Helmut Reichmann is dead
Juergen Klaiber
in a midair collision near St. Auban, France. The other pilot, 22 year old Lars
Goetz, was also killed.
The following is a partly translation from a newspaper:
Helmut Reichmann, since many years the coach of the German national team, gave
many contributions to the international 'silent aviation' with books as well
as with scientific articles.
His friend Klaus Holighaus, one of the best German sailplane designers and
pilots: 'He was one of the best, he gave us a lot.'
Hans-Werner Grosse, world record pilot from Luebeck, said: 'It is a shock for
all of us. Hard to understand.'
I'm sure, all rec.aviators that are interested in [soaring/gliding] know him.
Take care!
Juergen Klaiber
PP ASEL, Glider
HOWARD PETRI
>Helmut Reichmann, World Soaring Champion in 1970, 1974 and 1974, was killed
>in a midair collision near St. Auban, France. The other pilot, 22 year old Lars
>Goetz, was also killed.
>The following is a partly translation from a newspaper:
>
I had the privilege of talking with him when he was here for the
soaring convention in Indianapolis in 1990. At the time he mentioned how
he had sort of given up flying contests because he discovered that pilots
he thought were his friends behaved differently when in competition. I
believe that he was refering to the way teams help each other out with
good lift info and such, which is legal in international competition.
Anyway, this lack of comraderie seemed to trouble him greatly. These
sentiments appealed to me, and I immediately took a liking to him.
The mathematical development, in his book Cross Country Soaring, is the
standard to follow on the subject of cross country flight.
I believe he was also a power pilot. Does anyone know if this was a
soaring accident or a power accident?
Howard
Pegasus N599JH
Robert Langridge
>Helmut Reichmann, World Soaring Champion ...[in 1970s]...was killed
>in a midair collision near St. Auban, France...
...
Very sad - does anyone have any more details of how it occurred?
As Holighaus and Grosse said, he was one of the greats.
My Soaring magazines are packed away (I couldn't bring myself to
part with them) so I can't immediately find the answer to the
following question:
Did Reichmann and Moffat ever compete directly in an international
in similar equipment? If so, what was the result? I know Moffat won
in Open Class but I seem to remember Reichmann flying only Standard
Class in internationals.
Bob Langridge Phone: +1 415 476-2630, -1540, -5128
Computer Graphics Laboratory FAX: +1 415 476-0688
University of California E-Mail: r...@cgl.ucsf.edu
San Francisco CA 94143-0446
Richard J. Miller
>j...@hpbbrd.bbn.hp.com (Juergen Klaiber) writes:
>
>>Helmut Reichmann, World Soaring Champion ...[in 1970s]...was killed
>>in a midair collision near St. Auban, France...
>...
>Very sad - does anyone have any more details of how it occurred?
>Did Reichmann and Moffat ever compete directly in an international
>in similar equipment?
>Bob Langridge
Reichmann won the standard class in 1970 at Marfa, Texas and in 1974 in
Waikerie, Australia, Moffat won the open class at those contests. they
competed directly in Standard in 1972 in Yugoslavia, but neither
finished even close to the top ten that time. Reichmann's third win was
at Chateroux (sp?) France in 1978 in the SB-11 of Akaflieg Braunschweig,
a 15 meter class VARIABLE CHORD one off ship (but it was only a 20 or so
point win over Karl Striedieck).
first a disclaimor: there is an accident investigation in progress, the
following is only what i have heard, i make no other promises except
that this comes from the German International team.
the word i got tonight via Eric Mozer, who was in Germany last Thursday
(March 12) on business, who called his father Rudy, who told Dave Winkel
somehow (hi Dave, i know you are out there), who called Duane Eisenbeiss
right after i called Duane, and Duane called me back (long, but necessary
credits here) is:
Klaus Holighaus had the German Junior team in France (an annual trip),
but had to leave and called in Reichmann. on March 11, 6 or 7 ships were
in line running through the mountains when Reichmann, who was leading,
pulled into a thermal. the second in line apparently ended up in front
of him leaving no one any place to go. Reichmann's ship hacked the tail
off the second ship and both went into a peak. Reichmann had no chance
to clear the ship before impact. bodies were taken off by helicopter
after being guided in by the other glider pilots, who saw the whole
thing in front of them as the accident happened.
sigh
Rich Miller
ex-Schempp-Hirth Discus JBX and
ex-Rolladen-Schneider LS-4 TQ
rmi...@i88.isc.com
{sun, amdahl, att (maybe)}!laidbak!rmiller
Richard J. Miller
very best soaring pilots in the world was killed in a mid-air. it was a
day where i took my first powered lesson, after 14 years and a bunch of
hours in very high performance gliders.
i learned today just how different the workloads between a powered and
soaring pilot are, and how claustrophobic a 152 cockpit is compared to
the tiny space but incredibly open visibility of a racing sailplane. and
i saw many little differences; torque and P-factor, toe brakes,
steerable landing gear, runup checklists ...
there were more differences than i expected, although i probably should
have known better. but mostly, i hadn't really had time in the lesson to
assimilate those differences due to a scheduling gaffe at the last
minute on the part of my instructor (and not really his fault either).
but then to have the news of Helmut Reichmann's death dropped on me,
followed by the confirmation and detail from other sources, sigh. he had
stopped flying competition after the 1978 world championships because,
as someone else said, "his friends would fly differently in a contest".
what that really means is that they got competitive, TOO competitive.
they got dangerous, ignoring right of way, taking too many risks. i have
seen it happen several times while acting as an official at contests.
the contest committee usually gets to them within a couple of days due
to complaints from other pilots, but a few times that was too late.
Paul MacCready quit flying contests after his international win in 1956
for the same reason, ironically because of a very close call in the same
area that Reichmann was flying in (see the book about the Gossamer
Condor and Albatross efforts).
"fly because you love it" (thanks Dave), that's certainly why i fly, and
it's why i will pick up that powered ticket and instrument rating and
who knows what else. but i will also fly to set an example for everyone
that i meet, an example emphasizing safety and intelligent use of the
aircraft. that was the message of Helmut Reichmann whereever he went ...