There will be H2 pilots at all 4 places with at least one observer at each location.
What percentage of the Twos, Observers, other flyers:
- do and look for stomp tests and hook-in checks?
- would consider staying prone on the basetube and bellying in if the alternative were a broken arm or death?
The Gap... Remember this one?:
http://vimeo.com/34757572
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=24459
Blown launch and crash into trees
http://www.kitestrings.org/post1191.html#p1191
Wouldn't have happened with a wuffo crew.
Hyner on Day Two of the holiday weekend:
http://www.lockhaven.com/page/content.detail/id/589706/Hang-glider-lands-on-tree--escapes-injury.html?nav=5009
Hang glider lands on tree, escapes injury - The Express
The Express - 2016/07/05
Hang glider lands on tree, escapes injury
A hang glider remarkably escaped without injury despite landing on top of tree in Hyner after taking off from Hyner View State Park on Sunday afternoon. As the Renovo Fire Department and Chapman Township Fire Company arrived on scene, they found that the glider had landed and become stuck in a tree just south of the landing field along the Susquehanna River. The hang glider could be seen from the Hyner Bridge. The Renovo Fire Department used their seventy-five foot ladder truck to clear branches, but were unable to reach the adult male that was about twenty feet higher. Station #2- the Lock Haven Fire Department was called to bring their 100-foot ladder truck, seen at left, to the scene. After nearly an hour and a half the trapped man touched down on ground following the rescue efforts of all three companies. Above, it was all smiles on the ground after the trapped hang glider, left, was reunited with his wife and children, after being freed from his glider.
http://www.lockhaven.com/photos/news/lg/589706_1.jpg
http://www.lockhaven.com/photos/news/lg/589706_2.jpg
That's what happens when you miss the runway by a lot. Miss it by a wingtip's worth you get killed instantly.
(And on 1990/05/27 I helped extract Hang Five comp hotshot John Woiwode from rather deep in the forest on the river side of the upstream end of the runway.)
Pretty much total suppression of information on Jesse Fulkersin from close to eight months ago and you can't find out anything other than what's in the newspaper on the 2016/07/03 unless you're on a closed Yahoo group.
If you fly anywhere in Pa. as an H2 without an observer, you are done.
That's not what the u$hPa rating says.
The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc. - 2016/05/11
Standard Operating Procedure
12. Rating System
02. Pilot Proficiency System
07. Novice Hang Gliding Rating (H2)
-A. General Description - A Novice hang glider pilot has the knowledge and basic skills necessary to fly and practice without direct instructor supervision but within significant operating limitations. The pilot understands the USHPA hang gliding rating systems and recommended operating limitations.
-C. Recommended Operating Limitations for Novice Pilots
01. Should exceed these limitations only after thoroughly mastering all required tasks, and after acquiring a full understanding of the potential problems and dangers involved in exceeding these limitations.
02. It is highly recommended that all flights be made under the direct supervision of a USHPA Certified Basic or Advanced Instructor or Observer.
03. Should fly only in smooth winds of 18 mph or less and gusty winds to 11 mph.
04. If foot launching, should launch only on slopes 2:1 to 7:1, where wind is within 25° of being straight up the slope.
05. Should maintain heading within 90° of directly into wind, and within 45° of directly into wind below 60' AGL.
06. Flight speed. Should not attempt to fly slowly when encountering lift, but instead, concentrate on maintaining attitude, heading, and airspeed. Slow flight must be preceded by stall experience 500' from any object.
(Note that those recommended restrictions preclude one from executing a DBF approach in anything but dead air.)
Someone will clip your side wires...
Someone should be well armed before deciding to clip MY side wires.
...and escort you off the property.
Hyner launch is a Pennsylvania State Park. Somebody should also be well armed and prepared to do some jail time if he attempts to escort me off of it. And when I was still a Two I was ten times the pilot a lot of the fully cleared assholes I've seen at Hyner will EVER be.
I know this didn't help Karen Carra or Jesse Fulkersin...
Exactly. And there's never been a hint of a report that either of them was dealing with Over Two level circumstances and conditions. They could've been carrying Two cards and sponsored by certified Observers and wound up just as dead.
...but we've been keeping our H2 pilots alive.
- How many Twos would that be?
- What's the difference between a club, operation, meet killing a Two and killing a Three, Four, Five? Name some fatalities in which the pilot hadn't temporarily at least reverted to sub Two performance and/or judgment.
- If you prevent Twos from flying you're gonna prevent them from being hurt or killed in hang gliding incidents. You're also gonna:
-- prevent them from gaining experience and developing skills which will increase their chances for long term survival
-- deprive them of flying opportunities they're never gonna get back - and some of them you're gonna help frustrate out of the sport
Wuffo's are not pilots...
Only the tiniest percentage of people who fly hang gliders are pilots. "Wuffo" is derived from "What for" and an ACTUAL pilot never stops being a wuffo - someone who's always questioning how things work and why things are being done a particular way. Hang glider "pilot"...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28290
Report about fatal accident at Quest Air Hang Gliding
Paul Hurless - 2013/02/09 08:49:22 UTC
If you had been properly trained on how to tow, you would know that it shouldn't be a big deal when a weak link breaks, even just after coming off the cart, if you are doing things right. Maybe you should get some better training instead of just parroting Tad. When you are under tow you should be ready for any unusual event and be ready to deal with it. It's called being a pilot instead of just being a passenger along for the ride.
Using someone else's tragedy to further your agenda is pathetic.
Gimme a wuffo - someone who's EDUCABLE - any day of the week.
...& I'd rather self launch or bag-it than have one touching my wires.
- I want someone with a middling or better degree of COMMON SENSE on a sidewire at any time there's enough going on with the air to make me do any work to get or stay level.
- One need not launch with anyone touching a wire. One can say "Clear!" and quickly glance to the relevant side(s) to ensure that you are before committing. That's not a bad practice under any circumstances anyway. Also a good check for wire deflection before saying "Clear!"
- The "danger" of using a wuffo crew is microscopic compared to going up behind ANY Dragonfly with its:
-- tow mast breakaway
-- tow mast breakaway protector
-- dickheaded driver poised to fix whatever's going on back there by giving you the rope
You're vulnerable to a wire crew for a fraction of a second. A Dragonfly driver can kill you in air you may not be able to assess on up to about a couple hundred feet. And the number of Dragonfly drivers who AREN'T dickheads is too microscopic to be worth mentioning.
- Cite some incidents in which gliders have been crashed due to the actions or inactions of wuffo crews or crew members.
- If you bag it because your only option to get off the ramp is a wuffo crew you're gonna go back on the highway you just used to get you to launch. The risk of being killed in that environment through no fault of your own is not zero. I've been in a crash as a passenger in a glider van that was the fault of its driver. Rear-ended a stopped car in some Interstate mess in Chattanooga and sent five gliders flying off the roof still strapped to the racks.
Maybe Crestline has the same policy.
And we all saw just how well that worked out.
http://recreationrrg.com/rrrg-governance
Board and Governance | Recreation Risk Retention Group
Timothy Herr
Secretary and Risk Management Officer
Tim Herr is a practicing attorney in California and serves as corporate counsel for USHPA.
Oh good. A non pilot professional sleazy motherfucker running our risk management program for us - the son of a bitch who shreds all of our incident reports and whom Mark G. Forbes quotes as saying that u$hPa is and can not be in the business of keeping pilots safe - read competent.
Hang gliding is a massively broken and dying system and there's a real good argument to be made that the higher the u$hPa rating the more the clueless asshole you're dealing with.