landing

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/30 11:24:12 UTC

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25713
Hang Gliding after knee surgery

hanggliderdoc - 2012/04/02 19:40:25 UTC

I recently had surgery to repair my patella after a sports related injury. I'm a bit hesitant to jump into hang gliding as a result. Anyone experience hang gliding after knee surgery? How long do you recommend waiting?

Ross Lowery - 2012/04/02 20:28:18 UTC
Arkansas

As soon as you can "walk,jog,run" with a glider on your shoulders without pain

nulld - 2012/04/02 20:49:38 UTC
West Virginia

I had an ACL injury before I had ten flights off the mountain and wasn't able to fly for three months. My doctor wanted to see if the small tear would heal itself, so I had to go through physical therapy and wear a knee brace.

After three months, I was allowed to fly with limitations until my knee stabilized. For example, I was only allowed to land on wheels because of the strain landing would have on the ACL (apparently, my doc had seen me land). As my knee stabilized, I was able to go back to regular training.

Bob Flynn - 2012/04/02 20:56:57 UTC
Jacksonville, North Carolina

You might consider aerotowing and landing gear to roll in on. There's no shame in landing on wheels.

michael170 - 2012/04/02 21:11:18 UTC
Northern California

Bingo, Bob hit that nail pretty square.

Manta_Dreaming - 2012/04/02 22:49:00 UTC

Remember also you may need to kneel or do deep knee bends as well as consider the force of landing with a flare where you drop down several feet.

I know that when one of my knees had swelling under the patella that landing and ground handling made it flare up.

kg386109 - 2012/04/02 23:56:03 UTC
Tustin, California

I had meniscus arthroscopic surgery.

Everyone's different. I flew in mild conditions and landed on flat golf course grass after ten weeks. Wore a double knee brace.

Talk to your MD but even then, you have to use your own good judgement. That's what we do. We use good judgement considering all the facts of the moment. Cross country out landings duh ...no! High wind cliff launches duh, let me think.

Paul Edwards - 2012/04/03 01:48:37 UTC
Tennessee

I had an ACL replacement plus a torn meniscus repaired. This was long before I got into HG but that surgery was a bitch! Took me months to be able to jog for ten minutes without significant pain and swelling. Later, half way through my HG training I had to stop for a second meniscus surgery... I had torn it again picking up my two year old daughter from a squat! This time the surgery was relatively minor. I was walking the next day and I came back to training after about six weeks and spent the first couple of sessions wheel landing to prevent injury to my still weakened knee.

It's very doable.... just takes some extra care. I land on my feet and haven't had any problems. Of course every surgery is different as is every injury. Your specifics may dictate a different course, however if the worst case scenario is being consigned to wheel landing by default you're still going to regret every minute of your life that you spent NOT knowing how to hang glide.

skypilot155 - 2012/04/03 02:06:51 UTC
Grass Valley, California

I have enough metal in me to build an ultralight. Three knee surgeries with a knee replacement. Left elbow repaired, right shoulder rebuilt, and now I'm recovering from a right ankle repair after a fracture to it a year and a half ago. If I was a horse I'd be glue by now.

Take your time recovering and fly when your doctor and you feel It's safe. By the way only my fractured ankle came from HG.

hanggliderdoc - 2012/04/05 01:39:41 UTC
Wheels and a knee brace. You guys rock!

Thanks for all the feedback!

miguel · Post by **miguel** » 2012/07/30 22:03:21 UTC

Good foot launch tow sequence.
Nice sequences of FOOT landing at end of video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBO9d8Od2m8

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/30 23:22:07 UTC

http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51869300167_1f9c800d46_o.jpg

Steve Davy · Post by **Steve Davy** » 2012/07/30 23:37:17 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiJC-U6A5U

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/31 01:52:42 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfemjOz61uA

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/31 02:53:48 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srb9CagnMno
epic failure to hang glide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srb9CagnMno

phasetek - 2011/12

This is not really a "student", this is more of a "let your kid experience hang gliding" that this school offers, the pilot (child) was not making any effort to control the glider, and they should not be in a prone position at this point on a training hill, they should be flying upright from the downtubes (if they were actually learning).

RobMM17 - 2012/02

Actually - The reason they teach people from the basetube on the first lesson is because we see so many students that we don't have time for ground running and they end up flying an hour after the lesson starts. It's a different style BECAUSE of the dunes we teach on and the wind.

The one out of every hundred students we see who actually becomes a real student of hang gliding - we move to the uprights on their second or third lesson. When you have somebody on uprights on their first lesson (with no ground running), they often nose in and then break their arms or pull muscles. Teaching from the basetube allows them to swing cleanly through the control frame unharmed.

miguel · Post by **miguel** » 2012/07/31 03:25:31 UTC

Prone landing on wheels would not have helped none of those poor souls.

Here is another sweet FOOT landing at Funston.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne2yuKTQ57A

note: if this video is too much for your younger readers

, you may delete it.

Steve Davy · Post by **Steve Davy** » 2012/07/31 03:42:32 UTC

South wind and he landed in just about the worst possible area he could find.

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/31 05:37:46 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiJC-U6A5U

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

Then Miller Stroud takes his hands off the controls so he can practice his narrow-dry-riverbed-with-large-rocks-strewn-all-over-the-place landing in his Happy Acres putting green field and goes into a dangerous roll that would end a REAL aviation career but is considered routine in hang gliding.

Little Sandy doesn't land - she's crashed by the tether crew that's keeping her safe.

WHEN YOU HAVE SOMEBODY ON UPRIGHTS ON THEIR FIRST LESSON (WITH NO GROUND RUNNING), THEY OFTEN NOSE IN AND THEN BREAK THEIR ARMS OR PULL MUSCLES.

So do you wanna rewind the tape and get her upright with her hands on the downtubes like a real hang glider pilot?

TEACHING FROM THE BASETUBE ALLOWS THEM TO SWING CLEANLY THROUGH THE CONTROL FRAME UNHARMED.

Or do you wanna leave things as they are so she and her family can continue their day and vacation and skip THIS:

http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3398
A broken humerus, guess the cost.

Orion Price - 2012/07/16 06:39:18 UTC

It was almost 70k. 68 and change. Just for the surgery.

little amendment to the schedule?

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2012/07/31 16:37:35 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srb9CagnMno

phasetek - 2011/12

This is not really a "student", this is more of a "let your kid experience hang gliding" that this school offers, the pilot (child) was not making any effort to control the glider, and they should not be in a prone position at this point on a training hill, they should be flying upright from the downtubes (if they were actually learning).

If they're actually learning to:
- dedicate the entire flight to a useless dangerous foot landing at the end of it - which is the whole point of damn near all USHGA instructional programs.
- FLY and land SAFELY they should be FLYING prone on the basetube - which is how we at Kitty Hawk Kites had EVERYBODY at ALL stages of training thirty years ago.
Idiot.

RobMM17 - 2012/02

Actually - The reason they teach people from the basetube on the first lesson is because we see so many students that we don't have time for ground running and they end up flying an hour after the lesson starts. It's a different style BECAUSE of the dunes we teach on and the wind.

The one out of every hundred students we see who actually becomes a real student of hang gliding...

At what period in Kitty Hawk Kite's history did the ratio triple?

...we move to the uprights on their second or third lesson. When you have somebody on uprights on their first lesson (with no ground running), they often nose in and then break their arms or pull muscles. Teaching from the basetube allows them to swing cleanly through the control frame unharmed.

If you think that the insane danger of arms getting injured and broken in standup landing approaches is significantly mitigated after a dune lesson or two...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses