Kite Strings

Rob Kells - 2005/12

The Best Insurance Is To Believe It Can Happen To You!

Bullshit.

- The best insurance is to believe it WILL happen to you!

- Nobody ever died on the rocks below the ramp 'cause he was too afraid of launching unhooked.

- And the next best insurance is to have a wire crewman, tow driver, or tow launch assistant who believes that it WILL happen to you!

- But in this entire stupid article I don't hear one word's worth of you advising anyone to ever look out for anybody else.

- Which, given the circumstances of Bill's death - at a launch choked with competitors and with a wire crew - is rather telling about you, Rob. I don't think you really have much of a concept of doing things for the greater good.

I believe that there is no "one method" that is best for all pilots or situations.

- Who gives a rat's ass what you BELIEVE? There's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this sport which I want or need to doing based upon someone's BELIEF SYSTEM - yours, mine, ANYBODY'S.

- There IS one best method - the one you use. The same one I used for every foot launch I ever did from 1980/10 on. There is no sane argument to the contrary.

- For me and most pilots it works in all situations.

- For all pilots it works in many - probably most - situations.

- For some pilots it doesn't work in some situations.

- But you don't even tell us about pilots for whom it doesn't work in some situations.

- And maybe the reason you don't tell us this is 'cause that might draw attention to the fact that y'all could be doing a better job of providing gliders with control frames better proportioned for more pilots to allow safer control of the glider for foot launch.

If fact, we use different methods at different times.

- Who's "WE"?

- What do "times" hafta do with anything?

- I don't use different methods at different times. My suspension's tight within two seconds of every launch I make be it foot, platform, or dolly.

- You told just told us:

Always lift the glider vertically and feel the tug on the leg straps when the harness mains go tight, just before you start your launch run. I always use this test.

So which one of those two statements is false?

I know of five very experienced pilots who have launched without being hooked in.

Yeah? And...?

It is possible to climb into the control frame and fly the glider standing inside the bar after launching unhooked (two of the five managed to do so), but most pilots will not be able to do so for several reasons. It requires a lot of strength to get up into the bar, and most current gliders will be trimmed very fast if you are hanging from the base tube after launching unhooked. One pilot was able to deploy his parachute while hanging from the base tube after launching unhooked from a 1000-foot cliff. Miraculously he was not injured.

Who gives a rat's ass what they were or weren't able to do or what did or didn't happen to them AFTER they skipped the hook-in check? I wanna hear what reason they had for skipping the hook-in check. How come you're not telling us anything?

You've told us:

I believe that there is no "one method" that is best for all pilots or situations.

How 'bout telling us if these people were idiot hang checkers like Rob McKenzie, idiot sociopathic Aussie Methodists like Davis, or hook-in checkers like you? Then we'd have a little more data upon which to base our procedures and wouldn't hafta be concerned so much about what different people BELIEVE.

The right answer is to always be sure you are hooked in before you start your launch run.

That is the ABSOLUTE *WRONG* ANSWER.

The RIGHT answer is to always be sure you AREN'T hooked in as long as possible before you start your launch run. And check your fuckin' connection at the last possible instant - regardless of what you did or think you did two seconds ago.

If you are on a sloped launch and feel your glider taking off without you, the sooner you let go the better. If it's a cliff launch, trying to climb into the control bar (if you are athletic) is probably your best bet. Once inside the bar, with the glider stabilized, you can wrap one arm around the control bar apex and hook in.

Why are we talking about this? I thought we were always sure we were hooked in before starting our launch runs.

Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method, but rather the fear of launching unhooked that makes us diligent to be sure we are hooked in every time before starting the launch run.

Why are we diluting people's fear of launching unhooked by making them optimistic about their prospects after they skip the hook-in check?

Last Thought Before You Start Your Launch Run: Hooked In? Not Sure? CHECK!

And if you are sure - DON'T CHECK! Just get that nose down and run off the cliff! Why bother taking the extra half second you'd need to feel that little tug when you just did a McKenzie hang check at the back of the ramp?

ONLY CHECK IF YOU'RE NOT *SURE*!

Lemme tell ya sumpin', asshole... Every single person - without exception - in the entire history of hang gliding who's been crushed on the rocks below the ramp was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT *CERTAIN* he was hooked in before starting his launch run. That's why I'm always certain I'm not.

This is the technique Steve Pearson uses if he is not absolutely sure he is hooked in on launch.

- Then he's a TOTAL MORON. Anybody who's EVER absolutely sure he is hooked in on launch is a TOTAL MORON.

- What's he done at the back of the ramp to make him absolutely sure he IS hooked in on launch?

- What's HIS fuckin' moronic rationale for violating the USHGA regulation requiring the pilot to verify his connection JUST PRIOR TO *EVERY* LAUNCH - not just the ones he's not absolutely sure about?

He sets the glider down and, while holding the nose wires, turns and looks at his mains and carabiner and physically grabs the carabiner and gives it a tug.

- How many times has he found something wrong with the mains and carabiner:
-- that wasn't apparent at preflight?
-- PERIOD?

- What problems with the mains and carabiner does he typically find?

- How many times has the carabiner pulled free after he's physically grabbed it and given it a tug?

- If he's not confident about the condition of the mains and carabiner what makes him so sure that there's a locknut on the port leading edge / cross spar junction?

- Maybe now would be a good time to pull the sail and give everything a really thorough once-over.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1167
The way it outa be

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 UTC

One last attempt.

We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, etc. Bob Gillisse redux.

A hang check is part of preflighting your equipment. You do it in the setup area - not on the launch or the ramp. When you get in line you are hooked in and ready to go. No going down for a hang check cum hook-in check.

That post, by the way Rob, was Steve's response to the same fatality. And he's got his shit together on this issue a whole lot better than you'll ever be able to dream of doing. And he's been pushing this message a lot better and a lot longer too. And he's done a lot more for this sport than you have.

And this ain't his day job.

And he also isn't a friend to every pilot he meets.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13132
Unhooked Death Again - Change our Methods Now?

JBBenson - 2009/01/25 16:27:19 UTC

I get what Tad is saying, but it took some translation:

HANG CHECK is part of the preflight, to verify that all the harness lines etc. are straight.

HOOK-IN CHECK is to verify connection to the glider five seconds before takeoff.

They are separate actions, neither interchangeable nor meant to replace one another. They are not two ways to do the same thing.

- We know Steve Pearson doesn't do a hang check and isn't an Aussie Methodist 'cause you've told us that much.

- He's probably doing a walk-through to preflight his connection 'cause that's about the only thing left.

- There's a delay between the preflight and launch 'cause sometimes he's POSITIVE he's hooked in at launch and other times he's not so sure.

- He refuses to do anything remotely resembling a hook-in check - mandatory under USHGA regulations - ever.

- When he gets to launch position and ISN'T POSITIVE he's hooked in, he also loses confidence in the integrity of his suspension system components but nothing else on the glider.

- So instead of just LIFTING the fuckin' glider a few inches he puts it DOWN and goes through an idiot partial preflight procedure to make sure that ground squirrels haven't used his hang strap for nesting material and his carabiner hasn't rusted through since he last checked.

- After this delay...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went

Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.

...he's absolutely sure he's hooked in for as long as it takes to get airborne.

- Well, maybe if he's gotta wait a while for another cycle like the one he missed while he was checking for ground squirrel damage and rust and he's not so sure now.

- So again he sets the glider down and, while holding the nose wires, turns and looks at his mains and carabiner and physically grabs the carabiner and gives it a tug.

- This is fuckin' moronic.

- And you can bet your bottom dollar that since he sees no value in a last moment verification for himself he won't be looking for one in anybody else's launches.

While it does not ensure that you are in your leg loops, it is an easy way to CONFIRM that you are hooked into the glider prior to launch.

- Oh. Kneeling to set a seventy pound glider down, grabbing the nose wires, turning around, checking the mains and carabiner for ground squirrel and corrosion damage, physically grabbing the carabiner and giving it a tug to make sure it doesn't pull free, kneeling back down, wrapping your arms around the downtubes, standing back up with the aforementioned seventy pound glider, and trimming for pitch and roll is an EASY way to confirm that you're hooked into the glider prior to launch.

- What's are some hard stupid ways?

- Kinda makes ya wonder why more people don't do more frequent confirmation checks closer to the instant of launch.

- Bullshit.

- So you don't confirm that you have your leg loops but - on the other hand - you DO get to confirm that the ground squirrels haven't gotten your webbing and the salt air hasn't eaten through your carabiner in the last three minutes.

- This is fuckin' moronic.

Rob Kells - 2005/12

Last Thought Before You Start Your Launch Run: Hooked In? Not Sure? CHECK!

Mission's Pat Denevan teaches a hook-in check, which is the "lift the glider to feel the leg loops go tight" method I outlined above.

Along with all the idiot crap procedures you said were just fine too.

He adds that he teaches his students to repeat it if they do not launch within fifteen seconds.

Well yeah.

- It's not like one could cram more than one thought into his brain function in any fifteen second interval.

I'm hooked in.

one - one thousand - two - one thousand - three - one thousand - four - one thousand - five - one thousand - six - one thousand - seven - one thousand - eight - one thousand - nine - one thousand - ten - one thousand - eleven - one thousand - twelve - one thousand - thirteen - one thousand - fourteen - one thousand - fifteen - one thousand

I'm hooked in.

one - one thousand - two - one thousand - three - one thousand - four - one thousand - five - one thousand - six - one thousand - seven - one thousand - eight - one thousand - nine - one thousand - ten - one thousand - eleven - one thousand - twelve - one thousand - thirteen - one thousand - fourteen - one thousand - fifteen - one thousand

I'm... I'm... I'm sorry, could you please repeat the question?

- Or that:
-- anything could happen to distract one inside of a fifteen second interval
-- one could launch in the mistaken belief that one had verified a connection fifteen seconds prior

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.

Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC

What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.

Why is it such an astronomically impossible task for all the fuckin' morons in this sport to grasp the concept of JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH?

Pat points out, correctly, that it's more important to know that you are attached to your glider and in your leg loops than if your harness lines are twisted in some way.

WHEN is it more important to know you're attached to your glider?
- the instant before your foot moves?
- fifteen seconds ago?

Fuck Mission's Pat Denevan.

All Lines In Order?

Who gives a flying fuck? Save it for a discussion on preflight.

I always do a hang check when I get in a new harness or after I've worked on one.

- Great. Use it for the one thing it's good for - checking clearance...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153
Hooking In

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC

When Bob Gillisse got hurt I suggested that our local institution of the hang check is more the problem than the solution. I still believe that. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. I often do not see pilots doing a hook-in check. Why should they? They just did a hang check and they are surrounded by friends who will make sure this box is checked.

...and NOTHING else.

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 UTC

A hang check is part of preflighting your equipment. You do it in the setup area - not on the launch or the ramp. When you get in line you are hooked in and ready to go. No going down for a hang check cum hook-in check.

And nowhere within a seventy-five yard radius of a ramp.

- So does Rob McKenzie get in a new harness or work on one at least once before every flight?

I do not usually do a hang check on later flights...

Why would you EVER do a hang check on a later flight?

...unless I'm aerotowing and have to lie down in the cart.

Do you stop doing the hang check after you lift off from the cart?

I always hang my carabiner in a loop on the front of my harness right after I unhook from the glider.

Good idea. I'll bet Steve Wendt taught Bill Priday to do that 'cause that's where they found his carabiner when they got to his lifeless body below the escarpment at Whitwell. (And I'll bet they found his helmet safely buckled as well. Steve's really excellent at getting those sorts of messages across.)

This assures that the lines remain untwisted next time I hook in.

Unfortunately the shithead didn't teach him anything about hook-in checks so there was no next time. But at least the lines remained untwisted! And the Sport 2 was in pretty good shape when they recovered it!

I think that if all pilots started doing a hook-in check IMMEDIATELY PRIOR to their launch run, we'd have fewer cases of the very sad mistake of launching unhooked.

Really?

- So would that mean that you think that...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=13359
Today was a bad day!

Rob McKenzie - 2009/08/26 17:26:12 UTC

I believe that if I fly long enough, numbers lead to an eventual failure to hook in. I'm human.

I do a hang check before nearly every flight.

I like variety. Sometimes Aussie and sometimes not. It helps to bring the thought process alive. Routine leads to boredom which leads to reactive thinking which IMO is a poor facsimile of true thinking.

...if fewer assholes like Rob McKenzie would teach their students to skip hook-in checks and do whatever moronic things they felt like in the name of TRUE THINKING we'd have fewer cases of the very sad mistake of launching unhooked?

- Do you think that if all pilots stopped doing moronic preflight procedures on the ramp - like checking webbing and pulling on carabiners (which would be pretty wack even in the setup area) - and instead started doing hook-in checks IMMEDIATELY PRIOR to their launch runs we'd have fewer cases of the very sad mistake of launching unhooked?

- If you think that if all pilots started doing a hook-in check IMMEDIATELY PRIOR to their launch run we'd have fewer cases of the very sad mistake of launching unhooked what do you think of Pat Denevan's policy of allowing lapses of what the student perceives to be fifteen seconds?

- Do you think that if:

-- all pilots stopped trying to whipstall the glider IMMEDIATELY PRIOR to their landing touchdown we'd have fewer cases of broken downtubes, arms, and necks?

-- all aerotow pilots were equipped with built in two point releases of a design similar to your VG systems that there would be fewer fatal lockouts?

-- you specified 1.5 G weak link ratings for all your gliders and we got those fucking standard aerotow weak links out of circulation we'd have fewer crashes on launch?

- Ya know Rob...

People who know what the fuck they're talking about and really wanna get a good message across and do some good in this sport don't say:

I think that if...

They take stands and say stuff like:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16888
Safety tips re leg loops / habits (a close call!)

Helen McKerral - 2010/04/26 23:41:20 UTC

A lift and tug done immediately prior to every launch (not before you walk to launch, or do your hang check; the key is immediately prior to launch), every time, would help prevent these incidents (both unhooked AND leg loops, because you feel the legloops when you lift and tug, as well as the tight hangstrap).

and:

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC

DO A HOOK-IN CHECK. You need a system that you do every time regardless of how many hang checks you have been subjected to that assures you are hooked in.

even/especially if it casts assholes like Rob McKenzie, Matt Taber, and Steve Wendt in bad light.

The kind of person who says:

I think that if...

is primarily interested in being a good friend to every pilot he meets. And someone who's interested in being a good friend to every pilot he meets is in this game primarily for what he himself can get out of it and doesn't really give a rat's ass about anybody else.

Please fly safely.

How?

- You tell us:

I think that if all pilots started doing a hook-in check IMMEDIATELY PRIOR to their launch run, we'd have fewer cases of the very sad mistake of launching unhooked.

at the end of a watered down, convoluted, self contradictory, schizophrenic article which provides justification for damn near anything any idiot wants to do or ignore in the fifteen minutes before he says "Clear!"

- You make no mention whatsoever of the fact that there's a USHGA regulation which requires verification of hook-in status immediately prior to all launches for all ratings by some means other than a fucking hang check.

- You do absolutely nothing to compel any of your schools to conform to the quarter century old USHGA regulation which deals with this issue - including the one that just got your customer killed.

- Hell, you don't even get your own company people in line with this.

- You make no call for anyone to do anything beyond looking out for himself.

- You tell us that using a hang check as confirmation of hook-in status is dangerous but you sell gliders to people like Bill with owners' manuals that read:

Launching and Flying the Sport 2

Before launching, hook in to the glider and do a careful hang check.

- And it STILL says that - motherfucker.

- I don't know of a SINGLE school or instructor that teaches or has EVER TAUGHT a hook-in check in compliance with USHGA's now over three decade old regulations - and damn near all the schools and instructors are Wills Wing dealerships.

- Pat Denevan is probably the closest thing we've got - and he sucks.

- There's not a trace of anything anything remotely resembling a hook-in check in your fucking "Blue Sky Scooter Towing" video produced at the dealership which got Bill killed seventeen months prior and released the same number of months before you died.

- You left the national organization in the control of a bunch of off the scale evil shits who about a month after your article started busting ass to erase as many traces of the hook-in check policy as possible.

- You allow your shit dealerships to send people up, illegally, on any crap they feel like calling tow equipment - regardless of how many people it's killed.

- You personally install the same crap on your demo gliders when you tour your shit dealerships.

- I doubt your idiot article got a single person to alter a single procedure for the better even once. If the schools and instructors don't implement stuff - it doesn't happen. And if nobody EVER holds schools and instructors accountable for ANYTHING nobody ever implements anything.

Robert T. Kells, Jr.
September 7, 1955 - August 9, 2008

You're gonna die two years and eight months from publication of this article - and there's gonna be nothing anybody's gonna be able to do to stop that from happening.

Exactly three weeks after you die Kunio Yoshimura will emerge from a crowd of idiot hang checkers on top of Mingus Mountain and run off the ramp with his carabiner dangling. He would have been SO EASY to save - but, as far as I'm concerned, you didn't lift a finger.

And a year and a day after that Roy Messing's gonna start a flight on one of your Falcon 3 170s at your Whitewater dealership with a total piece of crap for an aerotow release...

4:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC1yrdDV4sI

27-41810
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5579/14820212815_4a9087727f_o.png


...from your shit dealership at Lockout Mountain and end it a few seconds later with a fatal lockout. And there's an excellent probability that he'd have been OK if you had adopted the release system I tried to give you instead of just walking away.

In subsequent years, Rob established and promoted policies within Wills Wing in support of retail dealers and instructors that helped to further safety and professionalism within the sport of hang gliding.

Rob was a friend to every pilot he met, and his impact on and contributions to the sport of hang gliding cannot be overstated.

Bullshit.

Katie Mercer - 2012/04/29
The Province
http://www.theprovince.com

A young woman is missing after she plummeted into a heavily treed area near Harrison Mills Saturday after becoming detached during a tandem hang gliding excursion.

The Vancouver woman, who is believed to be in her twenties, had just taken off with a guide around noon Saturday when she fell an estimated 300 metres to the rough terrain below.

"Within thirty seconds of takeoff, the pilot realized something was wrong" and tried to wrap his legs and desperately hold on to the passenger, said Jason Warner, spokesman for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC).

"[The pilot] tried everything."

The young woman's boyfriend, who had reportedly purchased the excursion as a birthday gift, witnessed the horrific accident from the launch point along with the pilot's...

By which she undoubtedly means "brief passenger's"...

...family.

Wow.

The Sydney Morning Herald - 2003/09/24

A hang glider pilot will be tried for manslaughter after a tourist plunged 200 metres to her death during a tandem flight over a New Zealand alpine town, a court has ruled.

Stephen Parson, 52, of Canada, faces up to ten years in prison if found guilty.

Eleni Zeri, 23, a civil engineering graduate from Athens, died on March 29 after slipping from his hang glider near Queenstown on South Island.

Parson knew he had a serious problem as soon as he took off because Ms Zeri was hanging too low and the carabiner clip on her harness was not attached to the glider, Mr. Garland told the court.

"She was only holding on with her hands," he said.

Parson had wrapped his legs around her waist to try to keep a grip on her, but Ms. Zeri had told him she couldn't hang on much longer, Mr. Garland said.

Tandem pilots from that province sure seem to have a lot of trouble landing with the same number of twenty-some year old female passengers with which they started out. Must be the water.

Probably need to come up with a better Plan B than wrapping legs.

I'm calling this one leg loops.

And, while leg loops would make it more of a preflight than a hook-in check issue, when we find videos of this guy launching tandem (and solo) he won't be doing anything resembling a hook-in check.

And hook-in checks:
- are done by people who are scared of the falling out of the glider issues at the moment of launch
- even if some of them don't automatically pick up leg loops - most assuredly get people thinking about leg loops (and partial hook-ins)

The Experience of Vancouver Hang Gliding

For those of you who have gazed longingly at the birds soaring high overhead, here is your opportunity to make your dreams come true and join them.

Right at the northern edge of the Turkey Vulture's British Columbian breeding range.

What a passenger should expect from a tandem HG flight, and what will be expected of them.

You and your Instructor will set up the hang glider, you will be given a quick pre-flight briefing, practise a few launch runs, and then run side by side off the mountain and into the sky.

Is there anything you and your instructor will do AFTER the preflight briefing and practice runs and JUST BEFORE you run side by side off the mountain and into the sky?

Once launched, there is nothing else you need to do!

Or may be able to do.

Just relax and enjoy the feeling.

Yeah. Hard to imagine.

Your pilot will encourage you to give it a try.

Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974

"Never take your hands off the bar." - Tom Peghiny

Look ahead and relax and you will soon be flying the hang glider all by yourself.

Or at least be all by yourself.

We will not compromise on safety.

And, obviously, you always use the launch procedure mandated (but never practiced or enforced) by your neighbor to the immediate south.

Because it is safest we will always land on wheels.

What if you hafta land in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place or a field filled with seven foot high corn? Shouldn't you at least be practicing for such and emergency?

You still have nothing more to do except relax in your harness while your instructor glides into the field for a smooth gentle landing.

Assuming your instructor checked the leg loops and you're still IN your harness.

What does it feel like to hang glide?

The thirty second version or the full Monty?

You actually feel very secure while being suspended in your harness with all the open air around you. Most passengers usually refer to the feeling as ... "just like I dreamed"

What about some of the other passengers?

Do people ever get up there and freak out?

No, haven't had one yet.

Edit that to just one. And only briefly.

We always ask the passenger if they are O.K. just after take off...

Can you think of any good questions you might also want to ask the passenger JUST BEFORE TAKEOFF? As a matter of routine? EVERY flight? Maybe check for yourself too just to be sure?

...and give them the option to tell us if they'd like to go down and land. No requests so far...

Yep. I'll bet. Quite the contrary in fact.

Jessica Peters - Agassiz Observer
2012/04/29 03:00 UTC - Published
2012/04/29 04:02 UTC - Updated

The body of a woman who fell from a hang glider on Saturday afternoon near Agassiz has been found.

Her body was found just as rescuers were calling off the search for the night. They had been searching for about seven hours, after receiving a call that a woman had fallen from a tandem flight near Mount Woodside, just west of Agassiz.

The woman was taking part in a tandem ride, meaning she was riding with an experienced pilot. Experts in hang gliding said Saturday that they cannot recall an incident like this ever happening in the sport's 25-year history in Canada.

But what these duplicitous sonsabitches DIDN'T say Saturday is that they just pulled the instructor and tandem ratings of and expelled from HPAC membership another Vancouver operator as a result of two of his charges being killed in a period of under seven and a half years.

And the first of those - 2003/03/29 in Queenstown - was virtually IDENTICAL to this one and resulted in a manslaughter conviction. But, what the hell, that was New Zealand (except when we wanna pull the guy's ratings).

And the other thing these useless duplicitous sonsabitches didn't say was that they didn't do jack shit to implement launch procedures to put the slightest dent in this flavor of Groundhog Day disaster cycling.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

Brad Barkley - 2012/04/29 01:00:55 UTC

How terrible....condolences to her family.

You got a lot of nerve posting that you pig fucking, less than worthless son of a bitch!

Couldn't have said that much better - without going on for a couple of pages anyway.

Officials have not released the name of the pilot, but CBC News has learned his name is Jon Orders, a hang glider with sixteen years of experience who became a certified tandem instructor three years ago.

The cause of the crash has not been determined, but officials say it could be anything from equipment failure to pilot error.

Equipment failure is just one of many flavors of pilot error, official dudes.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25964
Tragic Death on hang glider‎

Terry Ryan - 2012/04/30 05:15:41 UTC
Toronto

Tragic indeed.

I am absolutely heartsick reading about the tandem accident out in BC.

A young girl, Lenami Godinez, seeking her first air adventure, died. And the pilot, Jon Orders, who I know personally and consider a friend, will be irrevocably devastated. Ohhh, my heart goes out to all involved. This is such a horrible time for those people, their families and friends ... and for the hang gliding community in general. I know we'd give anything to turn the clock back and make things right. But ...

Please, be safe out there.

Sincerely,
Terry Ryan

I am absolutely heartsick reading about the tandem accident out in BC.

This was not an ACCIDENT - and it's debatable whether on not it can be considered a tandem.

And the pilot, Jon Orders, who I know personally and consider a friend, will be irrevocably devastated.

Not a shadow of a doubt. He probably wishes he had never been born.

...and for the hang gliding community in general.

Fuck the hang gliding community in general. The despicable the hang gliding community in general is about ten thousand times more to blame for this than Jon is.

I know we'd give anything to turn the clock back and make things right.

- You had MANY opportunities to discuss this and get the word out BEFORE this happened and you didn't do SHIT.

- You didn't do shit when I was getting locked down and banned, when somebody who was saying the same thing as I was got attacked, sent to The Basement, accused of being me, banned, and deleted.

- So fuck you.

I know we'd give anything to turn the clock back and make things right.

- Who's "WE"?

- Time machine. Crank it back to five seconds before the fatal launch.

- What are you gonna say to your friend Jon?

- Why would you not say the same thing to him five seconds before ANY launch?

- We can't turn the clock back - but are you stupid enough to believe that if we don't start thinking about those things within five seconds of EVERY launch this won't happen again?

Please, be safe out there.

Big help, Terry. This and hundreds of other ones like it just happen when people aren't trying to be safe.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

Manta_Dreaming - 2012/04/30 05:14:55 UTC

If it happened in the US, I'm sure it would adversely affect our USHGPA insurance.

Yeah, good thing she slammed in the better part of seventeen miles north of the border. There IS a god.

Times Colonist - 2012/04/30 15:48
Kelly Sinoski and Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver

Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said the pilot knew almost immediately something was wrong after the pair launched off the popular Mount Woodside just before noon. He tried to grab the 27-year-old woman, identified as Lenami Godinez, and sought to hold on to the straps of her harness but she slid out of his grasp, grabbing his feet in a last-ditch attempt to hang on.

If she was trying to hold on to the straps of HER harness then this one was leg loops. Period.
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2012/08/23

I misread that as Lenami trying to hold onto the straps of her harness. It was Jon trying to hold onto the straps of her harness (consistent with her not being hooked in).

Sorry 'bout that.