2013/06/15 hang gliding tow release fail with parachute deployment
Possibly the most spectacular publicly viewable hang gliding disaster video of all time, one rather low successful parachute deployment away from pretty much certain instantaneous death. 720 resolution, great image quality and lighting.
Discussed at:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post4586.html#p4586
Releases
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29415
Holy Crap
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32776
Can't release the tow line
Not discussed at:
http://www.hang-gliding.com
Mission Soaring Center
Mission student:
Fifteen days (and maybe half a dozen flights?) into his Hang Two at the time. Age at time: 72, Wills Wing Falcon 4.Linwood Lyons - 93088 - H2 - 2013/06/05 - Patrick Denevan - FL ST 360 FSL
Incident precipitated by an improperly sequenced state-of-the-art three-string release:
:
:
:
Went nuts and harvested 201 stills of the action which I've broken up into nine posts to make scrolling less painful.
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Edit - 2015/03/05
Belatedly/Yesterday found a high resolution continuation of this recording at:
http://vimeo.com/69927112
and harvested an additional eighteen frames, the first a duplicate from the last one from the "2013/06/15 hang gliding tow release fail with parachute deployment" video, depicting the aftermath of the landing. I've rotated the images from the mostly upside down camera 180 to make them mostly topside up.
Also note that I've translated the frame numbers of the stills from the second video to make them consistent with what they'd be if the first video had encompassed the extra footage. Frame 00001 in the second video is the same as 22727 in the first and successive ones are calculated accordingly. On the off chance that anybody would find this useful the rotated stills appear in the second video as:
201-00001 - 202-00201 - 203-00422 - 204-00521 - 205-00701 - 206-00823 - 207-00905 - 208-00916 - 209-01026
210-01109 - 211-01122 - 212-01714 - 213-13109 - 214-13206 - 215-23607 - 216-24101 - 217-24207 - 218-24426
I was aware of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwobNbDaXuA
posted the day of the incident showing the same footage plus two minutes and one second but it's 240 rez and I'd decided not to bother with it. The Vimeo version was posted three weeks and two days later.
So revised total: 219 (218 unique).
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Sequence:
01 - launch - hook-in check - proning out - bar contact - Birrenator disengagement (This one - don't click if you can read this.)
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7482.html#p7482
02 - release attempts
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7483.html#p7483
03 - mystery activity
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7484.html#p7484
04 - Houston...
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7485.html#p7485
05 - And now what?
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7486.html#p7486
06 - Uh-oh.
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7487.html#p7487
07 - Things get ugly.
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7488.html#p7488
08 - deployment
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7489.html#p7489
09 - descent - splashdown
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7490.html#p7490
10 - aftermath
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7491.html#p7491
Images displayed at 800x600. Use the URLs for full rez 960x720.
001-00001
- 001 - chronological order
--- 0 - minutes
-- 00 - seconds
-- 02 - frame (25 fps)
Hooked in, state-of-the-art towing equipment, an appropriate weak link with a finished length of 1.5 inches or less, no launch dolly to complicate things, wind checked, wings level and down out of the turbulent jet stream six inches above, nose down, ready to run like hell...
001-00001 - launch
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8621/16673600031_18afe652a9_o.png
Good. Now stomp your left foot to signal that you're good to go...
002-00123
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8613/16649020236_8efb92932d_o.png
003-00204
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8588/16673955432_7bf80c0e6b_o.png
004-00208
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8653/16488826039_f64e8417b3_o.png
005-00610
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8607/16487392228_eb2fbab357_o.png
006-00803
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8639/16052645344_798c49d0bc_o.png
Note that we're hooked up at lower chest level and over the bar.
007-00905
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8641/16052645114_656ff9c407_o.png
008-00927
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8573/16673954402_18b46f3a03_o.png
'Bout time to do a hook-in check...
009-01013 - hook in check
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8648/16052644694_9630f01f06_o.png
Nailed it again.
010-01127
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8658/16055021473_2572e5569e_o.png
Wing stabilized in the turbulent jet stream... After you've mastered the foot launch we'll move you on up to dollies.
011-01228
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8659/16487561860_6dcf52d78e_o.png
There...
012-01314
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8605/16673598251_a89747a370_o.png
Now you have your hands on the CONTROL bar where the really skilled dolly launch pilots start out with them.
And now our tow angle is steep enough to have our state-of-the-art bridle in solid contact with the bar.
013-10109
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8610/16073609294_0a9e85c231_o.png
Now it's bending over the bar, trimming the glider nose low, reducing climb rate...
014-10122
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8617/16075969293_72f24aba03_o.png
015-10200
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8580/16509784869_fa8decc209_o.png
...catching on the grips as the glider moves laterally with respect to the pulley, winch, tow vehicle...
016-10219
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/16509784699_2400c7ec15_o.png
We COULD be using a Koch two stage but, since it started going up over thirty years ago, we couldn't refer to it as "state-of-the-art".
Time to disengage the state-of-the-art Birrenator - that clever device of Peter's which automatically blows the glider off tow if the nose pops up. Does an excellent job of taking the pilot out of the equation - even better than an Infallible Weak Link.
017-10801
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8627/16649018286_7ca6701d5b_o.png
018-10806
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8657/16673953202_539031722e_o.png
019-10811
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8567/16488824219_2e7f5a4d8a_o.png
020-10819
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8665/16052643454_ef408619ca_o.png
021-10821
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8590/16052643274_68014e1511_o.png
022-10823
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8677/16674966205_e63ac9eb31_o.png
023-10827
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8673/16673952342_80f7a06f11_o.png
Got it! Those things have saved so many lives at Tres Pinos - it's nothing short of criminal that they're not used at ALL towing operations.
024-10900
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8664/16488823439_e00f5bdbcd_o.png