http://www.shga.com/forum/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=6167
Unhooked Launch
Mike Ivey - 2020/10/10 16:57:31 UTC
Hi Everyone,
I launched unhooked at Garlock last weekend (Sat Oct the 3rd). I’m completely fine, the glider has some damage. But I wanted to use this time to write up my thoughts on what contributed to try to help other pilots.
This was my second flight back since a long break. I had flown at Avenue S the previous week, but the last flight before that was in June.
We started the trip with plans to fly Ave S again, but when it looked weak in the LZ in the morning we pivoted and went out to Garlock instead. After helping launch the other pilots, I launched last. I carried the glider to launch unhooked, this is my normal habit. However, when I got to launch, I stopped to take a breather. The cycles had been on and off all day, and soon after a good cycle started, so I picked up the glider and began my launch run.
Luckily I had picked a long ramp and it was a good cycle, so I was still on reasonably flat ground when the control bar reached my head and I realized something was wrong and stopped my run. Second lucky thing was my brain jumped the right way at that point and I let go of the glider instead of grabbing on tighter. The glider flew off, banked left, and slid into the hill to the left of launch.
So why did this happen? Like most failures to hook in, it's a confluence of factors and a failure of habits. After stewing on it a bit I’ve identified the following as contributing:
- Because we were going cross country, I had all my gear in my harness and my winter clothing on, so my harness felt much heavier and tighter than normal. This put me out of my comfort zone and muscle memory during my walk up.
- I had not flown in a while, so my habits were a little rusty. Combined with that, I was at an unusual site, so there wasn’t anything (like a hook-in sign) to reset me and habits.
- I was pretty nervous about the flight overall. It was the first time flying my higher performance glider in a cross country situation, so I had been thinking a lot about my plan for the flight to ensure I could have a good landing site I was comfortable with. I was thinking about this a lot on my walk to launch as well.
- Unlike Kagel, there is no good or obvious “setup” area by launch to stop and do a hook in check, so when I stopped at launch it was basically at the top of my ramp run. Typically I will stop and do a hook in check before I get on the ramp proper - but I wasn’t able to do that here because of the geography.
- As stated above, the launch conditions were shifty so I got impatient and based my actions on the conditions, not my checklist. I did not do a hook in check before my launch run, I used to do one but haven’t in a while.
Overall, my takeaway is that I need to revisit the habits that I had thought were sufficient - notably letting my hook in check habit lapse and letting my hang check be mentally triggered by the Kagel geography are major long term issues that I need to fix.
Hope this helps, this was a (relatively) painless way for me to learn this lesson, and it's definitely a preventable mistake.
Hi Everyone,
Everyone? If ya wanna talk to EVERYONE you need to be on the worlds largest hang gliding community.
I launched unhooked...
Your glider did. You didn't. If you HAD there'd have been a good chance that your buddies would be writing this one up.
...at Garlock...
35°25'09.81" N 117°51'01.44" W
...last weekend (Sat Oct the 3rd). I’m completely fine...
No you're not. You weren't fine before the incident and you're not really any better now. And you lost a day of flying you'll never get back and damaged your glider.
...the glider has some damage.
1. Describe it.
2. Make sure you let Katherine Yardley know about it. She thinks it's a riot when our birds get trashed in that neck of the woods.
But I wanted to use this time to write up my thoughts on what contributed to try to help other pilots.
Yeah, the guys who've survived unhooked launches are always the ones who have the best ideas and insights on how to prevent them. Just ask Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney. Also the guys...
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1166
Thoughts on responsibility...
Scott Wilkinson - 2005/10/05 14:10:56 UTC
We visited Steve Wendt yesterday, who was visibly choked up over Bill's death. For Steve, it all comes down to one thing: you've got to hook in. Period.
...who've rated them.
This was my second flight back since a long break.
You should fly more frequently. That does marvels for unhooked launch prevention.
I had flown at Avenue S the previous week, but the last flight before that was in June.
Maybe spend more time at...
08-12302
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12-12403
...Dockweiler.
We started the trip with plans to fly Ave S again, but when it looked weak in the LZ in the morning we pivoted and went out to Garlock instead.
Good thing you didn't have options like Lockout, Henson, Whitwell, High Rock, McConnellsburg...
After helping launch the other pilots...
Zero percent of whom did actual compliant hook-in checks. Hey Mike... Does it concern you that if you couldn't prevent yourself from initiating an unhooked launch you'd have also been one of the scores of useless dickheads checking and assisting Bob Gillisse, Bill Priday, Kunio Yoshimura right before they left their ramps without their gliders?
...I launched last.
Bummer.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4247
Hook in failure in New Zealand
Jim Rooney - 2006/09/24 21:19:29 UTC
There isn't one sure-fire answer.
If there was, we'd all be doing it already. This thread I think makes this obvious... every single thing people have put forth as "the way", someone else has show how it can fail. Every single one. Argue about the details, but every single one fails.
Argue if you will about the examples (whatever), the trick of it isn't the method to me, it's how using new things doesn't work (and actually causes problems) in strange ways (like when going back to "normal" flying after getting used to the new method/device).
Enough about what doesn't work though... what does?
Since we don't have a plug that only fits one way, we fall on lesser methods, but some are better than others...
In particular... Third Party Verification.
You won't save you, but your friends might.
Not always, but they're more reliable than you.
No friends left. You were pretty much totally fucked at that point.
I carried the glider to launch unhooked, this is my normal habit.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=13359
Today was a bad day!
Mike Bomstad - 2009/08/26 04:21:15 UTC
The harness is part of the aircraft... end of story.
(Just because it's easy to remove, does not mean it should be. Dont choose the path of least resistance)
Attach it to the wing, completing the aircraft.... then preflight the completed aircraft.
Buckle yourself into the cockpit and then your ready.
11-A12819
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13-A14319
I don't do NORMAL HABITS. I just keep running threat assessments, thinking about the worst thing that could possibly happen at any given moment. And that mindset has never not worked for me on this issue. Has it ever stopped me from launching unhooked? Probably not. But it WOULD HAVE *IF* I'd ever gotten myself into a situation like yours.
However, when I got to launch, I stopped to take a breather.
Don't stop to take a breather next time. Problem solved.
The cycles had been on and off all day, and soon after a good cycle started, so I picked up the glider and began my launch run.
Good thing you didn't lift your glider up to the stops. That would've given you a false sense of security. And gawd only knows what might've happened within the next few seconds.
Luckily I had picked a long ramp and it was a good cycle, so I was still on reasonably flat ground when the control bar reached my head and I realized something was wrong and stopped my run.
Note to self. Pick a long ramp and wait for a good cycle. That way if I'm not connected to my glider I'll still be on reasonably flat ground when the control bar reaches my head and I'll realize something is wrong and stop my run.
Second lucky thing was my brain jumped the right way at that point and I let go of the glider instead of grabbing on tighter.
Which is what our instincts have us doing at the critical fraction of a second.
The glider flew off, banked left, and slid into the hill to the left of launch.
So why did this happen?
Because you're too fuckin' thick to read...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31781
Another hang check lesson
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7916/31540774647_f71ed7cd5e_o.png
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/FTHI.pdf
...my article, watch Jan's videos, take a look at this now 956 post thread.
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.
(And here I'd been thinking that the overall hang gliding activity level had dropped off too catastrophically for us to have another one of these inside of the next decade.)
Like most failures to hook in, it's a confluence of factors and a failure of habits.
Bullshit. You don't GET to tell anybody what the problem is a week after coming close to killing yourself on the issue. This is not a HABIT thing. You don't aim a gun at somebody's head and pull the trigger 'cause you've always made a HABIT of unloading it when you're not intending to shoot something.
After stewing on it a bit I’ve identified the following as contributing:
1. Lucky us.
2. Fuck you. What's been stopping you from stewing on the untold scores of other people's unhooked launches? I didn't need to experience an AT lockout crash to realize it could happen to me and do the engineering required to pretty much eliminate the threat.
- Because we were going cross country, I had all my gear in my harness and my winter clothing on, so my harness felt much heavier and tighter than normal.
And that's always a way above average indicator of a proper connection to your glider. Foot launches are demanding and dangerous so anything that bolsters your confidence level is a major plus.
This put me out of my comfort zone and muscle memory during my walk up.
So if you'd been in your comfort zone you'd have been OK. Got news for ya, Mike. Being in your comfort zone while on a ramp ranks right up there with being on a launch cart behind Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney in the list of the two most dangerous locations in the sport. This asshole:
07-04806
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is in his comfort zone 'cause he made sure he was safely hooked in back in the setup area just five minutes ago.
09-05019
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Safely hooked in.
10-05124
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- I had not flown in a while, so my habits were a little rusty.
Yep. It's a real bad idea to fly when your habits are a little rusty. Always best to leave it in the bag for another week or two while your habits will be less rusty.
Combined with that, I was at an unusual site, so there wasn’t anything (like a hook-in sign) to reset me and habits.
You should keep a few hook-in signs in the trunk for situations like this. Those things work miracles for resetting us and our habits. And HABIT is the CRITICAL ISSUE regarding this particular threat.
Somebody cite me from the entire world history of the sport ONE report of one of these signs, plaques, checklists, nose wire telltales interrupting an unhooked launch sequence. There are TONS of these at high volume launches and they don't work. If the sight of the boulder-strewn slope three hundred feet below the top of the escarpment doesn't do the trick then nothing else has a snowball's chance in hell.
Here's my thought for a sign twenty yards shy of the ramp:
WELCOME HANG GLIDER PILOTS!
1. If you're not positive that upon reaching launch position you'll be scared a minimum of two thirds shitless that you're about to launch unhooked do not proceed beyond this point with a glider.
2. If you're not positive that you'll be scared a minimum of two thirds shitless that the glider you're assisting is at extreme risk of launching unhooked from now until it's too late to do anything about it do not proceed beyond this point with the intent to crew.
3. Aussie Methodists proceeding beyond this point will be shot on sight without further warning.
4. Have a nice day.
It won't work for 99.5 percent of participants 'cause nothing ever does but it would be fun to see the sign on the eleven o'clock news shortly after the next one.
- I was pretty nervous about the flight overall.
Great. Ya know what I'm pretty nervous about? When I'm:
- foot launching a dangling carabiner and/or empty leg loops
- AT launching:
-- some fucking moron on a Dragonfly fixing whatever's going on back there by giving me the rope
-- the focal point of the Dragonfly's safe towing system increasing the safety of the towing operation
- thermalling plowing into another glider
- approaching:
-- powerlines at the downwind end of the field
-- trees at the downwind end of the field
- landing that my tires are adequately inflated
It's a really shitty idea to be nervous about the flight overall. Think about being nervous one thing at a time chronologically.
It was the first time flying my higher performance glider in a cross country situation, so I had been thinking a lot about my plan for the flight to ensure I could have a good landing site I was comfortable with.
A GOOD landing site you were COMFORTABLE with? Where's the challenge and fun in that?
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face
Mitch Shipley - 2012/10/22 19:04:16 UTC
We engage in a sport that has risk and that is part of the attraction.
(Same asshole who's about to run off the cliff at Whitwell totally confident that he's...
03-03107
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04-03229
...still safely connected to his glider.)
I was thinking about this a lot on my walk to launch as well.
Maybe you're thinking about this stuff a lot too much on your walk to launch - and not thinking at all about your most immediate and potentially lethal threat at all. (Obviously.)
- Unlike Kagel, there is no good or obvious “setup” area by launch to stop and do a hook in check...
Yeah, Kagel..
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5492/14666057035_1786a4e18c_o.jpg
What's the worst that could possibly happen at an awesome, high volume, mainstream launch like Kagel...
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5566/14704620965_ce30a874b7_o.png
Ground Zero for Joe Greblo's Four Or Five Cs.
...so when I stopped at launch it was basically at the top of my ramp run.
How convenient.
Typically I will stop and do a hook in check before I get on the ramp proper - but I wasn’t able to do that here because of the geography.
1. And there'd be no fuckin' way you'd be able to stop and do a hook-in check AFTER you get on the ramp proper.
13-03110
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15-03302
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Turning around to make sure you had your backup hooked and carabiner locked could easily prove fatal before you'd even thought about starting moving.
- As stated above, the launch conditions were shifty so I got impatient and based my actions on the conditions, not my checklist.
Fuck your checklist. I used to use an extensive checklist at Ridgely. But it was ONLY to help me get everything put together and prepped sequentially and efficiently at setup. And when everything was I parked the car back at the lot and stowed it. It had NOTHING to do with safety. That shit's simple and critical and you need to have it hard wired in your head. A checklist used instead is nothing but a potentially lethal distraction.
I did not do a hook in check before my launch run...
There's no such thing as a hook-in check more than five seconds prior to initiation. After five seconds it's well past its expiration date and needs to be immediately flushed down the toilet, considered a false memory. NOBODY can safely remember a hook-in check beyond that interval in such a critical situation. Is the gun unloaded? I dunno... Let's point it at the ground and pull the trigger. CLICK. Yeah, probably.
I used to do one but haven’t in a while.
Where to even BEGIN...
Mike Ivey - 86546 - H3 - 2010/07/24 - Kenneth Andrews - FL FSL TUR
That's the last I have on him. We need to aim unloaded guns at all the motherfuckers who signed him off on anything and pull the triggers.
Overall, my takeaway is that I need to revisit the habits that I had thought were sufficient - notably letting my hook in check habit lapse and letting my hang check be mentally triggered by the Kagel geography are major long term issues that I need to fix.
If that's your takeaway on this one you seriously need to find another hobby.
Hope this helps...
Oh fer sure. Monumental wake-up call. This will most assuredly put an end to people letting their hook-in check habits lapse.
WHAT TO WE WANT?
- OUR HOOK-IN HABITS NOT TO LAPSE!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
- NOW!!!
...this was a (relatively) painless way for me to learn this lesson...
In (relatively) stark contrast to the way you learned your lesson to...
32-1901
...not final into serious windsock poles.
...and it's definitely a preventable mistake.
But let's totally ignore the guy who wrote the fuckin' book on HOW to prevent this mistake and take our leads from all the assholes who are now highly esteemed experts on the topic by virtue of their having had first hand experience with it.
http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3840
[TIL] About Tad Eareckson
Mike Blankenhorn - 2013/03/12 16:07:44 UTC
We should bury this thread and not give Tad the satisfaction that we are actually wasting our time acknowledging his existence. Yes, this needed to be brought into the light but now we should bury this asshole with some nice cold dirt (metaphorically) and never speak of him again.
We didn't bury the thread, Mike. But you show up as Last Active 2015/07/07 09:40:16 UTC. And nobody seems to be speaking of your ass anymore. Hope you're enjoying your tomb and keeping it warm for the rest of the participants in this sport.
As I'm posting this there's a 2020/10/10 17:00:14 UTC followup post - also with zilch substance - from Mike and to other responses. Also of course nothing on Davis, Jack, Bob. Un freakin' believable.
Huge thanks to Jonathan for wiring me 2020/10/11 03:00:38 UTC for a notification on this one. Probably saved me at least half a day.
