Glider thunderstorm turbulence launch abort (Passenger view)

My second glider flight, storms picked up on take off, had to turn back and land. We hit a taxi light and dented the wing too.

[@flywithguy_]

Moral of the story - 'it's always better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing your were on the ground'. That aircraft should never have left the ground in those conditions

[@robotslug]

Whoa, whoever greenlit that flight was not thinking clearly.

[@SuperWaxer]

Awesome runway choice. Right back at the hangar. Saves a lot of pushback in shitty weather. 😉👍

[@Jagosbullo]

"storms picked up on take off" are you serious ?

[@12345fowler]

That cell was just within half a mile from the runway before they were all gung'ho departing. That's crazy complacency right there.

[@LONGIRAFFE]

why the hell would you even consider launching in those conditions? displaying a serious lack of airmanship in this clip. if you can't read a TAF try looking out the window next time.

[@bignatec1000]

It wasn't my decision, I wasn't flying. However, Looking back on it, I'm not sure why I agreed to get in the glider.

[@LONGIRAFFE]

+bignatec1000 apologies my comment was directed at the pilot, as PIC it's up to us to make safe decisions before takeoff not just during. next time you decide to get into an aircraft and the conditions look unsafe stay on the ground. prevention is better than cure.

[@michaelwardlaclair8476]

I was thinking the same thing....WTF are they doing.....?

[@PaulAnthonyDuttonUk]

Do u really need to bitch like a bitch? 😂

[@CapFreddy]

I would´t be flying a glider that day.... but good it ended well

[@MrSunrise-]

I'm puzzled. The glider pilot was seriously low - probably into the tug wash, and off to one side, and slipping all the while. Airspeed looked good - should have had good control authority. The tug appeared to turn slightly left, into the rain when turning to the right would have avoided the rain and set you up for a right base-and-final. Finally, I've flown worse - much worse - on tow. The rope didn't even go slack, which if you've done much wave flying you've almost certainly seen. What was up with glider pilot? Have you ever had a chance for a recent de-brief with him? Was this a case of a release failure? This just looks all wrong and nothing adds up.

[@JonathanStCloud-yo5oq]

Looks like a great soaring day:( Just, why?

[@cloudstreets1396]

You broke the chain of events that would have led up to a crash. Hopefully you learned something.

[@gszikora2000]

Why did he even attempt that. It was so obvious right from the start.

[@jorgeruz8276]

You should edit the title to indicate that you weren't the pilot. Took me a while to get it.

[@neilchaplin8235]

Thinking I’d have cancelled and stayed on the ground?

[@jeremyclark7866]

Not holding a good position behind the tug - combined with rain (threat of rain at the start) - makes me think an over-zealous instructor was pushing the envelope with a newbie. Not cool, even though all ended ok (assuming the tug got down ok). It’s good to teach restraint, I think. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance to teach/learn that.

[@paulsmith843]

WHY did you take off in the first place!!

[@bignatec1000]

paul smith Honestly I don’t know. I was 16 or 17 at the time, I was just a passenger. The pilot was behind me

[@av8tor261]

@@bignatec1000 He's not much of a pilot.....or weatherman.

[@andrasmarton741]

That was the shortest flight I've ever seen... ;-)

[@TheCompleteMuppet]

Try having a low level winch failure

[@GeorgeLIFESTYLE]

Well done 👍

[@charleskoehler9873]

Headwind to tailwind turn -deep bank- in turbulence, downwind landing and rolling out on a taxiway… Turn in your ticket pal, all of your luck is used up.

[@jacekmak87]

Was that a competition? If not it was just stupid.

[@KevinLuWX]

Any downburst and it would have been GG

[@lvdovicvs]

I'm not any kind of pilot. Do you mean "GG" like "good game" and the end of a video game or is there another meaning?

[@KevinLuWX]

@@lvdovicvs By gg I meant game over.

[@lvdovicvs]

@@KevinLuWX Thanks.

[@stormeagle28]

*LOL* Really? You can see the heavy rain coming in right from the very beginning. A takeoff into these conditions is very dangerous. One windshear or downburst and at least the glider is done, if not both planes when unlucky. Not a cool thing to show on KZbin.

[@DinantRiks]

Showing it means we can discuss it and learn from it. Safety culture ftw. But yeah, very poor airmanship from PIC, also tug pilot should have refused to tow in these conditions and just taxi back to hangar/safety

[@turbogav8674]

Not a cool thing to show on youtube? Do you want to see the manager Karen? Cancel culture, yuk.

[@floatingchimney]

This was a pilot error - no sane pilot would take off in that weather in the first place.

[@phillippierce5974]

yeeow!

[@nmode7420]

You need a new gliding club, and a new instructor. Never fly with that guy again. Absolutely no excuse for taking off on a day like that.

[@shakey2634]

Two pilots made poor choices that day. I'm surprised the tow pilot agreed to that.

[@kd4pba]

Quick wash

[@strikemaster1]

Taking off with squalls in the distance is not wise and the decision should remain with the PIC and/or the tug pilot. In this case their training was not displayed very well. Add to that, the very poor tracking skills of the PIC by not keeping in line and below/above the tug, not only added turbulence, but would have put extra workload on the tug pilot as well. All in all a bad display of airmanship. Having said that, it appeared the PIC did a fine job getting the glider down in one piece, which is the main thing. So kudos to the PIC for that.

[@theginganinjaofficial]

Ktha eh?

[@cbfsoar15]

in the wash

[@jgmendes3664]

Visible panic Almost lost control...

[@Incognito-vc9wj]

Bruh....

[@andersschoen3613]

Total madness. Lucky you did not stall doing a 180 deg turn back to the runway. Headwind to tailwind. This is a perfect way to get killed. Taking a passenger and even deciding to fly that day is irresponsible. Lastly why show the world such poor airmanship on the tube ?

[@tac6044]

Terrible decision making all around