Flying Emergency - Stick Breaks Off in Glider Pilot's Hand Story Retold

An 18 year old newer pilot was flying in a glider competition in a Zuni sailplane and the stick broke off in his hand at around 10,000 ft! I retell the story of what happened while flying my ASW27 out of Utah. When this event happened, I was on the ground at the El Tiro glider port visiting the soaring competition and listened to the young pilot going through this crazy actual emergency. Watch the video to find out what happens. Did he bail out of the damaged glider with his parachute or did he somehow stay in the aircraft and do an emergency landing? I try to refly what this pilot ended up doing on this video and quickly chicken out. Thanks for watching. Bruno - B4

** UPDATE ** It has been a little over 24 hours since I posted this video and it already has been watched over 20k times. Cool! So glad many of you have enjoyed it. I was contacted by Eric - the pilot in this story and it was great to catch up and talk about this amazing flight again. He thinks this flight happened around 2009 when he was 19. He had about 200 hours flying gliders at that time. He now flies for a regional airliner. :) I would totally feel comfortable with him flying my family around!

When the stick broke we was around 12k feet up. He made a hard deck for himself to bail out if he didn't feel comfortable continuing to fly. That gave him 10+ minutes of flying to really get a feel for what he could and couldn't do with the ship. He decided to stay with the ship because he figured he would break his legs if he bailed out into the desert, or he could break his legs if he landed hard at an airport that had emergency services there on the field. That might be considered right or wrong now, but that was his thinking and why he made the decisions he made.

He flew over the airport mid field and then did a traditional downwind, base and final. When he was on final he hit some strong sink and was afraid he might not make it to the runway. He eventually touched down around mid field so this was not a problem. His airspeed was pretty hot at touchdown. Eric remembered it being around 70-80 knots with partial landing flaps (not full landing flaps) and he said it was actually a nice light touch down. Good thing because at those speeds, he could have easily bounced and lost control. His right wing tip dropped and he did go off the side of the runway ripping off a gear door with a runway light. No other damage to the plane.

Emergency crews got there within seconds and were demanding to know where the fuel was and where was the engine. They had a hard time understanding it was a glider.

What I got out of talking with Eric on the phone tonight was that first, the dude is still a total stud! Nice flying and working through the problem man. Second, he spent a good amount of time working through the problem when he was still up high and had time to make the choice to stay in or bail out. I asked him if he would do it differently today if he had to fly that flight again, and he said no - he would do the same thing again. It wasn't to save the aircraft or insurance money, it was thinking that bailing out over the Arizona desert in an unsteerable emergency chute that drops like a ton of rocks would likely get him hurt in the middle of nowhere. I'm just glad the whole thing worked out. Thanks again Eric for filling in the holes in my memory and thanks everyone for watching! Bruno - B4

Видео Flying Emergency - Stick Breaks Off in Glider Pilot's Hand Story Retold канала Bruno Vassel