You are NEVER hooked in.

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
miguel
Posts: 289
Joined: 2011/05/27 16:21:08 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by miguel »

Sorry if my post offended. I put plenty of smileys in to indicate that it was not serious. I agree with most of your points.

This goes back to the discussion of turn and learn. Tad stated that once he finishes his vaunted preflight, nothing else but the lift and pray needs be performed. I disagreed. Tad just listed many situations that could happen after the preflight which could result in an unhooked launch or launching with a wrongly assembled glider.

Nice to see you agree with me :mrgreen:

I would copy and paste the appropriate posts but my time is very limited.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Sorry if my post offended.
I now realize I misinterpreted the intent of your post. But it really wasn't all that clear - especially after many years of having been deluged with crap like:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=13359
Today was a bad day!
Matt Pericles - 2009/08/25 00:57:41 UTC
Roswell, Georgia

I'm not sure what you thought was going to happen to Alan's connection to the glider in the ten feet between where Gordon had hang checked him and where he launched.
and

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15337
unhooked take off clip
Tormod Helgesen - 2010/02/13 17:08:06 UTC
Oslo

I don't belive in gremlins unhooking my harness while walking to launch (usually 5-30 meters) and if my launch is interrupted I redo my check.
Tad just listed many situations that could...
Did.
...happen after the preflight...
Or lack thereof.
...which could...
Did.
...result in an unhooked launch or launching with a wrongly assembled glider.
ALL of the examples resulted in unhooked launches.

NONE of the examples involved wrongly assembled gliders.

ALL of the examples involved incompletely assembled or partially disassembled gliders.

NONE of the examples required anything more than a minimal two, one, or zero second hook-in check to prevent any of the beatings, equipment damage, injuries, disfigurements, instant violents deaths which resulted very short times after people committed to launch.

NONE of the examples would've benefited the least bit more from a twenty minute preflight check than from a one second hook-in check.

PREFLIGHT checks are used:
- during setup
- after setup
- up to five seconds prior to launch
to identify problems with components:
- missing
- damaged
- misrouted
- unsecured
- unconnected
- disconnected

HOOK-IN checks are used:
- within five seconds of launch, preferably much less
to
- verify that you're hooked in - period.

The best hook-in check - lift or float and tug - will verify your leg loops.

If you're unable to tighten your suspension you should preflight your leg loops status as the end of your preflight procedures five seconds before you pick up the glider to launch.

Lift or float and tug can identify other suspension issues, such as misrouting and clearance issues, but that's not the purpose of the hook-in check - just a serendipitous byproduct.

If the basetube is down and/or you're turned around looking at and/or pulling on your suspension you're not doing a hook-in check. You're doing a preflight check. And THE ONLY CRITICAL ISSUE you're likely to identify is a partial hook-in. And if you make it a priority/habit to always see and/or listen to the carabiner click before you turn back around you're never gonna find a partially connected carabiner.

The tickets to minimizing the numbers of people plummeting from gliders are to establish:
- an ALWAYS-assume-you-are-NOT-hooked-in mindset
- as quick, easy, convenient, simple, close-to-the-instant-of-launch-as-possible a procedure as possible to verify that you're connected

ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that dilutes, diminishes, amends, complicates, increases the costs of, distracts from those tickets WILL reduce their effectiveness and increase the difficulty of implementation and increase the numbers of people who plummet from gliders.

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.
Keep the fuckin' preflight checks isolated from the fuckin' hook-in check.

And prioritize the threats in proportion to a combination of their severity and likeliness of happening.

Looking at the culture as a whole on the suspension issue...
- Going off with a dangling carabiner is a ten.
- Missing both leg loops (if you miss one it doesn't matter) about a two.
- Partial hook-in is a one.
- Anything else is so close to zero it's not worth talking or worrying about.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.kitestrings.org/post2569.html#p2569
Mike Lake - 2012/08/01 23:40:04 UTC

The best strategy is to find ways to improve your crashes, trying to avoid them is a waste of energy. For example; don't spend time on methods to ensure you are hooked in, instead go to the gym and practice your pull-ups.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=962
Unhooked
Ron Gleason - 2005/10/22 00:33:57 UTC

launching unhooked but hooking back in!

In the late Seventies or earlier Eighties, Stu Smith of North Carolina launched unhooked from either Grandfather Mountain or Lookout in Tennessee.

Stu was one of the top pilots of his time and was also a gymnast in college and I believe taught that at the college in Boone.

Stu was a small person in physical size, but larger than life to the rest of us mere mortal pilots, and that combined with his athletic prowess allowed him to climb into the control frame, stabilize the glider, hook in, and continue his flight.

I recommend that everyone practice climbing in to the control frame when you are able, for example a wonder wind or other smooth conditions that provide altitude and smooth conditions. You will be surprised by the technique needed and the ability to control glider.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
Keith Skiles - 2012/08/27 23:20:54 UTC
Soddy Daisy, Tennessee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7NurwKyyEE
No problem.
So, I've been flying for three years now, primarily radial ramps, with some aerotowing.
Undoubtedly pretty much all in the Lookout Sphere of Influence. So it's really hard to imagine that...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TTTFlymail/message/11545
Cart stuck incidents
Keith Skiles - 2011/06/02 19:50:13 UTC

I witnessed the one at Lookout. It was pretty ugly. Low angle of attack, too much speed and flew off the cart like a rocket until the weak link broke, she stalled and it turned back towards the ground.
...your training has been lacking in any really important areas.
I've always felt like I did decent radial ramp launches, but this is the first time I've had a video of it. Thanks to Mr. Clark Harlow's death defying acrobatics of hanging off the side of the ramp at Henson's Gap, I now have a video of my launch.
Mr. Clark Harlow, whose son, a day shy of his eighteenth birthday, was engaging in the local sport of seeing how for down the ramp one could leave mountain bike skid marks. Unfortunately he had his uphill pedal in the down position during the sideways skid - opposite from the way you're supposed to it - and he never turned eighteen.
This was midday about a week ago, with pretty much nil wind to speak of. You'll also note Mr. PJWings on my right wire, and a distinct lack of a keel guy. Image I could've done without a wire guy, but there were occasional thermals blowing through, and just prior to that launch I had to set the glider down due to the sudden gusty winds.
Wire guys are for wimps. Get rid of him next time.
My own critique is that I do switch grips partway through the launch, but I seem to maintain the nose angle through the switch.
Doesn't really matter, Keith. For the purpose of the exercise you were dead when you started your forward momentum at 0:07.
I probably could have attempted to take one more step on the ramp before I kicked into my harness. And lastly, I probably dove a little too much, likely wouldn't have got away with that at LMFP.
Who cares? Nobody even mentions anything about Bill Priday's pitch or roll control or the quality of his run at Whitwell across the valley and to your left when on 2005/10/01 he started his launch the same way you did.
Anyway, anyone have any other critique to add?
Maybe michael170 will have a word or two for you.
-
Airborne Sting 2 154XC
H2, FL, CL, FSL, AT
Congratulations on your Cliff Launch Special Skill signoff.
michael170 - 2012/08/27 23:51:59 UTC
Oh look! Indeed he does!
Take a look at the first few seconds of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KlcXmWi7ig


Do you notice anything significant happening just prior to launch?
Seems to do some sort of fidgeting at about ten seconds. What's your point?
Ryan Voight - 2012/08/28 01:06:07 UTC

Michael means to kindly recommend doing a hook-in check just prior to launching. Why he didn't just say that, I don't know.
Why should he have HAD to say anything - ASSHOLE?
BACK TO THE VIDEO THAT MATTERS-
FUCK YOU, RYAN. *NOTHING* else in that video matters.
It's hard to be analytical of GoPro/fisheye footage...
Save it.
Guest - 2012/08/28 02:19:55 UTC

No need to be too critical here.
Bullshit.
You could have run a bit longer- to 'pedal air, but it looked okay from here. The shallow dive Clark commented on was probably excessive, but you'll see a lot of the (frequent flying) Lookout pilots doing that on the light days, and that's okay! Just don't dive into the treetops!

Say, you're not hanging from your downtubes, are you?
For the purpose of the exercise that's ALL he's hanging from.
Why not take a step or two closer to the red line before your run begins, and use the steeper portion of the ramp to accelerate more easily? In this case, gravity is your friend.
Yeah, right. That's exactly what Bill was saying to himself as he was hanging from his downtubes.
There are a few Lookout pilots that think the Henson's red line needs to be moved a couple of feet forward, but we're spoiled. Steeper ramp good, shallower ramp bad.
Assuming one is hooked in - which nobody SHOULD but damn near everyone DOES. The things that tend to make launches really really safe for people who are connected to their gliders tend to do the precise opposite for people who aren't.
Next time you're at Lookout, check out the Bandit launch, if you haven't yet. It's a short, steep grassy ramp (about 45 degrees) to a sheer rock face. Not a launch you want to screw up, but pretty much a no-brainer. The Bandit's great for light winds, no winds, or lightly tailing conditions. NEVER try to launch the Bandit in any winds over 10 mph, or in conditions requiring assistance.
And never repeat the launch you just did at Henson unless you have all of your affairs in order.
Keith Skiles - 2012/08/28 04:43:23 UTC
Michael means to kindly recommend doing a hook-in check just prior to launching.
Suppose I could do that, never hurts...
I dunno, Keith. You could get that wing into the turbulent jet stream six inches up and there's no telling what could happen after that.
...but I always hang check with assistance prior to stepping on the ramp, and never leave my harness once I get in it.
Well you're perfectly OK then. Your rating requirements have an exemption for people who always hang check with assistance prior to stepping on the ramp and never leave their harnesses once they get in them.

It's called "The Priday Exemption".
United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc. - 2011/02/23

Pre Flight Safety for Hang Gliding - Revision

In loving memory of William F. Priday, 1952 - 2005:

Preflight Safety for Hang Gliding" is a new, USHPA-produced video on hang gliding safety. The video premiered at the meeting in Bend, Oregon giving directors an opportunity to review an excellent video produced, directed and edited by Greg Gillam. Paul Voight and Greg collaborated as co-writers and Paul hosted the video. Joe Greblo and Rob McKenzie provided assistance. Erika Klein and Greg DeWolf are featured in the video together with Paul. USHPA Chapters are encouraged to present the video at chapter meetings. The video is available for viewing on the USHPA website.
It was established in his loving memory with support from Paul Voight (Ryan's dad - a really great guy), Joe Greblo, Greg DeWolf, Rob McKenzie, and others too numerous to name here.
AIRTHUG wrote:
Who cares? He's a total idiot.
...The more speed you create in your launch, the less "dive away" you'll need.
And just keep assuming you're always gonna be having a choice, Keith.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to remember to adjust when I fly next time.
Gonna adjust what you're doing in the last two seconds before you start moving a foot like Michael's trying to advise you? Just kidding.
I'm pleased from the perspective that I know I've harped alongside you on lowering the nose angle on a radial ramp as you go down and that I finally have evidence that I'm not a complete hypocrite.
Complete hypocrite - no. Complete idiot...
michael170 - 2012/08/28 05:47:11 UTC
AIRTHUG wrote:

Michael means to kindly recommend doing a hook-in check just prior to launching.
No, Michael means to kindly recommend compliance with USHPA regulations. Regulations that have been in place...
..and ignored, flagrantly violated, treated with the most rabid of contempt...
...for thirty-one years.
BACK TO THE VIDEO THAT MATTERS!
Matters to whom? Does this video matter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBoXhNUjofE
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBoXhNUjofE[/video]
Of course not.

Yossi - OBVIOUSLY - wasn't always doing a hang check with assistance prior to stepping on the ramp and never leaving his harness once he got in it. Leave Keith alone - he's doing fine. And hell - even if he doesn't - there's almost always someone like Andy Long around to take up any slack.
Rate this post
Irrelevant and annoying.
Ryan Voight - 2012/08/28 06:14:06 UTC

What USHPA reg are you referencing specifically?
The one you've skipped over every single time in the span of your miserable existence every time you've signed anybody off on a rating - One through Four.
And no, in a thread titled "Critique my radial ramp launch" that video is also pretty much entirely off topic.
Would it be pretty much entirely off topic if he had been critiquing this:

http://vimeo.com/16572582

password - red
2-112
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7600/28811055456_925c8abb66_o.png
Image

training hill launch?

Would it be pretty much entirely off topic if he had been critiquing that training hill launch if he had done it at either of the two ramps from which he does most of his flying?
You want to discuss/debate/dictate people's pre-launch habits, great, just don't hijack someone else's thread about radial ramp technique.
Fuck you, Ryan.
- Just 'cause somebody starts a thread doesn't mean he owns it and gets to control what is and isn't being said.
- If Keith has an opinion on Michael's posts he doesn't need your ass to express it for him.
- Compared to what Michael's trying to get through to him none of what the rest of you assholes are talking about amounts to shit.
Since this video starts with him on launch, we don't know if he did a hook-in check already...
1. If he did anything anywhere else and/or prior to five seconds before commitment it wasn't a hook-in check.
2. We see him on launch five seconds before commitment and he doesn't do anything.
3. He's already said that he COULD HAVE and DIDN'T - which is obviously the case in this and damn near every other launch video you ever see.
...a hang check, a preflight, took a pee before putting his harness on, or drove a hybrid car to launch...
Fuck you, Ryan.

- The fucking hang check...

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.

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.
...is the PROBLEM - not the SOLUTION.

- Tell me something that he could've missed in preflight that would've mattered that wouldn't be apparent on that video - something that actually happens in real life.

- It doesn't matter whether or not he's peed before he put his harness on. If his carabiner is dangling when he starts forward momentum on that ramp...

- As to the hybrid car... Go fuck yourself.
Why are you critiquing what you don't know, didn't see, didn't ask about, and isn't what he asked for critique on??? WTF?
Total asshole.
Keith Skiles - 2012/08/28 07:39:36 UTC

Admittedly I did do all those things, except the part about the hybrid car...
Yeah, go ahead and ignore Michael. You've got Matt's signature on your card for your Priday Exemption.
Paul Hurless - 2012/08/28 07:47:04 UTC

It looks like you jumped aboard instead of having the glider lift you off the launch.
Idiot.
Paul Edwards - 2012/08/28 14:26:46 UTC
Tennessee

Very nice Keith...
He's dead, Paul. It doesn't matter.
In most cases the run down the face of the ramp turns into a fall into the harness at some point.
Or, occasionally, a fall from the glider. But those events are so rare they're hardly worth mentioning. The last one to happen within sight of that ramp was almost seven years ago.
Ryan Voight - 2012/08/28 14:27:17 UTC

If you break it down into the simplest of terms... Your harness mains can become tight from the glider lifting up, or your body lowering away.
Yeah. They CAN. And, of course, you never wanna test to make sure they WILL just before you start running on the ramp. You wanna find that out at about the eight second mark on the video.
Either can happen quickly, but neither should ever happen all at once.
But have no fear, Keith. If you always hang check with assistance prior to stepping on the ramp and never leave their harnesses once you get in it there's really no need for a burdensome exercise like THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWbu0su1fA


People who do that sort of thing when there's obviously no need are all fags.
I think it's a reasonable expectation that in three steps a pilot should be able to have the glider flying enough to lift it's own weight up and take the slack out of their mains?
Yeah, sure. That's a reasonable expectation. Reminds me a lot of Dr. Trisa Tilletti's expectation that the weak links on hang gliders there at Cloud 9 will fail as early as possible in lockout situations but be strong and reliable enough to avoid frequent breaks from turbulence.
Two steps, maybe not...
Or, for Priday Exemption pilots, maybe not ever.
But launching without the glider even lifting it's own weight yet turns a ramp launch into a cliff launch if you think about it in terms of airspeed...
How much trouble is it for THE PILOT to lift its own weight off his shoulders just prior to launch?

Helen, Allen, Manta_Dreaming... DO SOMETHING.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Christopher Reynolds - 2012/08/23
Vancouver Sun

Hang-gliding death in B.C. caused by 'pilot distraction': report

Forgotten 'hang-check' left woman unattached to glider

Lenami Godinez died in a hang-gliding accident in April near Agassiz.

The hang gliding accident that resulted in 27-year-old Lenami Godinez-Avila plunging to her death last spring was ultimately caused by a pair of distracted pilots, according to a report by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.

"[T]he investigation assumes that pilot distraction resulted in a failure to perform recommended standardized safety procedures, resulting in the death of the passenger...," stated HPAC investigator Martin Henry.

Released Wednesday, the report determined Godinez-Avila's harness was not connected to the glider on takeoff, allowing her to fall 300 metres seconds after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley on April 28, 2012. The required "hang-check" - a test to ensure that harnesses are hooked in - had not been carried out by either instructor.

Two HPAC-certified pilots, Jon Orders - who was flying with Godinez-Avila when she fell - and Shaun Wallace, were outfitting Godinez-Avila and her boyfriend before takeoff. "[T]he two instructors appeared to deal with the two tandems as a team," each one helping with preparation for the two launches, Henry stated.

An effective division of responsibility may have allowed them to overlook the standard pre-flight passenger checks.

"The investigation concludes that the dynamics of multiple passengers and instructors may be the key to understanding why the critical pre-launch procedures were not performed."

It implied that had only one pilot been assisting the two passengers, the checks might have been made and Godinez-Avila would still be alive.

Although Orders, 50, was solely responsible for his passenger as "pilot in command," Wallace, an Australian with "substantial tandem experience," activated Orders's video camera, remained directly behind the tandem glider during the launch and participated in the pre-flight process in other ways, according to the report.

Its findings were based on witness statements as well as evidence held by the RCMP, which may include the video card Orders allegedly swallowed after the incident. He was charged with obstruction of justice two days later after an X-ray appeared to reveal the memory card from the video camera he supposedly had running during the accident.

Mounties have now viewed the contents of a memory card, but Constable Tracy Wolbeck said Thursday she can't discuss the contents.

Wolbeck says the evidence could be used in the April 2013 trial of Orders.

Several days before, Godinez-Avila and her boyfriend had chosen to celebrate an anniversary at Mount Woodside, a popular launch site with hang gliding and paragliding buffs because it stares right into natural prevailing winds - necessary to give lift - and because it offers breathtaking views of Harrison Bay, the Fraser River and Chilliwack below.

Godinez-Avila fell into a clearcut area where a cherry blossom tree has since been planted in her memory.

The report ruled out equipment failure as a contributing factor.

Recommendations for future hang gliding practices may emerge later as a result of the incident, Henry said.
Christopher Reynolds - 2012/08/23
Vancouver Sun
Fuck you, Vancouver Sun.
Hang-gliding death in B.C. caused by 'pilot distraction'
Nope. It was caused by...
George Whitehill - 1981/05

Just Doing a Hang Check is not Enough

A hang check shows the pilot that he/she is the correct height above the bar. It also assures the pilot that harness lines and straps are untangled.

The point I'm trying to make is that every pilot should make a second check to be very certain of this integral part of every flight. In many flying situations a hang check is performed and then is followed by a time interval prior to actual launch. In this time interval the pilot may unconsciously unhook to adjust or check something and then forget to hook in again. This has happened many times!

If, just before committing to a launch, a second check is done every time and this is made a habit, this tragic mistake could be eliminated. Habit is the key word here. This practice must be subconscious on the part of the pilot. As we know, there are many things on the pilot's mind before launch. Especially in a competition or if conditions are radical the flyer may be thinking about so many other things that something as simple as remembering to hook in is forgotten. Relying on memory won't work as well as a deeply ingrained subconscious habit.

In the new USHGA rating system, for each flight of each task "the pilot must demonstrate a method of establishing that he/she is hooked in, just prior to launch." The purpose here is obvious.
...a shit hang gliding culture with shit for brains and character using shit procedures which are worse than useless in protecting people from inevitable distractions and lapses of memory.
Forgotten 'hang-check' left woman unattached to glider
Bullshit.
The hang gliding accident that resulted in 27-year-old Lenami Godinez-Avila plunging to her death last spring was ultimately caused by a pair of distracted pilots, according to a report by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.
Yeah, what's that they say about group intelligence?
"[T]he investigation assumes that pilot distraction resulted in a failure to perform recommended standardized safety procedures, resulting in the death of the passenger...," stated HPAC investigator Martin Henry.
RECOMMENDED STANDARDIZED safety procedures?

1. So you don't actually HAVE any REQUIREMENTS or REGULATIONS covering tandem (or solo) procedures to guard against this common and age old hang gliding killer. Just some suggestions.

2. Whattsamattah?
Jason Warner - 2012/04/29
Accident Review and Safety Committee Chairman

We're in the midst of making a standardized safety practice that everybody will agree on, now that it's been pushed to the forefront.
Couldn't get everybody to AGREE ON anything before this was pushed to the forefront?

3. Got them in print somewhere? Or is this just something a certification instructor may or may not happen to mention in the course of a clinic?

4. Please explain to me how something can be RECOMMENDED *AND* STANDARDIZED.
Released Wednesday, the report determined Godinez-Avila's harness was not connected to the glider on takeoff, allowing her to fall 300 metres seconds after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley on April 28, 2012. The required "hang-check"...
WHAT *REQUIRED* "hang-check"? A couple of seconds ago it was just a recommendation.
...a test to ensure that harnesses are hooked in...
It ensures that the harnesses are connected to SOMETHING - WHEN it's being performed.
...had not been carried out by either instructor.
1. What were they instructing? Sounds like they were giving tourist rides.

2. If they were INSTRUCTING hang gliding wouldn't it have been a good idea to instruct their "students" about the danger of unhooked launches?

3. Is there something in your recommended standardized safety procedures about that?

4. If they had instructed Lenami, her boyfriend, and all other students at launch waiting for their lessons, what do you think that would've done to the odds of an unhooked launch?
Two HPAC-certified pilots, Jon Orders - who was flying with Godinez-Avila when she fell - and Shaun Wallace, were outfitting Godinez-Avila and her boyfriend before takeoff. "[T]he two instructors appeared to deal with the two tandems as a team," each one helping with preparation for the two launches, Henry stated.
Capital idea.
An effective division of responsibility may have allowed them to overlook the standard pre-flight passenger checks.
REALLY?
The Vancouver Sun - 2012/05/03

Warner said HPAC is considering new safety measures following Saturday's tragedy. We're now strongly encouraging the buddy system where somebody looks at your equipment before you launch," he said.
And yet immediately after the catastrophe your HPAC spokesman was strongly encouraging the strategy which you're now suggesting was actually the CAUSE of the catastrophe.
1979/06/22 - Sam White - 20 - Alpha 185 - Chandler Mountain - Steele, Alabama

A tragedy with a clear lesson. White did a harness check on himself, but then unhooked to check his cousin's gear. Forgot to hook in again. Fell 150 feet to a rocky ledge.
Maybe you should shoot Jason and try to get some people who DON'T have their heads up their asses to run things. Just kidding.
"The investigation concludes that the dynamics of multiple passengers and instructors may be the key to understanding why the critical pre-launch procedures were not performed."
Yeah. Freak accidents like this virtually NEVER happen to solo pilots...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1149
Team Challenge: Daily Update Thread
Holly Korzilius - 2005/10/01 18:19:55

Incident at 2005 Team Challenge

I don't have many details at this point, but I just got a call from Scott. Bill Priday launched from Whitwell without hooking in. Scott indicated there was about a hundred foot drop-off from launch. Bill's status is unknown at this time. Please pray for him!

I will provide updates as I get them from Scott.
...when they're just focused on their own gear and procedures.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1166
Thoughts on responsibility...
Deanna Priday - 2005/10/13 20:31:31 UTC
Key Largo

Someone asked about the BUDDY SYSTEM IN DIVING. The buddy system is one that works. The system is designed to help each other do a gear check and make sure we are "ready to dive".
And they're always WAY better off when there isn't anybody else even around.
Terry Spencer - 2001/12/05

Steve, Bruce, and I met at the Seven Eleven in Front Royal and after a shuttle, proceeded to launch. It was very warm and after carrying up in T-shirts we set up and tanned while our clothing dried.

Steve launched first and after a few turns was over the ridge. It was beginning to look good!

I helped Bruce do a hang check, then I went below launch to get his picture. From that vantage point, while Bruce was preparing to launch, I did another check on him (hooked in? leg straps? etc.(as I did for Steve when I snapped his launch picture)). All was in order and Bruce executed a flawless launch.

With those two guys in the air, I suited up and got into position. It was a flush cycle so I watched Bruce land while waiting. Steve got a few pops but was unable to capitalize and soon was in the Landing Zone with Bruce.

Rather than waiting an hour or so for conditions to improve I decided to take the first safe puff that was come straight in. When the opportunity came, I started running. Dickey is a shallow launch and airspeed is critical. The glider picked up and started flying fine. Felt like the nose got popped up, so I pulled in and kept running. Airborne, I was pulling down on the downtubes and couldn't figure out why. I knew that the glider wouldn't want to fly with a technique like that. Next thing that I knew, I was upside down looking at a rock ledge six inches from my face.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI
Rick Masters - 2011/10/26 23:07:48 UTC

My good friends Bob Dunn and Dave Butz both launched unhooked. Bob held on to his base tube all the way down from Plowshare. The impact split his skull and he suffered terribly until he died during the night, alone.
It implied that had only one pilot been assisting the two passengers, the checks might have been made and Godinez-Avila would still be alive.
Yeah, fer sure.
Sydney Morning Herald - 2003/09/24

Hang glider pilot on manslaughter charge after death of tourist

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.
The Press - 2006/03/15

The Civil Aviation Authority is urgently pushing for new hang-gliding industry standards after learning a hang-gliding pilot who suffered serious injuries in a crash three weeks ago had not clipped himself on to the glider.

Extreme Air tandem gliding pilot James (Jim) Rooney safely clipped his passenger into the glider before departing from the Coronet Peak launch site, near Queenstown, CAA sports and recreation manager Rex Kenny said yesterday.
Really hard to go wrong when it's just one pilot making sure the hang check box gets checked.
Although Orders, 50, was solely responsible for his passenger as "pilot in command,"...
And the motherfuckers who wrote and didn't write the regulations and procedures that this guy was following and supposed to be following and certified him for tandem operations are totally off the hook - regardless of the fact that their all a bunch of totally incompetent, negligent, stupid douchebags.
Wallace, an Australian with "substantial tandem experience," activated Orders's video camera, remained directly behind the tandem glider during the launch and participated in the pre-flight process in other ways, according to the report.
This is a launch procedure issue. What does the fuckin' preflight have to do with anything?
Recommendations for future hang gliding practices may emerge later as a result of the incident, Henry said.
1. Yeah? I'm still waiting for a straight answer from these slimy sonsabitches on what the recommendations for past hang gliding practices were.

2. Oh yes. There was so much learned from this freak accident that simply wasn't understood before. I'm CERTAIN that HPAC will revise its SOPs accordingly.

3. And I one hundred percent guarantee you that any bullshit these bastards put out won't have the slightest hint of a recommendation for anything remotely resembling a hook-in check - or anything at all happening within fifteen seconds of EVERY launch. 'Cause if they did it would be and admission of who was REALLY and MOST responsible for screwing this pooch.

4. And I also one hundred percent guarantee you that any bullshit these bastards put out won't have the slightest hint of a requirement to advise the passenger of the danger of an unhooked launch and involve him in the verification procedures 'cause these bastards have several decades worth of inbred conditioning to present the sport to the public as magnitudes safer than tossing a Frisbee back and forth in the city park on a Sunday afternoon.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
michael170 - 2012/08/29 01:21:24 UTC
What USHPA reg are you referencing specifically?
12-02.07/B./2./c.
George Whitehill - 1981/05

Just Doing a Hang Check is not Enough

...
Ryan Voight - 2012/08/29 01:54:34 UTC

I was hoping that's where you were going.
I'm sure you were Ryan. I know from long experience just how happy you are every time you get an opening to sabotage discussions on safe and sane procedures, regulations, and equipment. Somebody works for years developing and refining bulletproof aerotow equipment, you tell everybody to ignore it 'cause it'll probably fail and a standard aerotow weak link will keep you from getting into too much trouble - especially if you roll harder into the lockout and push out to get you off tow even sooner.

So let's hear you telling people why they should interpret "just prior to launch" as meaning anything other that "just prior to launch" - preferably something fifteen or twenty minutes ago.
"a method" is vague;
Yeah, you USHGA shits are past masters at wording everything that might possibly keep somebody from getting killed in such hopelessly vague terms that there's no way anybody can be held accountable for failing to implement it.

- Releases need to be "within easy reach". That means put them where people can't get to them to save their lives - literally.
- Releases must be "operational with up to twice the rated breaking strength of the weak link". That means:
-- don't define a minimum weak link rating;
-- don't test any of your weak links;
-- if you can pull something open using a pair of pliers or hack it apart with a hook knife it's operational.

It's only when you want to kill people who by forcing them to do spot landings within a radius of under a wingspan that you use actual numbers.
he might have demonstrated a method and we couldn't see it...
1. Like WHAT - douchebag?

2. Please explain to me how someone can DEMONSTRATE...
verb
clearly show the existence or truth of by giving proof or evidence
give a practical exhibition and explanation of
...something in such a manner that nobody can SEE it.

3. HE'S ALREADY TOLD US IN BLACK AND FUCKING WHITE THAT HE *DIDN'T*.
or it occurred before this video started...
The REGULATION requires a hook-in check JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH - not JUST PRIOR TO THE FUCKING VIDEO STARTING.
Which leads me to:
"just prior to launch" is open to interpretation.
Got that right, MOTHERFUCKER.
To you...
And anyone with a functional brain who really wants to stay alive and/or keep his students from running off Whitwell with their carabiners dangling.
...it obviously means a few seconds before running.
The fucking regulation doesn't say "A FEW SECONDS BEFORE RUNNING". The fucking regulation says "JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH". Kinda like you don't check for traffic A FEW SECONDS BEFORE PULLING OUT AT AN INTERSECTION. You check for traffic JUST PRIOR TO PULLING OUT AT AN INTERSECTION.

The reason it doesn't say "A FEW SECONDS BEFORE RUNNING" is because people who BELIEVE they've checked a few seconds before running have discovered a second or two after they've started running that they actually hadn't.
To someone else it might mean as they step up to the launch.
The fucking regulation doesn't say "AS YOU STEP UP TO THE LAUNCH". The fucking regulation says "JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH".

The reason it doesn't say "AS YOU STEP UP TO THE LAUNCH" is because people who HAVE CHECKED and HAVE CONFIRMED that they were hooked in as they stepped up to launch have run off launch a minute or two later and had REALLY BAD DAYS. Gilbert Aldrich is a classic example who lived - barely - to tell about it.
At a site where you might pick up & put down the glider numerous times, are you required to do it numerous times?
What the fuck does that have to do with anything? If you're gonna launch multiple times then you're required to check multiple times. If you're just gonna launch once then you're just required to check once.
The SOP doesn't specify...
The SOP specifies JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH. And I SO wish you would join the long list of graphic examples who've demonstrated the consequences of dismissing the intent, logic, and critical importance of that regulation.
You cannot say with any validity that the pilot in this video violated that SOP.
Lemme quote him, dickhead:
Suppose I could do that, never hurts, but I always hang check with assistance prior to stepping on the ramp, and never leave my harness once I get in it.
But if you think they did...
1. It's a goddam HE - not goddam THEY. There's only one of him. Maybe if you had stayed awake for few hours worth of grade school English and arithmetic some of these discussions would be a bit smoother and more productive.

2. It's not a question of IF. He fuckin' obviously violated it. There was time to do a hook-in check, he's stated that we was capable of doing a hook-in check but didn't, there was no reason not to do a hook-in check, and he ran off the ramp without doing a fucking hook-in check on the assumption that he was hooked in.
...why not just say hey I recommend blah blah blah.
It's not a fucking PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION of blah blah blah - asshole. It's goddam 31 year old USHGA REGULATION repeated four times in the rating requirements in an effort to get it to sink in for really dense functionally illiterate douchebags.
What purpose did posting a non-radial ramp launch of a different pilot and writing a riddle?
1. He was taking a shot at getting him to THINK. You use this strategy in hang gliding, once every four or five hundred attempts you make a connection.

2. He posted a video of a non-radial ramp launch of a DIFFERENT pilot because...

- This "PILOT" never does hook-in checks. If he did there'd be no point in trying to show him how to do things right - you moron.

- It's impossible to find anybody doing a hook-in check at a radial ramp 'cause the only two radial ramps are in the Chattanooga area where Matt teaches tens of thousands of students to skip hook-in checks.

- There is no instructor in the country - probably on the face of the planet - who teaches hook-in checks in compliance with the stated intent of the USHGA regulation. They're all a bunch of stupid negligent assholes like you and your dad. Everyone who's doing it properly picked it up on his own or from somebody with a brain. So it's damn near impossible to find a video of anyone anywhere doing it right.

3. What's your moronic point about the issue of the fucking radial ramp? People who've skipped hook-in checks can and have died taking off from cliffs, flat ground, and everything in between.

4. What's the purpose of some warped sociopathic little shit like you trying to undermine this regulation and discourage people from complying with it? You're not even bothering to make lunatic cases about how compliance will get people crashed and killed the way Bob never tires of doing.
Brad Barkley - 2012/08/29 02:55:39 UTC
Frostburg

Maybe michael170 is actually......Image
Just what the conversation needed, Brad. Really appreciate your thoughtful contribution regarding this serious issue.
Keith Skiles - 2012/08/29 04:41:39 UTC

In regards to that whole thing, I'll tell you the general policy at Henson's Gap.
Oh, will you now? So where can I go or what Tennessee Tree Toppers official can I contact to get a copy of this "GENERAL POLICY"?
You do not step onto that ramp with a glider without having first had a hang check.
FUCK the hang check. Unless there's something IN WRITING on a privately controlled launch I don't do hang checks and I don't allow stupid motherfuckers to go above and beyond the USHGA regulations under which I fly to tell me what my procedures will be.

And I will disembowel every Aussie Methodist shithead who even thinks about telling me I can't get in or out of my harness unless it's connected to my glider.
If you need to adjust, unhook, tinker, run a marathon, ect before launching, you get off the ramp.
Fuck that.

- If I need to do something on the ramp I'm gonna do it. If I've got somebody behind me and it'll take more time to do it than to clear the ramp I'll clear the ramp.

- And don't you tell me that you don't have people fucking with suspension, instruments, buckles, and VG lines on that ramp - I've been around hang gliding far too long and there are lotsa people at least a third as scatterbrained as I am.
Local conditions dictate that one does not want to be on the ramp any longer than necessary...
Right. Local conditions at Henson are completely unique. Even when it's zero gusting to one and you have a full crew it's a dice roll whether you'll live to see tomorrow. BULLSHIT.

If local conditions dictate it's not safe to be on the ramp for the next ten minutes it's not safe to be on the ramp PERIOD.

In the entire history of hang gliding...

- The number of people who've been so much as SCRATCHED because their launch procedure included a hook-in check is ZERO.

- The list of people who've been majorly fucked up or smashed to lifeless pulps SOLELY because their launch procedures DIDN'T included hook-in checks is too tedious to recount.
...and you would certainly not want to be on the ramp without being in control of your glider.
Nah. I LOVE being on the ramp without being in control of your glider.
Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies, has lived. We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us.
Hang gliding just wouldn't be hang gliding unless we took stupid risks at every opportunity. That's why I never use wire crew when conditions are dicey.

Moron.
A roaring thermal could easy whip through and take you, and the glider, right off the side of a 125 foot bluff.
A roaring thermal could easy whip through a soccer field and take you and the glider up to 125 feet, flip you over, and kill you. That's why you don't go on ramps or into soccer fields with gliders in totally insane conditions and use adequate crew to keep things safe and totally under control at all times in marginally insane conditions.

Incidents of people being swept off launches are rare.

Incidents of people following halfway reasonable procedures are being swept off launches are nonexistent.

Incidents of people being swept off launches as consequences of hook-in checks exist only in the deranged minds of sociopaths like Bob Kuczewski who get their main kicks by undermining safety standards.

Incidents of people running off ramps without their gliders in brain dead easy conditions with every opportunity to execute hook-in checks and with tons of people standing around available to provide any assistance needed are ROUTINE.
So once I, or anyone else, steps on to that ramp, we are committing to launch.
Right. Once you step up on that ramp you are COMMITTED to launch. If the wind dies, crosses, tails, or surges you MUST launch. It's in the "General Policy" - and if you try to back off the designated TTT sniper will take you out.

What a load of absolute shit.

Anybody who gets on a ramp COMMITTED to launch is a total moron who needed his rating permanently revoked six months ago. We fly gliders so when we're down to a couple hundred feet over the LZ we're committed to land but - unless the mountain is on fire and there's no other way out - we are NEVER committed to launch. That is ALWAYS optional and I personally know a good many dead people who took the wrong option at the wrong time.

Lemme quote you the "General Policy" for Henson from the Tennessee Tree Toppers website...
You must be a Tennessee Tree Topper Member in good standing and a current USHPA member before flying any TTT sites.

A minimum Hang 2 rating with mountain experience at a different site is required before flying at Henson Gap.
Beyond some restrictions for new pilots and reasonable suggestions for dealing with various winds - that's IT. Nothing about hang checks, requirements to clear launch to buckle a helmet, check a radio frequency, or set an altimeter and nothing about exempting anyone from the requirements and conditions of his rating because of the roaring thermals that are constantly whipping through and taking people doing hook-in checks right off the side of the 125 foot bluff.

You're a USHGA rated "pilot", you're flying under USHGA regulations at a USHGA insured site owned and controlled by a USHGA chapter, and you're deliberately and willfully violating the must fundamental and critical of all USHGA safety regulations.

You should have your rating suspended, the people who signed you off on your ratings should have their certifications permanently revoked, and slimeballs higher up in the chain of command like Ryan and his dad should be staked to anthills.
michael170 - 2012/08/29 05:17:28 UTC
AIRTHUG wrote:

"a method" is vague...
You can't see the forest, too many trees in the way.
He can see it just fine. But his goal is to dowse it with a healthy coating of Agent Orange, set fire to it, pave it over, and then convince everybody that it never existed - it was always a parking lot.
michael170 - 2012/08/29 06:42:43 UTC

Brad, ask your idiot instructor to tell you about what happened to Bill Priday.

Then see if you can connect the dots.
He didn't do a hang check either in the setup area...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1152
Bill Priday's death
Cragin Shelton - 2005/10/03 15:13:27 UTC

I just read the following item from the OzForum by a secondary on-site (not witness) report:
According to at least five local pilots, Bill had set up his glider and was moving it closer to launch. Again, according to at least five pilots, Bill was asked if he wanted a hang check, but was heard to say "It has been taken care of".
This is eerie, because Hank Hengst and I were involved with an almost identical conversation with Bill at the Pulpit Fly-In. As we were walking Bill up to the old ramp, with me on right wing and Hank on nose, Hank asked bill if he wanted a hang check. Bill's reply was something like, "No thanks, I'm good." Hank then pointed out that he was not hooked in. I remarked that 'you are not hooked in until after the hang check.' We ran Bill through a routine lay-down hang check at the back of the ramp, and he had a fine launch.
...or at the back of the ramp...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1166
Thoughts on responsibility...
Jim Rowan - 2005/10/06 01:26:50 UTC

I'm going to say this bluntly. The only one responsible for Bill Priday's death was Bill Priday. Not you or the other pilots who set up around him, watched him suit up and carry his glider to launch; not the pilots who asked him if he needed a hang check without noticing he wasn't hooked in; not the wire crew who allowed him to launch without checking to see if he was hooked in; not the competition meet director or safety director; not Steve Wendt who trained him; not the culture of the hang gliding community at-large, or anyone else. Bill Priday was the only one responsible for what happened to him and while I never actually met the man, from what I've read about him, I would tend to think he would agree.
...the way he was trained and in accordance with the Tennessee Tree Toppers General Policy.
Brad Barkley - 2012/08/29 12:05:31 UTC

When you start throwing that kind of language around, I'm done listening to you.Image
Good.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
Tom Galvin - 2012/08/29 15:05:07 UTC

Don't lose the lesson, because the delivery is from someone incapable of communicating effectively.
1. It's not his job to communicate this effectively. That's the job of criminally negligent pieces of shit like Paul and Ryan Voight, Matt Taber, and Steve Wendt.

2. Michael is doing this job to try to prevent some of the disasters like we've had not all that long ago at places like Whitwell, Mingus, Hearne, and Woodside because pieces of shit like Paul and Ryan Voight, Matt Taber, and Steve Wendt do the precise opposite of their jobs.

3. If you think that this is an important issue and that he's not communicating effectively then YOU can bloody well communicate it effectively. Communicating ineffectively is a billion times better than not communicating at all.

4. What's you're data to support your your allegation that he's communicating ineffectively?

5. What did you think about the effectiveness of Brad's communication in this thread?

6. I've been at this game a long time and being nice isn't effective. The logic and record on this is bulletproof. The problem with getting it implemented is motherfuckers like the aforementioned and to get things rolling you need to clearly identify the motherfuckers as motherfuckers. And you don't take any prisoners when people are defending them.
Hook-in checks are underemphasized IMO.
UNDEREMPHASIZED?!?!?! They're pretty much nonexistent. Watch this SHIT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8qZESnFvQ


and tell me how many references to hook-in checks you hear and see. Show me a single example from anywhere in that sewage of ANY kind of check - including a hang - at ANY time prior to ANY launch.

This isn't a matter of EMPHASIS. People either do them or they don't. The people who do them ALWAYS do them and never launch unhooked, the people who don't do them NEVER do them and launch unhooked on infrequent occasions.
Jim Rowan - 2012/08/29 15:10:34 UTC
Cresaptown, Maryland

Bill Priday was killed after he launched unhooked from Whitwell and after turning down at least one person (and maybe more) who asked him if he wanted a hang check. He did the same thing at the Pulpit just a couple weeks prior to the Whitwell incident and that error was pointed out by someone on the ramp before he launched.
Rob Kells - 2005/12

My partners (Steve Pearson and Mike Meier) and I have over 25,000 hang glider flights between us and have managed (so far) to have hooked in every time. I also spoke with test pilots Ken Howells and Peter Swanson about their methods (another 5000 flights). Not one of us regularly uses either of the two most popular methods outlined above.
He was on the right track but never got the whole picture.

The reason Bill Priday died was because he was signed off - in flagrant violation of USHGA regulations - by the asshole who runs Blue Sky for three ratings and NEVER ONCE taught or required to perform a hook in check, to comply with:
With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
If I had been his instuctor I one hundred percent guarantee you that he'd have never died on a slope below an escarpment ramp.
He was clearly an accident waiting to happen.
Every goddam fucking one of us who picks up a hang glider and starts walking towards launch is clearly an accident waiting to happen. Any asshole who thinks for a nanosecond that he isn't should find another hobby.

And the time of any flying day at which every goddam fucking one of us is MOST clearly an accident waiting to happen is when we're standing on ramps within two to five seconds of running off them.

There's a very long list of people who weren't thought of as bozos before or after they ran off ramps without their gliders who got killed just as dead as Bill.

There's a HUGE list of people who ran off stuff with dangling carabiners just as many times as Bill did but - entirely through the luck of the draw - survived to tell about it. That list includes names like Pagen, Lehmann, Tudor, Spencer, Rooney, and Rooke on it - but they don't get labeled by the rabble as accidents waiting to happen. They get excused on the "shit happens" waiver.

And then you've got over 99 percent of the population which ALWAYS launches on the assumption that it's hooked in based upon memory of a procedure and/or check performed before picking up the glider at launch position. And I don't give a rat's ass whether they're hooked in or not - for the purpose of the exercise they're just as dead as Bill is - EVERY TIME.
There is nothing in this video that would suggest the pilot didn't do a hang check.
Show me somewhere in this thread where there was the slightest suggestion that this idiot DIDN'T? I'd be as astounded to see a video of someone skipping a hang check at the back of the Henson or Lookout ramps as I would to see one of someone doing a hook-in check on one of them.

So what the fuck does that hafta do with the issue Michael's raising? That of compliance with USHGA's 31 year old regulation requiring a hook-in check JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH.
BTW, Bill's survivors sued the TTT and the USHPA and despite the fact that he had signed all the waivers, they were apparently able to collect something from the insurance company (the actual outcome was never made public).
REALLY? Lawyers that incompetent with that much shit oozing out of their ears got something on that one? Think of the damage one could've done to Steve Wendt and everybody up the chain of command couching a legal team with a DOUBLE digit IQ!

Fuck you, JR.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
Brad Barkley - 2012/08/29 15:47:37 UTC

Tom,

Don't worry... as a fairly new pilot I am probably more conscientious about hang checks and hook-in checks than someone who's gotten complacent in their habits.
If you're conscientious about hang checks you have no understanding of hook-in checks.
But as for michael170... throwing around vague riddles...
Lessee...

1. You're conscientious about hook-in checks.

2. Keith posts a video of himself running off a ramp on top of an escarpment (from which at least one person has fallen and died) in obvious violation of the USHGA regulation requiring the hook-in check - about which you're so fuckin' conscientious - and asks for a critique.

3. Michael posts a video of a new Hang Three very obviously doing a solid hook-in check - like you always do - four seconds prior to commencement of his launch run.

4. He asks Keith:
Do you notice anything significant happening just prior to launch?
using the copied and pasted language which covers the hook-in check issue for all launches for all ratings.

5. The first responder immediately identifies the issue. (Yeah, I know. That's a bit unfair 'cause Ryan and his dad have been tasked by USHGA for destroying the hook-in check message at every opportunity.)

But this is a VAGUE RIDDLE.

OK...

How about critiquing this radial ramp video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuSHh0nmKkQ

07-1412
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3900/14557433291_0d22597fd6_o.png
Image

What do you notice about this pilot's apparent choice of an LZ?

Get that one right and we'll start working up to some of the more demanding ones.
...and nasty insults...
If you found that to be a VAGUE RIDDLE your instructor IS an idiot and you need to have your rating suspended until you can easily figure out the difference between somebody doing a hook-in check at the top of a cliff and somebody not doing a hook-in check at the top of a cliff.
...isn't ineffective communication;
For lotsa people - NOTHING IS.
...in fact, it's not communication at all.
Oh. So if YOU don't get it - it's not communication. Only possible explanation.
It's the opposite, the kind of crap that SHUTS DOWN effective communication...
Sometimes that's not all that bad an idea. Rooney, for example, communicates VERY effectively to other total shitheads about the dangers of stronglinks and towing equipment with short track records.
...or a conversation where learning can take place.
Depends on what's being learned. And it's pretty fucking obvious that whatever conversations you've been involved in before on this topic...
He does way more harm than good.
...were doing WAY more harm than good.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
Tom Galvin - 2012/08/29 16:43:06 UTC
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

I'm not defending his methods, just encouraging you to not dismiss messages of the most shrill.
Those are the ones you really wanna pay the most attention to.

I pretty much despise all Aussie Methodists 'cause they're all pure death with respect to the hook-in check but I'll give Robert/relate2 this much:

He DOES believe in what he's saying and he DOES care about other flyers and is trying to keep them from getting killed (even if his approach is totally backwards).
In general newer pilots, have not yet seen the carnage of our sport.
Fuck that. You don't need to have watched people getting hauled out or personally known people who've bought farms. I've never flown a shuttle or had any astronaut buddies but that doesn't mean I can't understand what went wrong with the Challenger or Columbia and why, appreciate what happened to the crews, and know that I - or a goddam ten year old kid - could've done a better job of things. They blew up the Challenger and burned up the Columbia 'cause the were rolling dice and they knew bloody damn well they were rolling dice.
They do not have the context to appreciate the gravity of the simple things that lead to a ride in a helicopter to the trauma center, or a name etched in stone.
Especially seeing as how the industry - from individual instructor through school through manufacturer through USHGA - is working its ass off to suppress crash, injury, and fatality data and tell the public how astoundingly safe it is all the time.

We've got tons of good reports of really ugly incidents and lotsa really good illustrations on video. We need to hit students hard with this stuff from Day One instead of lying to them and dismissing people like Bill Priday as subhuman accidents waiting to happen...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/message/11700
Zack C - 2010/11/18 05:59:03 UTC

Sure. But I'm one of Matt's 'defective products'. The first thing I learned to do in the field at Lookout was a hang check. I was told a story by my instructor about the then-recent death of a pilot who launched without being through his leg loops. The instructor called this pilot an 'idiot'. This is how I was taught to think from Day 1.
...who got what was coming to them and did the gene pool a big favor.
Generally I've found in safety related matters, that the reason for the rudeness is a PTSD like reaction to complacency within the community.
And just about always...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=883
What will keep the US Hawks from becoming another USHPA or HGAA?
Warren Narron - 2012/03/16 16:28:48 UTC

Tad wasn't always so hostile and aggressive. Early on in his quest to change dangerous/dogmatic procedures and improve the chance of safety to his fellow pilots, I was awed at how much crap he actually took... course he finally snapped and let the pent up anger fly and I can't really blame him. Willful ignorance pisses me off too.
...having taken way too much crap from way too many assholes for way too long.
We are human, and cannot do "always".
Yeah, we CAN. We can ALWAYS recognize that we're all just as human as Bill Priday and Kunio Yoshimura and assume we're about to make the same mistake every time we launch. We're about to run off cliffs, ferchrisake. Just how hard should it be to generate some fear of falling every time we do it?
I use the Aussie method, a self hang check, then a second party hang check, a hook-in check...
If you use the fucking Aussie Method, a fucking self hang check, and a fucking second party hang check...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.
Steve Davy - 2011/10/24 10:27:04 UTC

OK- how many times does he need confirm that he is hooked in? And when would be the best time to make that confirmation?
Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24 21:04:17 UTC

Once, just prior to launch.
Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC

I agree with that statement.

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.
...you do not understand the hook-in check and you are increasing - not decreasing - your probability of launching unhooked.
...and Dave Hopkin's rule of three. Three mistakes between when the glider comes off the rack to launch, then it's time to put the glider away...
Fuck Dave Hopkin's Rule of Three. If I followed it I'd hafta put the glider back on the car two out of three times before I got the bag unzipped. But I'm several million times less likely to launch unhooked or get killed on tow than some highly disciplined asshole like Rooney.
...since I am not focused on what I am doing.
The issue of FOCUS is completely irrelevant. EVERYBODY who's ever run off a ramp, with or without his glider, has been FOCUSED - on something.

Gimme a gram each of fear and Pavlovian conditioning over a ton each of focus and discipline any day of the week.
Even with all that, I know that one day, I could still launch unhooked.
It's BECAUSE of "ALL THAT" that you one day you could still launch unhooked. You're doing all this useless shit to "build in a sense of security"...
Rob Kells - 2005/12

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.
...and drop your fear level down to zilch by the time you get to the only stage of the day at which your hook-in status matters.
I am human.
Don't try to be better than that with all that "Rule of Three, multiple check...

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

We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, et cetera. Bob Gillisse redux.
...focus bullshit you're doing. Make being and recognizing that you're human work for you.
I can only mitigate the risks, not eliminate them.
Bullshit. By doing and assuming that you've done NOTHING to MITIGATE them EVERY time you launch you CAN *ELIMINATE* them. Nobody who's been afraid of launching unhooked five seconds prior to launch HAS.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26996
Critique my radial ramp launch
peeetaaar - 2012/08/30 00:58:55 UTC
San Francisco

hook-in checks

Glad my video was a good example and not a bad one!
One of the better ones - but the four second delay which was making me nervous.
If I can contribute my two cents about hook-in checks prior to launch...
JUST prior to launch. If it's not JUST prior to launch it's not a hook-in check. As the delay increases it starts becoming more the problem than the solution.
...it's definitely something that was drilled into me during my training.
By whom? Pat Denevan? That WOULD help explain the four second delay.
In the year or so that I've been flying, I've heard of at least two or three accidents...
No you haven't. There's no such thing as an unhooked launch ACCIDENT.
...that could have been prevented by hook-in checks just prior to launch.
Yeah, get that "JUST" word back in there.
The full hang check is necessary and great...
For what?
...but in my opinion (and USHPA's), what's an extra two seconds of your standard launch routine as a double or triple check that has the potential to prevent an accident and possible save your life?
1. Show me where at any time within the half dozen years USHGA has allowed mention of a hook-in check.
2. What's a standard launch routine? Under USHGA regulations if the launch doesn't commence with a hook-in check it's substandard.
3. This isn't a double or triple check - this is THE check. Anything that happened prior didn't happen.
Totally worth the two seconds, I think.
Damn I wish somebody were teaching this thing right.
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