11/03/2025
Can you spot our glider? 👀
Rope breaks can happen at anytime. At Estrella, our standard emergency briefing is if it’s below 200ft agl, we go straight and avoid hard objects(trees, saguros, power poles etc). And if it’s above 200ft agl, we pitch for 60, pivot 180°, and point at a runway for a downwind landing. One of our students with an instructor onboard had a rope break at around 100ft. At that altitude it can appear that you have enough altitude to make your turn to return to the airport for a downwind landing. But this duo followed their briefing and made the safe decision to go straight and land out. It’s why we brief, because in the moment of an emergency, it’s very easy to lose your head and do something unsafe or disastrous. This is example of an emergency gone right. They landed out, avoided danger and were able to do another flight 30min later. The Estrella team retrieved the glider that evening. The glider sustained no damage, not even grass marks from the local foliage.
