John Pettinato <<Jpettinat>>
writes:

A few days ago while thermaling in Florida over the Great Green
Swamp my wing suffered an aileron cable failure. Oddly enough I had just washed
the sail and lubricated the pulley system the day before accident. I was at
around 3900'agl in light lift turning left when I heard an unfriendly noise. I
immediately looked things over as glider continued in a left turn.

I tried to level wing out by high siding bar to no affect. Turn continued
steeper and steeper until was spinning on a wing tip at approximately 55 mph. I
tried pulling flaps and adjusting pitch to no affect.

I made a choice to set 2000 AGL as my bailout point. I pulled the chute out at
2000' and threw it at around 1900'.

The glider was damaged on impact, but I was not. The Wallaby crew was very
helpful and I'm grateful to everyone who lent a hand. I removed the sail later
and found that my outer aileron pulleys were very rough and the frayed cable
that broke was located in a hidden spot under a pulley guide. I then inspected
the opposite cable and found a strand broken on that side as well.

I think at the very least these cables as well as the pulleys should be removed
and checked annually. I also think different style pulleys should be considered.