as being in the wrong county the first time. Finally, my SUV is on its way to the body shop in Greenville and the glider is on its way back to Spartanburg to friend’s shop. The driver of the pickup who hit me is on his way to jail for driving without a license. I get home by 11:30 PM without a car and a glider that probably won’t fly again this season. Friday Friday is spent talking to insurance companies, getting a rental car and evaluating the damage to the trailer and the glider. The car has a badly bent receiver, a bent hitch, the spare tire exploded, the bumper is beaten up and the rear lift gate is bent on one corner. I’m not too worried about the car – give me an hour on Motormile and I can get a better car. Cobra builds an amazing trailer. The technology built into these trailers makes storing, hauling and assembling the glider extremely easy. They also make an extremely trough trailer. Much tougher than one would think and it did an exceptional job of protecting the glider even as it died its own sudden death by pickup. Both wingtips were gouged and scratched up pretty bad; the fairing aft of the shear web in the fin had a bad crack in it and there are a few other dings here and there. I let Rhonda and Al Tyler know about the accident, sent them a few pictures and told them that I would arrive on Saturday to fulfill my commitment to do the weather forecasting for the Perry Contest. Saturday I arrived at the registration desk a little after lunch to withdraw from the contest and start setting up for the forecasting job. John Murray of Eastern Sailplanes, the U.S. dealer for Schleicher and a major repair station operator, is at this contest. Hank Nixon, famous for several modifications to the ASW 27, is also at this contest. Hank and John, the two wizards that know more about keeping ASW27s going than anyone else on the East coast, meet me at the registration desk. It’s raining. They saw some of the pictures I sent of the damage and because of the rain they’re bored, “looking for something to do.” The conversation went something like this: “Don’t withdraw, go get your glider, we can fix it.” “I can’t, the trailer is destroyed.” “We have it all figured out, you are going to use Hank’s trailer. Hank’s plane is staying in the hangar this week. Go get it.” “Seriously, you’ve got to be kidding me.” “No, go get it.” “What about the rudder?” “Al Tyler is going to let you borrow the rudder off of his ASW29, since he isn’t flying in the contest.” “You’re kidding me!” “No, go get your glider.” So, with Hank’s empty trailer in tow; Rob Ware, who is also bored, John Murray and I head off to Spartanburg to get my glider out of Larry Travers’ shop. We get it back to Perry; put the glider in Al’s shop and John takes a grinder to the elevator. This was pretty hard to watch. Here is a very expensive piece of fiberglass that has spent its life being ever so gently handled and polished and John walks up to it with a pneumatic drill, an 80 grit grinding disk and turns what was little divot into a big one in a matter of seconds. There was no hesitation on his part. I would have planned that cut like the Normandy invasion and it would have taken me a few days to work up my nerve to actually do it. We left the shop early Sunday morning, with several layers of cloth and resin curing under a trouble light. Sunday The weather gods continued to smile on me. It was still raining. Hank and John began work in earnest. The elevator glass repair is finished; a rough layer of gel coat is applied with a brush, to seal the surface. It’s not pretty but it’s good to go. The wing tips are structurally repaired. The crack in the fin is structurally repaired. My entire career has been spent as an engineer working with craftsmen who know more about what they do than I do, even though I’m the one in charge. That was perfect training for watching John and Hank bring my glider back to life. I work with structural steel, pipe and big machinery. My fiberglass work is limited to running a buffer. Guys who know what they are doing area pleasure to watch. They make it look so easy, even when you know it’s not. 10:30 pm, we are done and now it’s time to put my glider in Hank’s trailer. Larry Travers described it best; “putting your glider in someone else’s trailer is a little like wearing someone else’s underwear.” The rudder from Al’s ASW 29 is just a bit longer than the ASW 27 rudder and the trailer top won’t close without hitting it. Hank figures out that if he removes the rear lock assembly, which he does not use anyway, it will fit. As he is scraping off all the carpet padding for the latch before remove it, I make a suggestion in the dark after a long day. I suggest that he keep his glider in his trailer and I’ll keep my glider in Al’s hangar where he was planning on keeping it, say, “Nah” and rips of the rest of the carpet so we can get the lock mechanism off. Tuesday I’m out on course and it’s pretty clear that my contest day is going to be over sooner than I intended. Overdevelopment has set in and the thermals have gone away for the day. I select Fogels as the closet airport for my land out and hope to find the one thermal I need to get home on the way there. Fogels was easy to find, there was already a glider on the end of the runway. The much sought-after and desired get-me-home thermal never made an appearance. On rollout towards the other glider at Fogels, I discovered that it’s UH (Hank Nixon). As soon as I pop the canopy, I hear Hank shout out “I get to use my trailer first.” Two retrieves in the rain later and I’m sitting in the local Mexican food restaurant, in wet clothes, buying my crew for the day dinner, so that I can give it a go tomorrow. Friday Jay Campbell called and reminded me that he has a 15M Cobra trailer for sale, only two hours away at Bermuda High. After the contest day is canceled due to weather, I eat lunch and drive to Bermuda High to buy Jay’s trailer (two hours). Then on to Spartanburg to get the ASW 27 fittings for the ‘new’ Ventus-rigged trailer (two hours). It’s starting to get dark by then and I don’t know if I’ll lose the light before I get all the fittings I need or if Larry’s pet mosquitoes that live near the creek will cause me to pass out from blood loss. I get what I can and leave for Perry (two hours). Early Saturday morning I arrive back at Perry and fall into bed. Saturday Up at 5:30, rig by 7:00, on the grid and working on the forecast by 8:00. I’m pretty much done at this point, it’s been a really long week for me. I come in last for the day and somehow manage to hang on to 9th place, with a land out earlier in the week. John and I manage to get Al’s rudder back on his 29 before dinner. Hank’s glider is in his trailer headed home and SF is spending the night in Al’s now almost empty hangar. Sunday I sleep late, didn’t get up till 7:00. It takes more time than expected to rig the trailer to fit the now rudderless SF, but by 3:00 PM I’m on my way home, after finishing a contest I thought I wouldn’t be able to fly in. Hank has a used rudder he is going to loan me until my new one arrives from Germany, so SF is flying this summer. As soon as the new rudder arrives from Germany, SF will take a trip up to Eastern Sailplanes, where John will make her look new again. I hope that’s in August, I’ve been looking for a good excuse to not fly in August’s heat and humidity. I want to thank all of my friends for making this possible. There were so many things that had to happen to pull this off. A failure of any one of them would have made this a completely different story. Sometimes miracles do occur. Insurance South Carolina’s minimum automotive liability insurance is only $25,000, so underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage is something I needed in this instance. New glider trailers are somewhat more expensive than one would think ($21,000). Good used trailers are scarce, so you might want to take a close look at the insured value of the glider trailer and your uninsured/underinsured coverage’s the next time you renew your policies.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:30:14 +0000
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