You are NEVER hooked in.

[Tad Eareckson]

Kevin Ault - 2012/05/06

It's a wake-up call.

Chris McKee - 2005/10/03

I really hope this is a wake-up call to all of us old and new pilots alike and that you realize you are mortal.

Hardmanmark - 2006/09/19

This is a real wake-up call to all of us at the beginning of our season to always do a hang check.

Mike Blakely - 2008/01/16

On the other hand Rob, this is a wake-up call without physical penalty.

Mark Dowsett - 2009/11/14

It was a good wake-up call.

Oscar - 2010/09/06

It was a wake-up call for me.

Mick Howard - 2010/11/06

I really hope this is a wake-up call.

Zack C - 2010/11/07

While Mick is right in that this should be a wake-up call, it's the second wake-up call we've had this year. I don't think the first one changed much, and this concerns me.

Rich Diamond - 2010/11/08

The vid of the HG self launch should be a WAKE-UP CALL for ALL that fly!

Fuck wake-up calls - and any asshole who thinks that a hundred of them are worth a thimble full of piss next to a single hook-in check.

You watch somebody plummet a thousand feet from the glider, wake up, resume doing the EXACT same thing you were doing while you were asleep, and expect an improvement in results.

The time to wake up is five seconds before every launch. Then you can switch your idiot brain off again and start focusing on your your precious standup spot landing.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27581
expanding on linked biners... playing with stats

Robert Seckold (Relate2) - 2012/05/06 14:10:40 UTC

The Aussie method is not a dead horse...

You're absolutely right. It's a rabid dog.

...I just don't get why there is soo much resistance from people to even try a method that has been proven to prevent pilots launching un-hooked in Australia.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18695
How could this accident happen?

William Olive - 2010/01/28 04:50:53 UTC

Phil Beck did this twice (or was that three times?) in a day at Hexham (Victoria) one time while foot launch aerotow testing gliders. Of course, with a swag of gliders to test fly, Phil would unclip from the glider he'd just landed, then clip into the next one to be tested.

Except, at least twice, he didn't clip in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mX2HNwVr9g
Hang Gliding Fail
andyh0p - 2011/04/24 - dead
03-0325 - 06-0511
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/13512258445_6b5a3662d0_o.png

http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/12931220073_1609b59b17_o.png
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864885_3b8ca2da8c_o.png

http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864870_2129572e3a_o.png
18-0919 - 21-1025

It HASN'T proven to prevent pilots from launching unhooked in Australia. It's established a dangerous asshole cult in which everyone and his goddam dingo assumes he and everyone else and his goddam dingo is hooked in at the moment of commitment to launch and made sightings of hook-in checks about as common of sightings of Tasmanian Tigers.

I know I will be back again commenting on the Aussie method as long as there are pilots who continue to walk around in their harnesses relying on their memory to keep themselves from launching un-hooked.

- I walk around in my harness AND *NEVER* rely on my memory of events beyond two seconds ago to keep myself from launching unhooked.

- I ALSO *NEVER* assume that ANYONE ELSE is hooked into his glider two seconds before launch - the way all you self centered brain dead assholes do.

I have only been flying for around 7 years but there have been many pilots during those 7 years who have died or suffered serious injury though launching un-hooked...who is going to be the next one?

I absolutely one hundred percent guarantee you that it will be some stupid bozo who NEVER ONCE in his entire hang gliding career did a deliberate hook-in check within ten seconds of launch - and/or his passenger.

Brian McMahon - 2012/05/07 15:22:00 UTC

When is the last time you carried your glider up a steep slope, got into your harness that is attached to your glider on the steep slope, and launched on a windy day - all the while by yourself? I couldn't do it and would be afraid to try. Just because you haven't been faced with a situation that precludes your method, doesn't mean that others haven't.

- Blasphemy! Situations such as you describe are not recognized by the Aussie Methodist Central Committee.

- If the dumb sonuvabitch DOES carry his glider up a steep slope, get into his harness attached to his glider on the slope, all the while by himself on a windy day he'll launch without a hook-in check 'cause he knows that he was hooked in at the beginning of the struggle.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27581
expanding on linked biners... playing with stats

Quinn Cornwell - 2012/05/05 22:51:27 UTC

So expanding on an idea I thought of in this topic

Oh good. Quinn's going to try THINKING. This should be loads of fun.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27538
Unhooked - A Human Error Trap

My gf critically analyzed how it s all or nothing when locking the biner into place on a hang glider.

What the hell is a "gf"? Eh, who gives a rat's ass. Everything you write is rot anyway.

It reallz is. There is no backup.

What's backing up your port sidewire, asshole? It's a real bitch but some things ya gotta actually check each time.

She mentioned this to me afterwards and though it may be obvious she is completely right... you either clip in or you die (or risk severe injury).

ABSOLUTE PURE UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT.

- Dick Stark, Tim Schwarzenberg, Sam White, George DePerrio, and Werner Graf CLIPPED IN AND DIED.

- There are TONS on non fatal and minor incidents in which people who had been clipped in very shortly prior to launch went off unhooked.

- This issue doesn't have shit to do with whether or not you clip in.

- It has EVERYTHING to do with not launching unless you've CHECKED to confirm that you're hooked in IMMEDIATELY before committing to launch.

Just like people don't get killed 'cause they run across highways. They get killed 'cause they don't check for traffic IMMEDIATELY before running across highways.

So I ve taken a few pics (not really needed if you have an imagination) but basically, tie the biners on the harnesses together with some form of strap that can withstand a human fall (12 to 24 inches max). I used a sling in the photo but I would recommend something like climbing rope.

Just what we need. More crap in the airflow to give shitheads incapable of checking for traffic before running across highways an increased sense of security as they're about to run across highways without checking for traffic.

Now to the statistics... if you believe you cannot eliminate this hook in problem because even routine isn t perfect (nor the aussie way for some) then let us improve the statistical chance you will forget more than one safety measure.

Fuck you. The statistics - given the data we have have available - are that if your routine includes a preflight inspection of your connection and a hook-in check within five or ten seconds of launch your chances of falling or dropping someone from a glider are close enough to zero that the difference isn't worth mentioning.

Best thing I would say is to compare the likeliness of forgetting to clip both biners into a safety sling AND forget to clip one of the biners into the glider (say for the tandem passenger or yourself).

1) I believe the chances of not hooking in AT LEAST one biner are very very slim (although it could happen)

2) The chances of not hooking in one of the biner increases (more incidents where one person.. pilot or passenger... have not been hooked in based on evidence over the last few years). Maybe someone has a storz where neither have been hooked in.

3) Chances of forgetting to attach the sling to both biners AND forgetting to attach at least one biner reduces #2 and could save a live.

Now I am not a stats guru but I thought I d throw this up seeing that it was a new idea (I have never heard anyone suggest this before)
quinn

1. You are talking about ASSEMBLY PROCEDURES.
2. You're not even *MENTIONING* PREFLIGHT PROCEDURES.
3. You're assuming that we can tolerate tandem operators who don't do the most rudimentary of preflight checks.

ps on a euro keyboard...sorrz about the post spelling, grammar, etc

Right. You submit a post that looks like it was written by slow third grader who had a soccer ball bounced off his head a few hundred too many times because a different keyboard layout prevented you from proofreading, spellchecking, and editing. It's a quarter-assed job typical of the kind of work and "thinking" you do.

Anyway...

This is total bullshit.

- You're trying to engineer to make incompetent "pilots" feel MORE comfortable with the idea of overlooking and skipping critical assembly, preflight, and launch sequence procedures.

- There WILL BE pre launch situations in which it's inconvenient and DANGEROUS to have both pilot and passenger clipped in together.

- Therefore people WILL remove your idiot "safety" device.

- The most dangerous animal on the planet is a tandem hang glider "pilot" about to launch and feeling confident about the "redundant" checks and backup systems he's got to reduce the odds of an unhooked launch incident.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27538
Unhooked - A Human Error Trap

Robotham - 2012/05/04 17:08:56 UTC

Unfortunately your procedure is too simple and logical for most people, they want elaborate procedures and endless reams of redundant equipment.

Steve Kinsley - 1998/05/01 01:16

So Marc thinks the Australian method will forever ban human error and stupidity. I suspect that eighty percent of the flying community would have unhooked to fix the radio problem instead of getting out of the harness entirely. It is easier. And there you are back in the soup.

"With EACH flight, demonstrates method of establishing that pilot is hooked in JUST PRIOR to launch." Emphasis in original.-- USHGA beginner through advanced requirement.

I know of only three people that actually do this. I am one of them. I am sure there are more but not a lot more. Instead we appear to favor ever more complex (and irrelevant) hang checks or schemes like Marc advocates that possibly increase rather than decrease the risk of hook in failure.

This crap you're advocating WILL increase rather than decrease the risk of hook in failure.

DO THE FUCKIN' HOOK-IN CHECK *JUST* *PRIOR* *TO* *LAUNCH* - EVERY TIME (ASSHOLE).
---
Edit - 2013/01/25

Oh. Girlfriend. But it would've been too much fucking trouble to write it out.

[Tad Eareckson]

CNN - 2012/05/07

"We embraced her as our own, and so because of that, the deep sorrow is like losing someone close to us," said a tearful Jason Warner, a safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.

1. Yeah, well the EMBRACE wasn't enough to hold her onto the glider for very long.
2. She died 'cause NONE of you HPAC bozos has ever done shit in any of the entire histories of your miserable existences to address this issue.

[Zack C]

Just a quick PM to let him know that he's not as alone as he might think he is?

Alright, done.

Zack

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27600
trauma

Al Dicken - 2012/05/07 18:08:30 UTC

Shoot me if you want, but John Orders and Steve Parson are both flying buds of mine.
If you've never had trauma affect your life, consider yourself lucky, but possibly, um, unenlightened as to how it can affect you.

When you and your buds NEVER do, require, look for hook-in checks and something like this happens you don't get to talk about LUCK issues.

some things need to change, for sure, but to be hurtful and negative isn't going to help.

1. Some changes were mandated thirty-one years ago - but everybody treated them neglect or contempt.

2. Doug Hildreth tried for fourteen years to get this message across with the rational and respectful approach and didn't accomplish shit. Let's hurtful and negative a shot and see if we can't get better results. It's a no brainer we can't do any worse.

think pro-active, not re-active. lets try to make our beautiful sport safer

By Jove, YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Why didn't I think of that? Now on to a brighter tomorrow!

http://www.youtube.com/user/aquamarinextreme?feature=watch

Neither you nor any of the other total morons in your circle of buds has a freakin' clue what a freakin' hook-in check is. Each and every one of you is a really bad "accident" moving ever forward towards happening.

Brian McMahon - 2012/05/07 18:16:20 UTC

Nobody is going to slam you for your message here.

Come on over to Kite Strings. I'll slam the crap out of it. He's just another halfwit continuing to clog bandwidth and totally ignore the people who know what the hell they're talking about.

It is an unfortunate event and although there was apparently a mistake or series of mistakes, there is nothing to suggest that the same thing couldn't have happened to some other Tandem instructor anywhere in the world.

Bullshit. You wouldn't be saying that if the guy always had three beers while while setting up his glider and prepping for launch and somebody got a broken arm because the launch run left a lot to be desired as a consequence. And what Jon was doing was a lot worse and a lot less forgivable.

But you're probably right about there being nothing to suggest that the same thing couldn't have happened to any other tandem instructor anywhere in the world. I've never seen any evidence that ANY tandem "instructor" is making the slightest effort to include a hook-in check in his launch procedure.

Jaco Herbst - 2012/05/08 01:07:05 UTC

Al,

How is Jon doing?

How do you think he's doing?

I cannot imagine the trauma he must be going through. Hell would be a nice place.

Please convey my sincere sympathy for this unfortunate sinkhole he's found himself in.

He didn't FIND himself in it - He PUT himself in it. And forget the goddam card thing.

As a tandem pilot, I truly do not know how I would've handle this trauma.

You wouldn't be able to. Your life would be destroyed. (But it would be a lot less destroyed if instead of swallowing the card you had handed it over to the investigators IMMEDIATELY.)

He has my one hundred percent moral support in this very difficult time.

How much does that leave over for Lenami's family?

My advice to him. This sinkhole has a bottom. He has to stand up, keep his head up, face the music and start climbing out. Whatever the outcome of this investigation might be...

I don't think the outcome of this investigation is gonna hold a whole lot of surprises.

He has supporters out there.

I sure wish the fuckin' hook-in check had ten percent as many.

Hats off to you for also being there for him.

Thumbs down for doing absolutely nothing to diminish the probability of the next one.

Later

Yeah, that's one thing we can count on. There WILL BE a later.

If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards.

I know your little tag line is meant as a joke but that's EXACTLY what hang gliding culture has always done and that's EXACTLY why Lenami's life got ended and Jon's life got destroyed two weekends ago.

Scott C. Wise - 2012/05/08 04:46:44 UTC

...there is nothing to suggest that the same thing couldn't have happened to some other Tandem instructor anywhere in the world.

I know this was sincerely said and meant in the very best light.

Yeah, the road to hell is paved with the very best of intentions.

But, if this unimaginable situation...

UNIMAGINABLE? We HAD a CARBON COPY of this one on 2003/03/29 - via the courtesy of Steve Parson, another (former) Vancouver tandem instructor.

...had happened to me, it would not make me feel better to think that my mistake(s) could also happen to how many others doing tandems.

It wouldn't HAPPEN to you. It would happen because you would've decided to ignore the message I was trying to get through to you in late August of 2009.

I would sincerely hope that the odds of this happening to any other tandem instructor were close to zero.

No. When people use and ignore the same procedures the odds are all pretty much the same.

I would hope, at the very least, that my mistake might at least, somehow lower those odds.

It WOULDN'T, Scott. These mistakes NEVER lower odds.

The reason idiots suffer and die from and perpetrate these disasters is because they're relying on their memories of something they may or may not have done a minute or two before. They're gonna suck a lot worse when you move the time up to days, weeks, months, years.

Imagining any more pilots facing such a situation - not to mention those harmed (which really needs to be mentioned)...

Yeah. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that it, rather conspicuously, WASN'T mentioned.

...is not a very happy thought.

Stay with that unhappy thought - EVERY time and within two seconds of EVERY launch.

This is what I think we all (including Jon?) hope comes as a result of this trauma - That the hang gliding community learns from this dire situation.

Why should it? It's never shown the slightest indication from learning anything from all the other fatalities. Bill Murray should do another movie and call it "Wake-Up Call".

That someone who may have made the same mistake, WON'T - because they heard about and learned from Jon's situation.

Learned what? Learning is measured by observable behavior changes. What do we see happening after any of these newsworthy plummets?

That every tandem hang glider pilot will look at their student/passenger and see their importance as a person before seeing them as so many $ tickets to ride.

You think that Lenami died because Jon didn't see his passenger as anything beyond expendable payload?
How does that hypothesis account for Kunio Yoshimura and the scores of other solos who've had really bad days for the same reason?
This is totally useless rot, Scott.

We are human and make mistakes. This is true and unavoidable. But we aren't in this alone and we aren't all likely to make the same mistake at the same time. So, if we think we may or could make a mistake, ask for someone else's help, perspective or opinion before taking that irrevocable next step.

BULLSHIT. DO THE FUCKING HOOK-IN CHECK - EVERY TIME.

Don't THINK you MAY or COULD make the mistake before taking that irrevocable next step. Assume you ARE MAKING IT. Then do something to make sure you're not.

If Jon Orders happened to read this I would want him to know that his situation has caused me to think as constructively as I can about ways to avoid a reoccurrence of this tragedy. I think the effect has been the same with many of us. We are looking for solutions.

You didn't hear a word I was saying to you on this in 2009 and you're not hearing any of the people on the Davis and Jack Shows who have their shit together on this and are saying the EXACT SAME THING NOW.

Get your shit together, Scott. Then come back and post after you've resigned from being part of the problem and become part of the solution.

[Tad Eareckson]

CTV News (ctvbc.ca) - 2012/05/09 01:02
British Columbia
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Julia Foy

Pilots call for tougher rules after hang glider killed.

Yeah, that's EXACTLY when pilots call for tougher rules.
Then they fight for a few weeks about the best way to make things even more dangerous than before.
Then they start talking about the awesome new wing that Moyes is putting on the market next month.
Then they wait until somebody else gets killed for the same easily fixable reason.

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

One last attempt.

We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, etc. Bob Gillisse redux...

Then they call for tougher rules...

After the recent death of a woman in a tandem hang-gliding accident in B.C., some pilots in the industry are calling for tougher rules to prevent a repeat.

You mean ANOTHER repeat? So Eleni Zeri wasn't a sufficient "wake-up call" 'cause if it doesn't happen in CANADA it's not all that relevant?

Lenami Godinez-Avila plunged to her death near Chilliwack on April 28 after she somehow became detached from the glider as her boyfriend watched from the ground.

So exactly how does someone who was never attached to the goddam glider to begin with manage to somehow BECOME detached from it?

The glider's pilot, William (Jon) Orders, is charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a camera memory card that may contain evidence of what went wrong.

Like we really need any.

The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada has suspended Orders' instructor certification and appointed an investigator to help determine whether pilot error or equipment failure was responsible.

I'm not real sure that was really necessary either.

"In order to make the industry safe, we make sure that the instructors that are teaching and the pilots that are teaching are up to snuff and performing correctly," association vice-president Bruce Busby told CTV News.

1. Oh REALLY? When is it that you do that, Bruce? Before or after somebody gets killed?

2. Define "up to snuff" and "performing correctly" - asshole. You morons certified him without any requirements for hook-in checks the way you do everyone else and let him roll with the same launch procedures that Steve Parson was using. So what the fuck did you expect? Better results?

A similar accident in 2003 claimed the life of Eleni Zeri in New Zealand, and pilot Steve Parsons was convicted of manslaughter. Parsons later moved to Vancouver Island and worked as a tandem instructor until the association pulled his certification.

"We found that he was operating outside of what our considered acceptable practices are, so we expelled him from the organization," Busby said.

I got news for you, Bruce. What you bozos CONSIDER to be acceptable practices are no way in hell acceptable practices.

Some pilots believe tandem hang gliders need tougher rules to protect their clients.

1. Yeah. SOME PILOTS BELIEVE! It's freakin' astounding what some pilots BELIEVE. Hell, it's freakin' astounding what damn near ALL pilots believe.

2. Oh. So it's OK if you put solos in the air 'cause it's OK if they get crippled, paralyzed, killed 'cause your instruction, procedures, standards, and equipment suck.

3. Kinda like we have solo and tandem drivers' licenses. A poorly trained driver we allow on the road in a little car and, after passing some additional tests, it's OK if he gets a two seater and takes a passenger with him.

"These members of the public, they're trusting a second person with their life, essentially. Tandem pilots have to be held to a much higher standard of safety than solo pilots," pilot Nicole McLearn said.

1. But the instant someone signs up for lessons he's no longer a member of the public and it's OK if we tell him that practicing standup spot landings will keep him safe and using a standard aerotow weak link will serve as a lockout protector and instant hands free release to compensate for the Quallaby crap on his downtube.

2. How 'bout the gliders, Nicole? Shouldn't we raise the certification requirements for tandems? Or maybe lower the standards for solos? Hell, let's do it right and do both!

3. So Nicole... Tell me what your plan is for training tandem pilots to be twice as good at doing hang checks as solo pilots.

4. Useless goddam idiot.

Hang glider Alex Raymont agrees.

Big surprise.

"You do feel like the public is really the people that need to be protected the most," he said.

1. Exactly when was it that you started feeling that way, Alex? Before or after you started talking to reporters?
2. Yeah, right. Lenami's life was worth so much more than Bill Priday's or Kunio Yoshimura's.

The investigations into Godinez-Avila's death could take several months.

That's a little weird. Jon knew INSTANTLY everything that needed to be understood about Godinez-Avila's death and swallowed the card which would remove any shadow of a doubt immediately upon landing. And y'all HAVE the card now.

Hell, I knew EXACTLY what the problem was just watching one of his less unhappy flights on YouTube.

Oh well...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25656
The young girl who died hang gliding solo

Jim Rooney - 2012/03/06 18:34:14 UTC

Please take a deep breath. And wait.
Accident investigations involving fatalities take a long time. And by long, I mean they can take years.
(yes, years, I'm not kidding)

The sky is not falling.

Might as well get the job done right.

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.

In a video, he was seen to hold on to the glider for about fifty meters before hitting power lines.

Rooney and the passenger fell about fifteen meters to the ground.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=982
Anti-Christian Williams

Bob Kuczewski - 2012/05/09 17:43:17 UTC

The "sustainable growth" people like to carve humanity out from the rest of the eco system and give us the special responsibility to control our own growth. They forget that all species - human and non-human alike - are naturally inclined to overpopulate to the extent that they can do so. So it's part of their beloved Mother Nature's plan that there will always be species who discover new ways to grow and thrive.

From a purely objective view, the success of humanity in covering the planet is no different from the success of green plants in doing the same. After all, if they believe in evolution, then they must accept that there was a time when the earth was free of all that nasty ... chlorophyll. So while they claim to be objective in their criticism of humanity, they're really being hypocritical.

If they really believe in letting Mother Nature have her way, then they should recognize that humans are part of Mother Nature's system and we have just as much of a right to thrive - and even change the planet - as any other species has throughout history.

Now there are other arguments (actually human-centric arguments) for being careful about our growth. But those arguments would balance our human needs with the consequences of growth. Those arguments would have to include our own human needs (and desires) for things like: freedom, and property, and personal security, and personal risk, and even ... fun.

Vancouver, BC - 2012/05/05

Simon Fraser University Award fund established in memory of fallen hang glider

Lenami Godinez-Avila Memorial Award Fund to support international students dedicated to environmental sustainability and community

Friends and family of Lenami Godinez-Avila are honouring her memory by creating a legacy in her name. Lenami Godinez-Avila Memorial Award Fund has been established in her memory to encourage international students with a passion for sustainability and community to pursue studies at Simon Fraser University (SFU).

On Saturday April 28th, 2012, the 27-year-old Vancouver resident was killed in a hang-gliding accident in Agassiz, BC.

In the years before her death, Lenami dreamed of establishing an award fund to help other international students realize their dreams to attend university abroad. To continue her legacy, Lenami's close friends and family have set up a memorial award fund in her name at SFU. With enough public support, the fund will become endowed and will provide annual scholarships for many years to come. Recipients of the award will be international female students who want to study at SFU. Those selected will demonstrate a passion for sustainability, a connection to community and the drive to work hard - core values that exemplified Lenami throughout her life.

Lenami was dedicating to bringing her passion for environmental sustainability to the community. She was involved in waste reduction projects for backyard composting and food scraps recycling, including the creation of compost Drop Spot, an initiative where apartment dwellers dropped off kitchen scraps to be composted at their local farmer's markets. She participated in the 2011 Multiple Sclerosis bike tour, and was also a regular donor to SFU's International Students' Emergency Assistance Fund.

Born in Mexico, Godinez-Avila came to Canada in 2003 to study at Simon Fraser University. Committed to staying connected to her roots, she graduated in 2006 with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Economics. At the time of her death, she worked in the BC Ministry of Environment.

[Tad Eareckson]

Toronto Sun - 2012/05/07

The Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada is launching its own investigation into the B.C. accident that killed Lenami Godinez-Avila.

The association has named industry standards expert Martin Henry as the official investigator.

So, HPAC...

01. Exactly what ARE "industry standards" on this issue?

USHGA - 1981/O5

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

02. Are Canadian "industry standards" the same as US "industry standards"?

03. WHY NOT?

04. What "industry standards" did you ensure that Jon Orders met when you qualified him?

05. Did you do anything to monitor him - OR ANYBODY ELSE - to ensure that your nonexistent "industry standards" were being complied with?

06. From what program did Martin graduate to to qualify him as an "industry standards expert"?

07. Jon didn't hook her in, didn't preflight, and didn't do a hook-in check - same way none of you stupid motherfuckers ever does a hook-in check. Just how long do you expect this thorough investigation to go on before he reaches those conclusions?

08. Has Industry Standards Expert Martin Henry ever heard of a hook-in check?

09. Will Industry Standards Expert Martin Henry promote hook-in checks AFTER completion of his thorough investigation into this needless fatality?

10. Google:

"failure to hook in" "Martin Henry"

11. Google:

"failure to hook in" "Tad Eareckson"

12. What do you think are the chances that Industry Standards Expert Martin Henry will find The Industry in any part responsible for Lenami's death?

13. Fuck you guys.

[Tad Eareckson]

Katie - 2012/05/05
Canada

How on earth does an instructor with sixteen years experience not check to ensure the harness is attached to the glider? Surely that's the first thing you check?

Yeah Katie, that was EXACTLY what he did for sixteen years. Immediately before getting in line to launch he'd check to ensure the harness was attached to he glider.

And in all that time he just forgot once. Excellent record. Given the amount of flying he was doing I'd say there was no freakin' way I could do a small fraction as well.

So sad, I can't imagine what was going through her mind as she was falling.

She was probably wishing that checking to ensure that the harness was attached to the glider was the LAST thing he had done.

But why would someone with an unblemished sixteen year record - someone that good - ever bother amending his routine with a check that's only gonna catch a problem once every sixteen years?