Ionia (Region 6 North) Contest Wrapup

I’m writing this from the Bob’s Big Boy, right across the  street from the Ionia airport.  The day has been cancelled, and the betting is that Friday and Saturday will be no-fly days as well, leaving us with a 2-day contest and the loss of an experienced, safe glider pilot on Day 1.

I have been reluctant to post anything about the contest for the last two 0r three days because I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t be speculative or harmful, or both.  Also, quite frankly, I just didn’t feel like writing anymore.  Tim Gossfeld’s accident just  took all the wind out of my sails and left me mentally becalmed, unable to generate much enthusiasm for anything, much less being informative and entertaining about sailplane racing.  Now it is two days later, and I’m having a bite to eat before I hook up my trailer and head home for a  few days before the Cordele contest.

There has been the normal run of speculation and rumors about exactly what happened to Tim, and although I wasn’t there when it happened, I have talked to a CFIG/towpilot who was there and who is probably as credible a witness as we are ever going to get in this type of accident, so I’ll relay what I got from him.   Ionia is a pretty big airport in terms of acreage, with a 4300 x 75′ east-west paved runway, a parallel 4300 x 200′ grass runway, and a 4000 x 500′ north-south grass runway.  There is also a huge landable infield area between the runway and the main taxiway.  There are  some fairly high deciduous trees along the eastern edge of the north-south runway, but otherwise Ionia is just about as nice a place for glider operations as it is possible to get.   On Day 1 we were launching off runway 27 grass, and relights were either landing behind the grid on 27 grass, or landing on 27 paved and rolling out into the infield, or (in the case of the sniffer) just rolling  off to the north side in front of the grid.  It was also quite feasible to land on 36 grass and roll up to the intersection of 27 and 36 for a relight – in other words, relights were not in any way constrained for landing opportunities.  It was very windy on Day 1, although pretty much right down the takeoff runway, Runway 27, and so was in no way unsafe or even particularly worrisome.  Tim was apparently returning to the airport for a relight about an hour after the launch, and, as many of us do, was noodling around trying to avoid having to land.  I believe the report was that he had crossed 27 at around 500′ agl (don’t know how accurate that number is, but the  IGC file should show something) pretty much over runway 18/36 heading south, hoping to find something, but setting up for a 270 turn to landing on 27 otherwise.  Apparently somewhere just south of the 18/27 runway intersection, it appeared that Tim may have encountered a gust or a thermal surge, and was seen turning, and then  it appeared that his glider stalled, with (according to the witness) a pretty steep bank angle occurring that didn’t look planned at all.  Then the nose came down to something like (or maybe  bit beyond – this is pretty fuzzy) 45 degrees nose-down pitch and the wings started to roll level, as if Tim was attempting to regain flying speed and recover from the stall and unplanned roll.  The witness stated that although Tim ran out of altitude before he could recover to level attitude, the glider was more or less wings-level and the  pitch angle was well less than 45 degrees, probably close enough to level to survive the ensuing crash.  Unfortunately the glider impacted the stand of trees on the eastern edge of the north-south runway, reportedly shearing off at least one tree near the trunk and killing Tim instantly.  Keep in mind in all this that I am relaying my perceptions of an eye-witness account of the crash, so I may have some, much, or all of it wrong.  If so, that is entirely my fault and I apologize in advance.

The Ionia contest is traditionally a dry contest, and this year was no exception.  Therefore, water ballast was not a factor in this accident.  The wind *may* have been a factor, in that it may have been a gust or some roll off the ground (although there really isn’t much in the way of obstructions upwind of the accident site) that precipitated the initial turn and/or stall – I don’t think we’ll ever know to that degree of detail.  Tim was a reasonably experienced contest pilot and by all reports, was generally safe and conscientious in his flying habits.  I can easily remember being in similar situations in the recent past, trying to avoid a relight or a landout while trying to keep my landing options open.  In fact, when I finished the task on that day and entered the pattern for landing, I remember noting that my airspeed was a bit on the low side for the windy conditions at the time (the winds had increased through the day and were now in the 20-25kt range for landing) and adding another 10kt or so for gust margin.  Even after a couple of days of pondering this, I can’t really say that Tim was doing anything particularly unsafe or unusual, and wasn’t really ‘hanging it out’ at all – he simply ran out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas all at the same time.  Even then, he probably would have survived the situation but for the bad luck to have the  stall recovery take him into those  trees.

If anything can be learned from this accident (and I am by no means sure that there is), it maybe should be that no one will think less of you for giving up a little higher and accepting a safe landing rather than trying to pull off a save, especially in windy conditions, and to *always* watch your airspeed and yaw string like a hawk when near the ground.  There were NO procedural or contest-management issues at all that in any way contributed to this tragic event – and AFAIK, Sean, Tiffany and Bob handled the  post-accident efforts and procedures promptly and completely, even though they were all visibly shaken up by what had happened on their watch.

The Ionia contest this year was a study in contrasts.  The contest was well attended (almost on a par with Perry in terms of numbers of contestants), and superbly managed by Sean Fidler (F2) and his wife Tiffany (F3).  Bob Fidler (F1) was the CD, and did a great job of that as well.  The Ionia contest is a favorite of the Canadians, and they were here in force – a veritable tent city sprang up around the Ionia non-club’s hangar.  Unfortunately the weather was maddeningly fickle, teasing us with potential but never delivering except for two very tricky  days.  I did the weatherman duties here, and I was repeatedly humbled by the often dramatic difference between what I predicted and what actually happened (who knew you could get *two* frontal passages on the same day, and a third one on the day after that?).   Tim’s death on top of all that just put us all into our own tailspin, and I’m not sure I’ve recovered yet.  We continued to fly, but the joy I normally feel when soaring with the birds just wasn’t there.

I’m off to collect my trailer from the airport and start home to Columbus Ohio to be with my wife for a day or so.  I’m entered in the Cordele contest, but for the first time since I started flying contests, I’m not entirely sure I’ll actually go.  Hopefully a couple of days of rest and recuperation and I’ll be ready to soar again.

Frank (TA)

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