You are NEVER hooked in.

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
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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 »

Kelly Sinoski - 2012/05/03 23:00:08 UTC
Vancouver Sun

Out of Office: Godinez fatality

I'm away from the office and will not be checking my email until I return on Tuesday, May 15.
If you have an urgent news tip, please contact the Vancouver Sun news desk at:

sunnewstips@vancouversun.com

or call 604-605-2900. Otherwise, I will reply to your email when I return. Thanks and have a great day, Kelly
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 00:15:01 UTC

To: Tiffany Crawford

Sent the following to one of your colleagues about an hour and a quarter ago. Seems my timing left something to be desired.

---

http://www.kitestrings.org/post2068.html#p2068
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 14:35:02 UTC

RE: Godinez fatality

Hi Tad,

Thanks for your letter. I am interested in speaking with you today (FRIDAY) if possible, for a weekend story.

Are you free to speak for a 10 minutes or so by phone?

Thanks,
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 15:24:30 UTC

Re: phone call

Definitely.

***-***-**** - land
***-***-**** - cell

Apologies in advance for my cough.

Thanks.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 16:06:27 UTC

RE: phone call

Thanks. I'll be in touch with you most likely this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Take care of that cough!
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 18:16:09 UTC

a little background

I'll be available at the land line until 17:30 local / 14:30 Vancouver and out for dinner after that. I'll keep the cell phone on though until 20:00/17:00 but then will have to switch it off for a couple of hours or risk seriously pissing off the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (which I'll do anyway if I don't work really hard to stifle the cough (which I've gotten pretty good at over the course of the past year)).

I'll probably be back home around 22:45/19:45 and can talk late if that works.

And tomorrow is wide open.

A little background...

Early in 2009 I was asked by the USHPA Towing Committee Chairman to help him revise the aerotowing regulations - which, as they have always been, are riddled with huge, deadly, and deliberate loopholes designed to absolve the commercial operations and national organization of any responsibility when they negligently kill a student or rated pilot. The 2005/09/03 Jeremiah Thompson / Arlan Birkett Hang Glide Chicago tandem fatality is a classic example.

A recent comment on the revisions from one of the dinosaurs of the sport:

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=929
Training Manual Comments / Contribution
Bill Cummings - 2012/01/10 14:04:59 UTC
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Tad's procedures for aerotowing should become part of any training manual. Tad must have put hour upon hour of gathering together his written procedure.
But the reaction of the Towing Committee at the 2009 Spring Board of Directors meeting was to not even bother to read them or even contact me telling me they hadn't even bothered to read them.

At that point I was smoldering and made public a draft letter to the FAA and the US hang gliding machinery reacted as one might expect of any entity with closets stuffed with skeletons.
Perhaps a strongly worded letter from Tim (Tim Herr - USHPA lawyer) will do the trick. We can't force Tad to work within the USHPA framework but we can make it unpleasant and expensive for him if he chooses to makes derogatory and false statements about USHPA to the FAA he can't back up.
Sorry, I don't have a name or date to go with that one - but it's from a USHPA Director.
John Moody - 2010/02/03 09:09 UTC
Houston

Bob, I had already looked over the first two links you posted about the Capitol Hang Glider Association and knew that Tad was an active member in the early '90's and I had also looked over his Flickr pictures of releases. It was the third link that turned out to be the really good one. I read the whole thread from top to bottom, about a three hour chore for me and keeping score as it bounced from person to person was hard for a while. The one thing I found I could seriously relate to was Tad Eareckson. He is my newest Hero now.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876
Hang glider Crash
Helen McKerral - 2010/09/07 00:16:04 UTC
South Australia

There have been numerous threads in the past about unhooked launches and ways to prevent them. One constant poster, Tad, had an unfortunate brow-beating style that flooded threads and got him banned, but IMO his point was nonetheless valid; people simply got so annoyed by his style, they stopped listening and his message was lost.

Basically, the idea is that no matter whether you use the Aussie method or not (another emotive topic), or how you do your hang check (step through or hang, look, feel, whatever) the VERY LAST THING you do immediately before every launch is to lift the glider up off your shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and you FEEL the tug of your legloops around your groin/thighs.

More important, I think, is a change in mindset: that you constantly assume that you are NOT hooked in. That is the default mindset and only after you've done the lift and tug - immediately before every launch - do you decide you're hooked in. Also, because the default assumption is negative rather than positive, you are much less likely to start any run unhooked.

The way I've tried to incorporate it is to make L&T the first part of the physical act of lifting the glider to my shoulders in preparation for launch i.e. instead of lifting it to my shoulders, I lift it higher (L&T), then lower it to my shoulders, then start my run. In strong conditions this is more difficult but I often launch with a tight hangstrap then anyway (always in the Malibu, occasionally in the Litesport).

I've adopted the lift and tug but I'm an old dog learning a new trick and I still forget to do it some of the time. However, although I've found that it's very hard to remember to do if you try to remember 'L&T', if you change your mindset to, "I'm not hooked in", it's easier to recall. It would be easier if I had learned it from the start, so it was a physical muscle memory instilled from my first days on the training hill, just like the grapevine grip changing to bottle.

Even if you don't follow the "mindset" part, it's an extra layer of security and there is no possible harm in it if it is an *additional* check; for me, a third one after Aussie method (hook harness to glider), hang check (look at biner, feel loop and riser, tug each leg strap), then walk to launch, do whatever (wait, set glider down etc.) and then the final lift and tug as I pick up my glider immediately before I start my run.

I won't go into any more pros and cons of any of these things, they've been debated ad nauseam and every possible permutation has already been covered, just do a few searches.
Allen Sparks - 2010/09/07 01:03:18 UTC
Evergreen, Colorado

Oscar,

I'm very happy you weren't injured.

Helen,

Thanks for the Tad 'lift and tug' reminder.

I have launched unhooked and experienced the horror of hanging by my fingers over jagged rocks ... and the surreal result - i.e. not being significantly injured.

I am a firm believer in 'lift and tug' and the mindset of assuming I am not hooked in. It is motivated by the recurring memory of my own experience ... and the tragic deaths and life-altering injuries of good friends.
I'm a hero to the fraction of a percent of this sport that has a clue what's going on but I'm a whistleblower and the vast majority of this sport - from here to Europe to Australia and back to Canada hates my guts and my actions on this Lenami Godinez incident aren't gonna do anything for my popularity.

Anyway...

Looking forward to the conversation. I'm really hoping that you guys can do a Sixty Minutes expose which will either get these organizations to clean up their acts, destroy them, or do some combination of the two.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 02:44:57 UTC

odds and ends

Forgot to mention...

Steve Kinsley of Washington, DC is a hero on this issue. I'm very confident that he was the first person to understand and articulate that the hang check and any other preflight checks and procedures which reassure the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch increase the probability of him getting killed.
Steve Kinsley - 1998/02/02 01:59

I would like to second Judy's hook in post. I particularly like the emphasis on implementing the USHGA standard of verifying that you are hooked in just prior to launch. In practice, that means a visual check or a tug on the harness lines after ALL CHECKLIST ITEMS (including a hang check) have been completed.

I started doing that after my near launch unhooked from High Rock several years ago. It works. I think I have a reasonable claim to being the world's most scatterbrained living hang glider pilot. But I can say that I don't think I am going to get my lunch by failing to hook in. You should be able to say the same. I have special knowledge when it comes to forgetting things. So trust me here. You need to do this.
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.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153
Hooking In
Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC

I already see where the anger and grief take us. We need to do hang checks, double hang checks. And who was on Bill's wire crew? How could they let that happen?

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.

But what if there is no hang check and you are used to one?

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.
Here's an excellent reenactment of one of these devastating incidents which beautifully illustrates exactly why it's so dangerous to rely on a hang check for confirmation of connection status:

Rescue 911-Episode 415 "Hanging Hang Glider (Part 1)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls2QiDtSO7c
BeatleMoe - 2008/05/14
dead

(Doug Rice was the guy who signed me off on my Novice (level two) rating on 1980/04/07 and I worked with him as a junior instructor in the fall of that year.)

Part 2 if you're interested:

Rescue 911-Episode 415 "Hanging Hang Glider (Part 2)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX_6UZ2UWEE
BeatleMoe - 2008/05/14
dead

A collection of relatively inconsequential unhooked launches...

Crash delta remorque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0lvH-KxGlQ


Towing Foot Launch Collection Rigid Wing.mpg
5:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKebsmnVUk


Un-Hooked Aerotow Hang Glider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51qpPLz5U0


B FTHI @ Barker 11/6/2010
http://vimeo.com/16572582

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

Launching unhooked Hang Glider Crash.wmv
1:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JFe7rUCnc


Acidente asa delta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwbPK7sCCtk


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
ImageImage
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/12931220073_1609b59b17_o.png
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864885_3b8ca2da8c_o.png
ImageImage
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864870_2129572e3a_o.png
18-0919 - 21-1025

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL00UefQqZA
Forgot to clip into hang glider


The first glider off on this one:

Launch on Mingus 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEhuBU64t18


is Kunio Yoshimura. In year minus five days from that upload date he's gonna skip one hook-in check too many and die down the slope of that mountain with his horrified wife and kids watching. (The parachute almost opened in time.)

From Doug Hildreth, USHGA Accident Review Committee Chairman - 1981-1994
Doug Hildreth - 1981/04

Just before the first step of your launch run, lift the glider and make certain that the straps become tight when you do so.
Bull's-eye.
Doug Hildreth - 1988/11

1988/07/03 - George DePerrio - 62 - Advanced, ten plus years - Vision - Mount Saint Pierre, Quebec

Launched unhooked, fell over a hundred feet to steep shale slope. Many distractions and extenuating circumstances. Pilot who launched just before got blown back but was unhurt. Conditions were a little stronger than he was used to (his comment). An impressive tall site which he had not flown before. Backed off from launch to wait for better conditions, unhooked and forgot to hook up when he stepped back to launch.
Doug Hildreth - 1990/03

The other significant increase is in failure to hook in. Typically there are about the same number of non-hook-ins in the questionnaire group, so that it is safe to say that there were at least ten failures to hook in this year. It has occurred in the tandem sector too, both pilot and passenger.

The instructional programs to assure hook-in within fifteen seconds of launch have apparently not caught up with the masses.
1. Fifteen seconds is at least three times too long.

2. There were NEVER any instructional programs which taught this issue properly and virtually none which any attempt whatsoever.
Doug Hildreth - 1991/04

Werner Graf, a Long Beach, California pilot was vacationing in Switzerland in October 1990. He prepared to launch, but unhooked to adjust his camera. He then proceeded to launch without hooking back in.

Since this pilot was killed outside the United States he will not be counted as a U.S. fatality. But it should be noted that he is just as dead as he would be had it happened in the U.S., and we report it here to once again try to get everyone's attention about this extremely basic, but terribly serious mistake. You MUST ensure that you ARE hooked in within fifteen seconds of launch--EVERY TIME.
Joe Gregor - 2007/05
USHGA Accident Review Committee Chairman

Lesson learned: HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK!
Close friend of Steve Kinsley but - strangely - has never even heard of a hook-in check.
Subj: FTHI
Date: 2009/10/13 16:03:35 UTC
From: nick.greece@ushpa.aero
To--: TadErcksn@aol.com

Hi there,

Sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. Your ideas are being considered at the committee chair level. I sent your article to Joe Gregor, the safety chair, for comment and he will get back to you shortly.

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!

Nick
That was the last I ever heard from those ass covering bastards. If those ass covering bastards had published that article and started backing their own regulations there's a chance that the message might have filtered to your neck of the woods prior to last weekend.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25321
Stop the Stupids at the USHPA BOD meeting
Mark G. Forbes - 2011/09/29 02:26:23 UTC
USHPA:
- Treasurer
- Region 1 Director
- Elections and Allocations Committee Chair
- Insurance Committee Chair

We can establish rules which we think will improve pilot safety, but our attorney is right. USHPA is not in the business of keeping pilots "safe" and it can't be. Stepping into that morass is a recipe for extinction of our association. I wish it were not so, but it is. We don't sell equipment, we don't offer instruction, and we don't assure pilots that they'll be safe.
USHPA's current solution to the unhooked launch issue:

Pre Flight Safety for Hang Gliding - Revision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8qZESnFvQ

USHangGlidingParagli - 2011/02/23

Note that in the entire film not only is there zero mention of a hook-in check but there is not ONE SINGLE LAUNCH included which depicts ANY kind of prior check prior.

The first ten seconds of this video:

Dunlap 2-12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWbu0su1fA


constitute the best launch safety film ever made in the history of hang gliding.

The ten minutes and forty-two seconds of what USHPA put out are deadly rot.
USHPA UPDATE - 2012/03/30

Risk Assessments and Mitigation at Flying Sites and USHPA Chapter Events

In order to reduce the possibility of incidents involving bodily injury to pilots, spectators and the general public due to hang gliding and/or paragliding activities engaged in by members of USHPA, the USHPA Board of Directors adopted and is implementing the following Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan.

APPENDIX A

USHPA Flying Site Recommended Operating Guidelines

The official USHPA PILOT PROFICIENCY SYSTEM - Standard Operating Procedures - 12-2 remains the governing guideline for pilot proficiency and all USHPA Members and USHPA Chapters should conduct their flight operations in accordance with those standards.

USHPA recommends that each USHPA Member, whenever he flies, and each USHPA Chapter, in connection with the management of sites under their control, follow these guidelines in conducting flight operations. USHPA encourages each USHPA Member, whenever he flies, and each USHPA Chapter, to use, further enhance, and adapt these general recommendations, and add site specific operational guidelines to further increase spectator and pilot safety at the sites they fly and manage.

4. All pilots should perform a harness connection check before launching.
Note that the official USHPA PILOT PROFICIENCY SYSTEM - Standard Operating Procedures - 12-2 states:
With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
But now it's just something that all pilots SHOULD DO (if it's not too much trouble) whenever they feel like it - five, ten, fifteen minutes before launch, whenever.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13132
Unhooked Death Again - Change our Methods Now?
Quinn Cornwell - 2009/01/24 19:57:03 UTC
HPAC Accident Review and Safety Committee Chairman

No, don't think about the jagged boulders. That'll mess with your head. Don't ever tell pilots to think about "Oh, if you screw this up, you'll crash and burn into those jagged rocks down there, so make sure you don't screw this up." This sort of psychology is detrimental. It's good to be conscience of the dangers in hang gliding, pointing this out right before you start running is just plain stupid.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15337
unhooked take off clip
Quinn Cornwell - 2010/02/11 19:50:00 UTC
Tad Eareckson - 2010/02/11 12:30:15 UTC

But you're not gonna do it, are ya Quinn? You're not EVER gonna do 'cause it just isn't what you were taught.
I didn't say that.

Are you saying if someone isn't taught something, they just won't use it despite hearing it outside their learning environment (say a course)? That's preposterous.
Tad Eareckson - 2010/02/12 21:08:45 UTC

Yeah, I'm afraid I pretty much AM saying that.

Ten years ago I was still naive and stupid enough to believe otherwise but not anymore.

Not after thirty years of seeing people continuing to get killed for the same stupid and easily correctable reasons with our culture flat out refusing to implement such cheap (in this case free), obvious, and spelled out in black and white fixes.
I was up at launch in Oz when I did a hang check for a guy getting ready to launch (in line). He didn't have his leg loops in. Might have been deadly, might not have... but he was doing it the Aussie way.
Notice that this guy was going Aussie and missed both loops whereas Norm just missed one but caught it with lift and tug?
I didn't say that.
Well what ARE you saying? I've NEVER heard you either say you'll do it or give me one good reason not to.

Will you just do it ONCE on your next launch? OK then, how 'bout you just suit up in the setup area and do a dry run? Don't do it for me - do it for Doug Hildreth, Rob Kells, or Bill Priday. It could give you AIDS but I think the chances are slim.

This is a global problem we could eliminate as effectively as smallpox but it doesn't start working until we get a critical mass of the population vaccinated.
Quinn Cornwell - 2010/02/13 03:44:56 UTC

Sure, and I'll video tape it and post it here.
But Quinn HPAC-Accident-Review-and-Safety-Committee-Chairman Cornwell, didn't. And now the RCMP have a couple of videos depicting most of the last few seconds of Lenami's life because an HPAC certified tandem instructor also thought that he could use preflight procedures effectively enough to eliminate the hook-in check as the first action of his launch sequence.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27538
Unhooked - A Human Error Trap
Robotham - 2012/05/04 17:08:56 UTC

I know your system works because I've done it for the last 28 years.

Unfortunately your procedure is too simple and logical for most people, they want elaborate procedures and endless reams of redundant equipment.
Thanks much for taking the time to understand this issue. It sure would've been nice if the people who've been running this sport for the last three decades would've done as much.

Tad
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 13:58:49 UTC

RE: odds and ends

Hi Tad,

Thanks for this. It helps me explain it all a little better. I need to keep it simple so the general population understands the difference between doing a hang check and then doing a last minute hook-in check. I was diverted onto a breaking news story yesterday so I didn't finish the story.

I will heading back into the office today to complete it. I'll send you a rough draft of your comments later this morning.

Cheers,
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 17:07:54 UTC

Re: "last minute"

Thanks for getting back to me but lemme emphasize one thing...

That trick, walking to the next room to retrieve something, arriving at the door, and having absolutely no idea what it is you you're looking for, which ALL OF US do about five or ten times a week, takes SECONDS.

I did a trial run yesterday from the kitchen table to the bedroom doorway and at a comfortable pace and we're talking well under ten seconds for our brains to turn to totally useless mush.

I can't cite any actual data but it's a pretty good bet that there have been people who were connected to their gliders sixty seconds before launch and managed to run off the hill without them.

Stare at the clock on your computer display and wait for sixty seconds to tick by. That exercise can get real boring.

When I'm standing on the edge of a cliff without enough wind to float the glider and waiting for a good puff of air to come in I'm constantly verifying my connection.

I think:
- Lift the glider.
- OK, you're connected.
- Am I really connected? Did I do that check a few seconds ago?
- Yeah, probably, but, what the hell, let's check it again.

Over and over and over until the instant I commit.

It becomes a sort of nervous fidgeting you do while awaiting a cycle.

Excellent example here:

CRV Speed Gliding launch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7Ym4O38SA


The pilot is Chris Valley and he's a real long way from making it onto my list of favorite people but he's one of the very few who has his head wired exactly right on this issue.

Tandem pilots are gonna have more problems verifying themselves AND their passengers but SOME KIND OF CHECK should be conducted within no more that five or ten seconds of launch.

It could be something as simple as using another pilot or briefed spectator to give a verbal confirmation.

"Carabiners - pilot and passenger - engaged?"

"Affirmative."

Ten seconds go by - DO IT AGAIN.

As far as getting this concept of hang check versus hook-in check to the general public is concerned...
Jesse Bruce Benson - 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.
1. The hang check (or whatever else one does prior to arriving at launch) is a component - usually the last - of one's ASSEMBLY and PREFLIGHT procedures and MUST NOT be used to reassure the pilot he will be connected at the moment of launch.

2. The function of the hook-in check is ONLY to verify the connection and nothing more and is ALWAYS the first component of one's LAUNCH SEQUENCE.

3. Recognizing that foot launching a hang glider is the equivalent of pointing a gun at your (or your passenger's head and pulling the trigger is my proudest accomplishment in hang gliding.

- If I can get that point across to one percent of the glider crowd you should have no problem with at least 95 percent of the general public.

- A tensioned (assembled and ready to fly) glider is the equivalent of a loaded gun. It can kill you in a New York minute (two seconds Vancouver) if you're wrong about connection status upon commitment to launch.

- Fully engaging the carabiner(s) to the suspension is equivalent to flipping the safety on.

- Sometimes people forget to flip the safety on when they're getting the gun prepped.

- There are also valid reasons (rabid wolves and bears) which cause people to flip the safety off between preparation and showtime.

- At showtime - even thought the pilot is "POSITIVE" the safety is on and functional he points the gun at the ground and gives the trigger a good pull.

- Then - and ONLY then - does he point it at his (and, where applicable, his passenger's) head and pull the trigger.

- If there's a delay of five or ten seconds he points it at the ground AGAIN and pulls the trigger.

- And we need EVERYBODY - launching pilots, students, passengers, assisting pilots, commandeered crew - to make sure that this happens - EVERY TIME.

- And if the CHECK is missed - EVER - the flight should be considered AND REPORTED as a fatality for the purpose of the exercise.

That's the only good shot we have at preventing our next regularly scheduled fatality.

Thanks in advance for the draft. I'll keep my ear to the wire and get on it as soon as possible.

If you've got any slack time I've posted the article which I submitted for publication in the national magazine in 2009 at:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post2088.html#p2087

Staying tuned,
Tad
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 17:24:30 UTC

RE: "last minute"

Hi Tad,

Thanks for elaborating on this point. I wish I could put it all in a story unfortunately I have very a very tight word count allowance.

Here is a rough draft that I said you could see just to verify the wording is correct. There is much more I would like to talk about however again because of space constraints I am unable to. I just wanted to get the point across about the last-minute checks and how they could save lives.

---

Hang gliding tragedies like the one that claimed the life of a young woman in the Fraser Valley last weekend could be prevented if pilots were required to do last minute checks immediately before launch, says a former instructor with nearly three decades of experience.

Hang gliding pilots tend to assume everything is okay as long as they've done a hang check, says Tad Eareckson, an American hang glider who practised the sport from 1980 to 2008. Hang-checks, which are part of a pre-flight checklist, involve the passenger and the pilot lying down while another person holds the glider to confirm that that the suspension system is correctly fastened."

But Eareckson argues that hang checks are not enough because, after they're completed, anything can happen during the time before the launch.

The problem, he says, is that the hang check and any other preflight checks reassures the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch.

He cited an incident where a pilot had dropped his helmet while waiting in line to launch so he unhooked himself to retrieve it. He then forgot to rehook the harness.

Eareckson compared the problem with that "scatterbrain" human experience of going into a room and then forgetting why you went in there.

"When you check at the moment before launch it is muscle memory. There are a lot of things going on at launch and [the pilot] may remember hooking back in -- but that may have been a memory from last weekend," said Eareckson, in an interview from Maryland,

Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell about 300 metres to her death last Saturday, shortly after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley. Tandem flights involve two people strapped to each other.

The pilot, William Jonathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a card that may contain video evidence of the incident. During a court appearance Friday, the man's lawyer told reporters that police have recovered the memory card.

The cause of Godinez-Avila's death is still under investigation by the BC Coroners Service.

Nothing has been proven in court.

The incident has ignited debate over how safe the sport is and whether government bodies -- such as the Transportation Safety Board -- should regulate the industry. In Canada, the industry is self-regulated by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.

Eareckson's push to get the industry to adopt his verification immediately prior to launch idea seems simple enough but he says it has been met with controversy.

The last thing a pilot should do is what Eareckson calls "the lift and tug," a procedure which involves lifting the glider off the shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and the pilot is then assured of being hooked in.

"If you feel the tug then you are connected to glider. Once I learned that action proceeded every launch for my entire career.

When asked about whether pilots should be doing a last minute verification check, Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliders and Paragliders Association of Canada, said "that might be a good idea."

He said the association had begun contacting all schools and senior pilots since the accident and asking them for suggestions to improve safety practices. The association is also investigating the accident and has suspended Orders' tandem instructor certification,

He did not know when the association would make any possible safety recommendations.

"It's a large task and everyone has their twist on things - there are a lot of good ideas out there," he said. He noted that another idea would be for tandem pilots to vocalize the process to the passenger as they are doing their final checks.

The association maintains the sport is safe and that there are very few fatalities.

Yet Eareckson argues it's not safe, and says it's precisely that attitude that keeps the industry from doing last minute verification checks.

For the length of his hang gliding career, Eareckson said whenever he would launch he always assumed he might die when he flew off the cliff. "You need to be thinking about those jagged rocks. You've got to be scared," he said.

"It's a loaded gun issue. Assume the gun is loaded so don't point it at your head. That has to be the assumption when you are launching off a glider. You must always assume you are not hooked in."

Orders owns Vancouver Hang Gliding and has 16 years of experience as a hang-glider. He was certified in 2009 as a tandem instructor.

A video on Orders' website shows a hang glider, taking off without doing a verification check, but that is acceptable among industry professionals because it is not included on the preflight checklist.

Eareckson contends that the only way to ensure proper checks are done is for the industry to be held accountable by a government agency. The government not the association should provide regulations and have the power to revoke certification, he said. Warner would not comment on whether Transportation Canada should regulate hang gliding.

Meanwhile, about 30 hang gliding pilots from across the Fraser Valley on Saturday attended a memorial service for Godinez-Avila at the site of the accident.

"It was really emotional," said Warner, who attended the service. He said one pilot played the saxophone while others laid flowers. "The word among pilots is she tried something we all love -- and embraced it with open eyes and an open heart -- so we embraced her as one of our own. So it is like losing a pilot and we feel that pain."

Godinez-Avila's family was not present at the memorial, he said.

Godinez-Avila was celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend with hang-gliding flights. Police have said the boyfriend was waiting for his turn to a ride last Saturday afternoon when he watched Godinez-Avila fall.

Her body was found later that day after a search in a heavily wooded area.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 18:17:04 UTC

How's this?

---

Hang gliding tragedies like the one that claimed the life of a young woman in the Fraser Valley last weekend could be prevented if pilots were required to do last instant checks immediately before launch, says a former instructor with nearly three decades of experience.

Since 1981/05 the United States Hang Gliding Association's regulations have included a provision for all flights for all ratings stating that:

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

Hang gliding pilots are almost always trained to assume everything is okay as long as they've done a hang check, says Tad Eareckson, an American hang glider who practised the sport from 1980 to 2008. The hang-checks, which may be part of a preflight checklist or procedure, involve the passenger and the pilot lying down while another person holds the glider to confirm that the suspension system is correctly fastened.

But Eareckson says that while the stated intent of the requirement is that a hook-in check - other than a hang check - be conducted at the position and moment of launch to immunize the pilot from the inevitable lapses of memory and distractions which occur while preparing to launch, the revision was never implemented or enforced on any meaningful scale.

The problem, he says, is that the hang check and any other preflight checks are being used to reassure the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch.

He cited an incident in which a pilot's helmet had slid out of reach during launch preparations so he unhooked himself to retrieve it. He then forgot to reconnect the harness.

Eareckson compared the problem with that "scatterbrain" human experience of going into a room and then forgetting why you went in there.

"When you check at the moment before launch it is muscle memory. There are a lot of things going on at launch and [the pilot] may remember hooking in -- but that may have been a memory from last weekend," said Eareckson, in an interview from Maryland.

Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell about 300 metres to her death last Saturday, shortly after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley. Tandem flights involve two people suspended from the glider.

The pilot, William Jonathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a card that may contain video evidence of the incident. During a court appearance Friday, the man's lawyer told reporters that police have recovered the memory card.

The cause of Godinez-Avila's death is still under investigation by the BC Coroners Service.

Nothing has been proven in court.

The incident has ignited debate over how safe the sport is and whether government bodies -- such as the Transportation Safety Board -- should regulate the industry. In Canada, the industry is self-regulated by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.

Eareckson's push to get the industry to implement the requirement of verification immediately prior to launch seems simple enough but he says it is widely met with hostility.

The last thing a pilot should do, when possible, is what Eareckson calls a "lift and tug," a procedure which involves lifting the glider off the shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and the pilot is then assured of being hooked in.

"If you feel the tug then you are connected to the glider. Once I learned that action it preceded every foot launch for my entire career. This action is not possible for all gliders in all circumstances but it is critical that SOME last moment check be performed.

When asked about whether pilots should be doing a last minute verification check, Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said "that might be a good idea."

He said the association had begun contacting all schools and senior pilots since the accident and asking them for suggestions to improve safety practices. The association is also investigating the accident and has suspended Orders' tandem instructor certification.

He did not know when the association would make any possible safety recommendations.

"It's a large task and everyone has their twist on things - there are a lot of good ideas out there," he said. He noted that another idea would be for tandem pilots to vocalize the process to the passenger as they are doing their final checks.

The association maintains the sport is safe and that there are very few fatalities.

Yet Eareckson argues it's not safe, and says it's precisely that attitude that keeps the industry from doing last minute verification checks.

For the length of his hang gliding career, Eareckson said whenever he would launch he always assumed he might die when he ran off the cliff. "You need to be thinking about those jagged rocks. You've got to be scared," he said.

"It's a loaded gun issue. You have a loaded gun you're about to aim at your head and attempt to fire. Point it at the ground first and pull the trigger to verify that the safety's on. You must always assume you are not hooked in and check to make sure you're wrong."

Orders owns Vancouver Hang Gliding and has 16 years of experience as a hang-glider. He was certified in 2009 as a tandem instructor.

A video on Orders' website shows a hang glider, taking off without doing a verification check, but that is acceptable in Canadian hang gliding because no such requirement exists.

Eareckson contends that if the industry finds it unable to implement this procedure then it doesn't deserve to continue to be self regulated.

Warner would not comment on whether Transportation Canada should regulate hang gliding.

Meanwhile, about 30 hang gliding pilots from across the Fraser Valley on Saturday attended a memorial service for Godinez-Avila at the site of the accident.

"It was really emotional," said Warner, who attended the service. He said one pilot played the saxophone while others laid flowers. "The word among pilots is she tried something we all love -- and embraced it with open eyes and an open heart -- so we embraced her as one of our own. So it is like losing a pilot and we feel that pain."

Godinez-Avila's family was not present at the memorial, he said.

Godinez-Avila was celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend with hang-gliding flights. Police have said the boyfriend was waiting for his turn to a ride last Saturday afternoon when he watched Godinez-Avila fall.

Her body was found later that day after a search in a heavily wooded area.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 18:41:46 UTC

more odds and ends

Just wanted to make it real clear that this lift and tug / hook-in check idea and practice preceded my entry into the sport and this is not MY idea. MY idea is that our national hang gliding organization should start adhering to some of its own regulations and stop pretending they don't exist.

I may have misspoken yesterday about government regulation because - while "self regulation" may have been a dismal failure to date, I'm not the least bit convinced that government would do any better.

And where government HAS gotten involved in hang gliding in the US, all it did was make things more expensive while doing NOTHING to address some really deadly problems.

However, if these organizations are unable to implement procedures then the sport needs to be strangled. Some people will die no matter how well the acts are cleaned up but there's no excuse for continuing to kill people like Eleni and Lenami when the fixes are free and so incredibly brain dead easy.

P.S. I'm already the most hated person in hang gliding on at least a couple of continents. I'm expecting some pretty vicious attacks upon publication. But... what the hell, I'm pretty used to them.

P.P.S. Check the punctuation with respect to quotes and apostrophes. I rushed and just threw in the vanilla ones.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 23:12:17 UTC

RE: more odds and ends

Hi Tad,

I do have it in my notes that you favoured government regulation but that's ok if you don't feel that way we won't put it in the story.

I have sent your concerns outlined in this email to the editing desk. Unfortunately I am travelling and not in the office because my aunt had a heart attack and I'm heading to another city to be with my family in hospital. I am, however in constant contact with the desk and I have asked them to take out the part where you say you want government regulation.

Thanks
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/07 00:36:47 UTC

Re: regulation

I probably spoke a little too quickly/broadly out of the anger and frustration I'm feeling with this one of many hang gliding issues but the sport has been getting better and better over its history of dodging accountability and shirking it's duty to protect its pilots and the public.

It's a very long record of good accident review chairmen being pressured to dumb down reports, paint the dead guy as a moron so incompetent that nobody with a functional brain could EVER find himself in similar circumstances, and suppress ANY information which puts an instructor, school, or operation in less than dazzling light.

Self regulation is an inherently bad and corrupting idea. I don't hafta tell you what happens when coal mines, offshore oil rigs, and Wall Street operate without oversight and enforcement. It always helps things a bit for a while when somebody up the ladder goes to prison.

USHPA and little brother HPAC are in some desperate need of some daylight, shakeups, and FEAR.

What I wrote in the revision...
Eareckson contends that if the industry finds it unable to implement this procedure then it doesn't deserve to continue to be self regulated.
...is a good statement of my position.

(Any chance I could get another review of the article before it hits the wire?)

If you get bored:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post1455.html#p1455

Some of this kinda thing goes WAY back.

Very sorry to hear of your family situation. Best wishes for as good an outcome as possible.

Thanks again for your interest in something we CAN easily fix.
Tad
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/07 21:32:37

another analogy

Launching without a hook-in check immediately prior is like standing on the shoulder of a highway and running across without looking both ways for traffic a couple of seconds before.

One might get away with doing the highway trick as many as three or four times before getting killed.

Since those odds totally suck NOBODY - over the age of about four or five - EVER runs across the highway without checking both directions immediately prior.

And ALL ten percent or more responsible adults start conditioning ALL kids old enough to walk to stop and look both ways EVERY TIME before crossing a street.

The problems with hang gliding are that...

1. The "adults" running it are only about five percent responsible - at best.

2. Preflight procedures can reduce the probability (made up numbers) of getting:
-a) a near miss to one in about five hundred
-b) knocked down and bruised by a car screeching to a halt to one in a thousand
-c) seriously injured to one in five thousand
-d) killed to one in twenty thousand

3. So why bother fixing a problem that's only fatal on 0.0005 percent of foot launches?

4. And if a pilot career includes five hundred foot launches his chances of getting killed are only one in forty.

5. So just encourage everybody to do better preflight procedures.

6. And screw looking both ways for traffic before running across - just not that big a deal.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/09 14:45:00 UTC

sunnewstips@vancouversun.com
ticrawford@vancouversun.com

weekends / hang gliding
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 14:35:02 UTC

Hi Tad,

Thanks for your letter. I am interested in speaking with you today (FRIDAY) if possible, for a weekend story.
In the US when people say "weekend" they usually mean Saturday and Sunday, maybe with a Friday or Monday, occasionally both tacked on. Very few people will include a Tuesday or Wednesday.

It has now been eleven days - including most of one and all of another weekend - since a 27 year old girl was killed by the aviation equivalent of a drunk driver - someone too mentally impaired to perform his job safely.

In this case the mental impairment was the result, not of an introduced chemical substance, but of the training he received from the regulatory agency for that flavor of aviation in Canada - the regulatory agency which teaches its drivers to pause at the intersection of a highway, then accelerate across it without looking both ways first 'cause there's hardly ever anything coming.

I have worked my ass off for years fighting drunk drivers clubs like:

- United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
- Capitol Hang Gliders Association
- Maryland Hang Gliding Association
- Houston Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
- Highland Aerosports
- Blue Sky Hang Gliding School
- Lookout Mountain Flight Park
- Hang Gliding Federation of Australia
- Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada
- Wills Wing
- The Oz Report
- HangGliding.org

to try to prevent Kunio Yoshimura, Yossi Tsarfaty, and Lenami Godinez-Avila from happening with...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/
Houston Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
Zack C - 2010/10/15 13:25:50 UTC
Houston

Speaking of which, while I can fault Tad's approach, I can't fault his logic, nor have I seen anyone here try to refute it. You may not like the messenger, but that is no reason to reject the message.

Sunday I performed a hang check at Pack, stepped onto the ramp, and proceeded to wait for a lull in which to launch. Due to this discussion I realized at this point how dangerous it was for me to assume I was hooked in. It's like assuming it's OK to lock your car because you remember putting your keys in your pocket a few minutes ago, only the consequences of being wrong are much worse than a call to AAA.
Zack C - 2010/12/13 04:58:15 UTC

I had a very different mindset too back then and trusted the people that made my equipment. Since then I've realized (largely due to this discussion) that while I can certainly consider the advice of others, I can't trust anyone in this sport but myself (and maybe the people at Wills Wing).
...some small measure of success.

But the Drunk Drivers Club has a lot more power than logic, common sense, and Yours Truly ever will so two weekends ago in your backyard another life was needlessly lost and a whole bunch of other ones were irreparably devastated in a very dramatic fashion which inspired a global/viral response from the press.

I felt that this would be an excellent better-late-than-never opportunity to expose the incompetence, apathy, stupidity, callousness, hypocrisy, corruption of the Drunk Drivers Club, contacted your newspaper and worked my ass off for days to educate you on the dynamics, psychology, logic, history of this issue and foolishly allowed myself to believe that you weren't just wasting my time and would be doing something more professional than publishing quotes from the lying Drunk Drivers Club morons most responsible for this latest catastrophe.

YOUR JOB is to investigate issues and INFORM the PUBLIC. I did your job for you, complete with links for independent, verifiable, corroborative sources, and handed it to you on a silver platter - exclusively and FOR FREE.

And all I've seen your paper are more fluffy reruns of the self serving crap that the Drunk Drivers Club officials are feeding everyone.

And that rerun crap you keep circulating just helps increase the chances that tomorrow some other family is gonna get a phone call informing them that their daughter's body was just recovered from the slope a thousand feet below takeoff altitude.

And if I don't hear something back from you guys REAL SOON and REAL SUBSTANTIVE to indicate your intention of DOING YOUR JOB ethically and competently I'm gonna start reprioritizing a few things. And the results of those efforts might show up down the road a bit in the criminal procedures which WILL happen and the civil actions very likely to happen.

Sincerely.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/09 14:58:29 UTC

RE: weekends / hang gliding

Tad,

Please note that I have been away from the office because of a family tragedy.

However, for your information, I wrote a full story on this. I also came in on my day off on Sunday to make sure it was completed because I had three other assignments on the weekend that took precedent. The story was filed and edited on Sunday. But an editorial decision was made to hold the story and instead the paper ran a different story by a different reporter about the memorial service instead. This was not my decision and it is the type of decision that is made very often in the news business industry. Please do not send me threatening letters.

Thank-you,
Tiffany Crawford
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/09 17:18:31 UTC

sunnewstips@vancouversun.com
ticrawford@vancouversun.com

hook-in check issue

01. Sounds like your aunt died. I'm very sorry.

02. My letter was intended for The Vancouver Sun organization of which you are a part but not you personally.

03. I'm a lot happier when people keep me informed - by ANYONE - about what's going on.

04. Sunday I raced through an edit of the draft under the impression that time was a big issue.

05. The editorial decision was a REALLY BAD ONE.

06. The editorial decision to continue the hold is another REALLY REALLY BAD ONE.

07. Here's the last time I heard from a print publication about an editorial decision on this issue:
Subj: FTHI
Date: 2009/10/13 16:03:35 UTC
From: nick.greece@ushpa.aero
To--: TadErcksn@aol.com

Hi there,

Sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. Your ideas are being considered at the committee chair level. I sent your article to Joe Gregor, the safety chair, for comment and he will get back to you shortly.

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!

Nick
Still waitin' to hear back from my old flyin' buddy Joe. So I get a bit of a short fuse when I don't hear things from people over a time span I consider to be "short".

08. The two big international hang gliding forums are the Oz Report and HangGliding.org.

Here's a fairly recent post from one of the two administrators of the Oz Report:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25129
Ridgerodent gone?
Davis Straub - 2011/09/10 04:47:32 UTC

Nothing from me or Scare. I did lock down two threads though. One had a link to a Tad thingy.
Davis is scum and "Scare", Gerry Grossnegger, the other administrator, is useless - and a former president of the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada and someone with whom I've had fairly extensive but fruitless personal correspondence on safety issues.

And from "Mission Statement and Site rules for HangGliding.org":
No posts or links about Bob K(uczewski), Scott C Wise, Tad Eareckson and related people, or their material. ALL SUCH POSTS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED. These people are poison to this sport and are permanently banned from this site in every possible way imaginable.
And I'm getting a bit tired of having this message suppressed.

09. When I Google:

"Lenami Godinez" "hook-in check"

I get TWO returns - one to HangGliding.org and the other to my own forum. The mainstream press has totally and globally dropped the ball on this.

10. I'm not threatening to kill your dog. But I am saying that:

- the "editorial decision" to hold or pull that article - or even include MENTION of the hook-in check issue - was inexcusable;

- if I don't get a guarantee that something solid on the hook-in check issue - with or without my name attached to it - will hit the wire REAL SOON I'm gonna try to find another mainstream media organization in which the editorial decisions DON'T suck;

- and I'm probably not gonna be too shy about expressing my sentiments about the way The Vancouver Sun has handled this issue.

P.S. Please understand that it ain't no fun being a whistleblower no matter who you are are what the issues are. But I don't have a problem with my conscience for not making every humanly possible effort to prevent the tragedy at Mount Woodside two Saturdays ago.
User avatar
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=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.
Mike Bastan (Spitfire) - 2012/05/02 17:44:44 UTC
Los Angeles

Maybe because I'm a newer pilot, hook-in checks have been ingrained in me.
Bullshit. Hook-in checks get ingrained by programs which teach hook-in checks. And I don't know of ANY program that does an acceptable job - and precious few which make any pretense whatsoever.
A bit like driving without a seatbelt, it would feel wrong to me and I'd instantly know something was missing, because I've always been taught to use it. For drivers from an era where cars didn't have seatbelts, it might be hard to get this ingrained.
The era when it wasn't mandatory to teach hook-in checks ended thirty-one years ago. How many people do you know who started over thirty-one years ago?
Manta_Dreaming - 2012/05/03 08:01:32 UTC

If you travel abroad today, there are still countries trying to reinvent the seatbelt - they don't learn from those who've already been down that path.

It's no accident that hook-in checks are so ingrained into you and many other newer pilots.
I'm not seeing it.
For this you can thank the efforts of the longtime pilots who have watched in horror at fatal accidents, lucky saves, or they themselves being in a bad situation. They want to spare you and the rest of us the pain and heartbreak others have endured.
1. Just how much effort...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876
Hang glider Crash
Allen Sparks - 2010/09/07 01:03:18 UTC
Evergreen, Colorado

Oscar,

I'm very happy you weren't injured.

Helen,

Thanks for the Tad 'lift and tug' reminder.

I have launched unhooked and experienced the horror of hanging by my fingers over jagged rocks ... and the surreal result - i.e. not being significantly injured.

I am a firm believer in 'lift and tug' and the mindset of assuming I am not hooked in. It is motivated by the recurring memory of my own experience ... and the tragic deaths and life-altering injuries of good friends.
...has Allen made? One comment, no video evidence that I've ever seen that he's actually ever done a hook-in check, plenty of video evidence that he's NOT doing them.

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI
Rick Masters - 2011/10/26 23:07:48 UTC

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.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
2. Fuck Rick Masters. He's too busy telling everyone what death traps paragliders are to tighten his suspension just prior to launch - but somehow finds time to dissuade others from doing it.

3. The last fatal we had was Yossi Tsarfaty - 2011/04/09. How longtime a pilot does one need to be to remember that one?

4. Do we hafta WATCH fatal accidents in horror for the message to get through? Is there some reason we can't just read about something that happened thirty-five years ago to get a fuckin' clue?

5. Fuck longtime pilots. If they were actually making any efforts to push hook-in checks people wouldn't still be plummeting from gliders at the same rate they always have.
As I recall, the hook-in check was developed and heavily promoted by Pat Denevan as the result of his own bad experiences or knowledge of horrible accidents like this one was.
1. The earliest reference I can find to a hook-in check is 1977/10. I've never before heard that this was something hitherto unknown that Pat cooked up.

2. You quote me ONE word in the magazine or out of a forum from that sonuvabitch was EVER pushing the hook-in check.
Rob Kells - 2005/12

Mission's Pat Denevan teaches a hook-in check, which is the "lift the glider to feel the leg loops go tight" method I outlined above. He adds that he teaches his students to repeat it if they do not launch within fifteen seconds.
3. A hook-in check is something that happens JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH. Pat doesn't teach them.
Hopefully we can all be safer by understanding why these accidents happen and how to mitigate the risks so that we can maximize the enjoyment of flight.
1. The ONLY reason these "ACCIDENTS" happen is because the vast majority of "us" flat out REFUSE to do hook-in checks.

2. The tiny minority of us who actually DO hook-in checks don't mitigate the risk - we eliminate it.

3. At this point I have very little hope left that the situation will improve beyond what it is now and always has been - mostly thanks to the scumbags who control this sport.
CNN - 2012/05/04 18:58

Pat Denevan, longtime hang-gliding instructor and the owner of San Francisco Hang Gliding Center and the Mission Soaring Center in California, said people who go hang gliding wear a harness. A strap from the harness is then clipped into a main "hang loop" on the glider's frame, using a mountaineering carabiner, he said.

A strap also is clipped to a backup loop, Denevan said. The straps are able to take thousands of pounds of force, and gliders are "good for six times the force of gravity," he said.
1. Well, it's really good to know how many thousands of pounds the straps can take and that they're BACKED UP in case they can't.
2. And the gliders can pull six Gs. Knowing that will sure make me sleep a lot better tonight.
3. So what the fuck does any of that hafta do with the issue at hand?
"It's up to the instructor to check that he's hooked in and that his passenger is hooked in before he takes off," Denevan said of the typical tandem hang gliding flight. "This is standard procedure."
1. Really? No shit? I always thought it was up to the nearest ground squirrel.
2. Really great job heavily promoting the hook-in check as the result of your knowledge of horrible accidents like this one was.
3. Wanna say anything about the USHGA STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE for foot launching hang gliders?
4. Get fucked.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26007
THE CODE AMONGST ALL PILOTS
GC3 - 2012/05/13 15:03:44 UTC
Florida

I'll just add:

When you see a pilot doing his own check, DON'T INTERRUPT HIM -- not even with a friendly "Have a great flight dude." We all joke, laugh, and kid around (we are crazy, after all!), but wing and hang checks should be solemn times.

And if someone interrupts you in your own check, start over. At several thousand feet, you don't want to be asking questions that begin with "Did I remember to ..."

If someone's finished their check and they don't seem to have anyone around helping them, then I agree with the other posts that we should all donate a minute or two for the good of our brothers/sisters to offer to do another check for them. I have never been turned down when I've offered, and always been thanked afterwards. Oh, and I HAVE found things that were missed, usually followed by an even bigger 'thank you'!

Likewise, my own comfort level always goes up when another pilot offers to check my rig before I fly as well. (Now, I will say that when you are helping another pilot, especially when they are about ready to launch, don't touch anything, just talk. If you see something that concerns you, tell him, and offer to help.)

Flying safe is more fun than ... the alternative.

--Glenn
Everyone who's ever ended up as a battered lifeless heap on the slope below launch...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.
Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC

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.
...had a comfort level from fair to excellent a few seconds earlier.
The Vancouver Sun - 2012/05/07

On the morning of April 28, the couple's faces conveyed nothing but "joyous expectation" as they soaked in the view atop Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley, recalled Nicole McLearn, who was there radio-coaching some paragliders.

Their eyes "lit up," she said, when she pointed out a paraglider sailing above their heads.
That's how come I always stay scared shitless until it's too late to do anything about doing anything. Then I let my comfort level start creeping up a bit.

Good thing you live in Florida. Your chances with dolly launch aerotow are considerably better - even if you do fly with Industry Standard equipment.
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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 »

Star FM - 2012/04/28

Jason Warner, who is the safety director for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, tells our sister station News 1130 that the pilot was experienced, and is obviously distraught by what has happened. He says it's actually a very safe sport, and it's a shock when something this rare happens.
1. Yeah Jason. A VERY SAFE sport. And a real shock when a Vancouver tandem pilot drops a twenty-something year old chick to her death for the second time in an eight year and thirty day period. What are the odds of something like that!

2. What kind of idiot who's been around hang gliding for more than a half hour or so thinks this is a safe sport?

3. A REAL safety officer - like Doug Hildreth - would NEVER tell anyone this is a safe sport. You're not a safety officer - you're a goddam sales representative.
The Province - 2012/04/29
Katie Mercer

"Within thirty seconds of takeoff, the pilot realized something was wrong" and tried to wrap his legs and desperately hold on to the passenger, said Jason Warner, spokesman for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC).
1. Within only thirty seconds of takeoff, the pilot realized something was wrong? Real quick reflexes.
2. Within how long did the passenger and everyone on launch realize something was wrong?
3. What's the world record for length of time it took for everybody on a hang glider to realize that someone wasn't hooked in?
"[The pilot] tried everything."
1. What kinds of things did [the pilot] try BEFORE the launch?
2. What kinds of things does [the pilot] NORMALLY try BEFORE launches?
3. What are the HPAC Standard Operating Procedures for [the pilot] to verify BEFORE launches?
AVweb - 2012/04/29

Warner said the instructor has more than ten years of experience as a pilot and has flown tandem many times. He said the association will review its safety standards in light of the tragedy...
Any chance WE can review the standards? Wanna give us some hint of just what they are?
...and has already issued a recommendation that pilots employ a buddy system to double-check gear before flight.
1. Have you already issued a recommendation that pilots double-check their OWN goddam gear IMMEDIATELY before launch?

2. Have you already issued a recommendation that pilots scrub flights unless there are other pilots around to be their buddies?

3. Are pilot buddies gonna advance to launch side by side and go off the slope at the same time the way scuba divers go over the side of the boat at the same time?

4. Any chance the pilot of one tandem glider will unhook to help his BUDDY untwist a strap?

5. Is he gonna leave his passenger hooked in while he assists?

6. Is there ever gonna be any significant wind coming in while these pilot buddies are helping each other out at launch?

7. Have you ever heard of the fuckin' pilot buddy system being implemented in hang gliding at ANY slope or tow operation?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/message/9351
Just a Tad to the Right
John Moody - 2010/02/03 04:09 UTC

I remember how Davis Straub was there and how he jumped on the too-strong weaklink bandwagon in the Oz Report. In other words, the problem was the pilot's inability to get off line, which was blamed on the weaklink, not the release and then they found three other things to make the towing more dangerous, all based on the wrong conclusions.
8. The PROBLEM is that none of you douchebags require, do, or look for HOOK-IN CHECKS. FIX THE FUCKIN' PROBLEM...
Steve Kinsley - 1998/05/01 01:16

"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.
...instead of coming up with a bunch of lunatic ideas to INCREASE the risk of hook-in failure.

Wanna see the buddy system in action?
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.
Keep It Simple...
With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
...Shithead.

1. Why does the buddy need to be a PILOT? Just how many hours does one need to determine that the number of carabiners connected to the suspension matches the number of people under the glider over a range of one to two?

2. How much worse could a job could a fuckin' ten year old kid do than [the pilot] and all the other morons at Woodside on 2012/04/28 were able to pull off?

3. How many tandem flights do you know about that go off without a potential free buddy under the wing?

4. If [the pilot] had spent a quarter of the time he was telling Lenami and David how safe this sport is on carabiner buddy training might there have been some small possibility of everybody having a better day?
"In terms of safety, we're going to be looking at all the standards of practices of the pilots," Warner said.
Why?
Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada

The Hang Gliding Association of Canada (HGAC) was formed in Calgary, Alberta, in August 1977 to create national ratings standards and obtain a national insurance policy. Since that time, the association has grown and evolved.
The HPAC has had all the top people in the Canadian branch of the sport constantly working to determine the best practices through their own experiences and researching the incidents and best practices from the rest of the world for a bit shy of thirty-five years. How much better could you POSSIBLY do?
"We're in the midst of making a standardized safety practice that everybody will agree on...
1. YOU *HAVE* A STANDARDIZED SAFETY PRACTICE THAT EVERYBODY AGREES ON.
- Do a hang check behind the ramp.
- Move to launch position.
- Wait for a good cycle.
- Assume you're hooked in.
- Accelerate the glider off the ramp.

2. What's that they say about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

3. Who's EVERYBODY?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17820
Launching unhooked with scooter tow
Mark Dowsett - 2009/11/14 00:00:30 UTC

I must admit...this has happened to us three times this year. We've just started scooter towing and it's surprisingly easy to do. We're all dolly launched aerotow pilots so hooking in is something we take for granted. I was the scooter operator each time and recognized it right away as soon as the glider started rising up (but the pilot didn't). Luckily we were only planning on doing low-and-slow tows and thus no swift full tension tow.

Each time it happened, the pilot's priority was always hooking up the towline as they step into the control frame. I wonder why that is...? I mean, we always hook in to the glider first when dolly launching, and then worry about the towline.

Lesson learned (all without incident)
Does everybody include total wastes of space like Mark Dowsett?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13132
Unhooked Death Again - Change our Methods Now?
Quinn Cornwell - 2009/01/24 19:57:03 UTC
HPAC Accident Review and Safety Committee Chairman

No, don't think about the jagged boulders. That'll mess with your head. Don't ever tell pilots to think about "Oh, if you screw this up, you'll crash and burn into those jagged rocks down there, so make sure you don't screw this up." This sort of psychology is detrimental. It's good to be conscience of the dangers in hang gliding, pointing this out right before you start running is just plain stupid.
How 'bout total fucking morons like Quinn Cornwell?

Why don't you get rid of all the assholes and...
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.
...start listening to people with triple digit IQs who say stuff that makes sense and is supported by the data?
...now that it's been pushed to the forefront."
So how come you weren't in the midst of making a standardized safety practice that everybody will agree on BEFORE it was pushed to the forefront? Too busy developing safer tow equipment?
The Vancouver Sun - 2012/05/03
Kelly Sinoski

HPAC has named Martin Henry, a master-rated hang-gliding pilot with more than thirty years experience and a past-president of HPAC, as the accident investigator for the association, Jason Warner, safety chairman, will assist.
A Master rated hang gliding pilot with more than thirty years experience and a past president of HPAC who in his entire useless life hasn't done a single goddam thing to advance a single goddam thing in the sport - especially this issue. Excellent choice.
Warner said he can't recall a fatal accident like this happening in Canada.
1. How many non fatal accidents could you recall like this happening in Canada?

2. Any chance any of those non fatal accidents would have been fatal if they had gone off Woodside?

3. What actions did you take following those non fatal accidents to reduce the probability of this happening at Woodside?

4. When a Canadian pilot conducted an IDENTICAL fatal flight in New Zealand on 2003/03/29 what was it about Canadian mountains that you thought would make the likelihood of a rerun on your home turf too low to worry about?

5. Asshole.
"We work very hard to make sure our safety standards are adhered to," Warner said.
Yeah Jason. And I work very hard to make sure my little friend that nobody else can see gets everything he needs to stay happy.
Warner said HPAC is considering new safety measures following Saturday's tragedy.
So you're saying that the (alleged) old safety measures with which [the pilot] was trained, certified, and sanctioned to operate weren't really up to snuff?
The Vancouver Sun - 2012/04/30
Kelly Sinoski and Tara Carman

HPAC spokesman Jason Warner said he wasn't too familiar with what happened in New Zealand and could not "confirm or deny" whether Parson - who is no longer a member of HPAC - was still offering flights.
1. Just how familiar do you HAFTA be, Jason? He didn't do any kind of hook-in check - per Standard Operating Procedure - and when he ran off the slope with only half as many carabiners connected as he should have. Have I missed anything significant.

2. So why the hell AREN'T you VERY familiar with what happened in New Zealand, Mister Goddam Hang Gliding Safety Expert?

3. LIAR.
Parson did not return phone calls to The Vancouver Sun Monday.
1. Thanks Steve. Thanks for getting involved in the discussions, getting on the right page on this issue, and getting the message out to hang gliding and the general public to help prevent a rerun of your little Southern Hemisphere disaster.

2. Hey Vancouver Sun... Here's a thought!

How 'bout taking the space you would've filled with comments from somebody who's responsible for an unhooked launch fatality and use it for comments who's been campaigning for years to PREVENT them?

3. Oh, right. Never in the entire history of The Vancouver Sun has there been a story which was such an astounding BONANZA for circulation. Why mess with success?

4. Have you got Rooney's number?
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.
He's a highly respected expert in this field and will happily drone on for hours telling anyone stupid enough to listen that there's no solution to this problem because...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27581
expanding on linked biners... playing with stats
Jim Rooney - 2012/05/06 12:32:06 UTC

If it were the magic answer, it would already have been adopted worldwide.
...if there were then everybody would be using it already. And you LOVE talking to and promoting total assholes.

5. Fuck you guys.
"We're self-regulated. We can only advise them and tell people what the regulations are," Warner said. "If they continue to fly, that's up to them to do it."
Sorry Jason, I'm a little confused by this...
You're "self-regulated" but people just do whatever the fuck they feel like? So what's the difference between SELF and NO regulation?
We work very hard to make sure our safety standards are adhered to.
How can you POSSIBLY pretend to resolve those two statements?

Any chance you can tell US what the regulations are? They've been ASTOUNDINGLY conspicuously absent from any of the mainstream media. (And here I was thinking that the way The Vancouver Sun fucked me over was just an aberration.)

Never mind... I just found them.

For the first 75 flights of your career - through a Novice rating:
Adherence to static harness check procedure.
everybody's gotta do a hang check. After that... Instructor, tandem... Not even a recommendation. Do whatever the fuck you feel like.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06

When asked about whether pilots should be doing a last minute verification check, Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said "that might be a good idea."
1. Oh. It MIGHT be a good idea. Probably needs more study from your crack investigative team, though. Never can tell what unintended consequences of a practice of verification the instant prior to launch might be. Better stick with the buddy system for the time being. Remember... Never change two things at once!

2. It's been a goddam USHGA requirement for all flight for all ratings for thirty-one years. Nobody ever raised the least objection to its inclusion, made any effort to have it expunged, or reported the slightest problem with implementation and use. So what issues are YOU anticipating?

3. If it MIGHT be a good idea then how come you haven't volunteered it to the press?

4. Motherfucker.
He said the association had begun contacting all schools and senior pilots since the accident and asking them for suggestions to improve safety practices.
1. Why?
The Huffington Post - 2012/04/29

The hang glider's pilot tried desperately to hold on to Lenami Godinez, said Jason Warner, a hang gliding safety expert who arrived at the top of Mount Woodside and spoke with the pilot just minutes after the accident on Saturday.
You're the hang gliding safety expert - the best of the best. What is there about this issue that you could possibly learn from anyone else?

2. I'm a fuckin' senior pilot. You didn't call me. And - trust me - I've got a few suggestions for you.
He did not know when the association would make any possible safety recommendations.
I'm guessing after [the pilot] has been crucified, two more people have died, and he's found a standardized safety practice that everybody will agree on.
"It's a large task and everyone has their twist on things - there are a lot of good ideas out there," he said.
Well why not just use all of them? Nine page checklists, Aussie Method, buddy system, hang checks every six feet, gadgets, mirrors, international orange harness suspension, hook-in signs, hook-in plaques, hook-in telltales...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27538
Unhooked - A Human Error Trap
Robotham - 2012/05/04 17:08:56 UTC

I know your system works because I've done it for the last 28 years.

Unfortunately your procedure is too simple and logical for most people, they want elaborate procedures and endless reams of redundant equipment.
The pilot should always arrive at the back of the ramp one hundred percent confident that everything that NEEDS to be done HAS been done so...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
...he can focus his attention on the serious business of getting the glider airborne.
He noted that another idea would be for tandem pilots to vocalize the process to the passenger as they are doing their final checks.
Their final CHECKS? PLURAL?
What ARE these final CHECKS and when are they gonna be made?
The association maintains the sport is safe and that there are very few fatalities.
Yeah, I'll bet that's EXACTLY what [the pilot] told David when he was booking the flights.
Step right up, ladies, gentlemen, kids! This sport is safe and there are very few fatalities!
Yet Eareckson argues it's not safe, and says it's precisely that attitude that keeps the industry from doing last minute verification checks.
1. Is this something that Eareckson really needs to ARGUE at this point?

2. But what makes it into print is this asshole telling everybody it's actually a very safe sport.

3. It's not a last MINUTE, Tiffany. I never wrote or said ANYTHING about a last MINUTE. Jon probably did a lot of last MINUTE tandem hang checks in his career. The problem was that he NEVER ONCE in his career did anything to verify connection in the last five seconds.
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.
Fuck you. You should've resigned your HPAC position and made a public statement about your dereliction of duty before the body was recovered.
Zack C
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Zack C »

Tad Eareckson wrote:I may have misspoken yesterday about government regulation because - while "self regulation" may have been a dismal failure to date, I'm not the least bit convinced that government would do any better.
So self regulation doesn't work but government regulation isn't the answer either. So who should be regulating hang gliding?

Zack
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

So self regulation doesn't work but government regulation isn't the answer either.
I didn't say that ISN'T the answer - but if I had to bet the farm I'd predict abject failure in a New York minute.
So who should be regulating hang gliding?
Zack C
Rich Cizauskas
Bill Cummings
Steve Goldman
Doug Hildreth
Steve Kinsley
Mike Lake
John Moody
Nobody (Steve)
Jason Rogers
Antoine Saraf
Larry West
Dave Williams

People who can think, read, do the math, engage in rational discussions, question assumptions and wanna do the best job possible and care about preventing the next disaster rerun.

I'm at a pretty low ebb right now. This Lenami Godinez fatality was THE perfect storm for getting a stake driven through the heart of the goddam hang check and the hook-in check in place the way it should've been three decades and scores of really bad flying days ago.

But...

- Hang gliding is a hopelessly incompetent, corrupt, and evil religious cult (like we knew already) and about 99 percent of its participants are total scumbags with inbred hatred for anybody who has a triple digit IQ and the temerity to use it for anything.

- The FAA can go fuck itself. If it got involved...

-- They'd be photocopying the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden for towing guidelines.

-- Tracy Tillman, Matt, Davis, Rooney, and Lauren Tjaden would get lifetime appointments as Aerotowing Administrators.

-- There'd be a thousand dollar fine for getting into or being in a harness not connected to a glider on a first offense and a ten thousand dollar fine and revocation of rating on the second.

- The mainstream press is a corrupt entertainment venue. It didn't take me too long after getting fucked over by The Vancouver Sun to figure out that I'd get the same response from any other subsidiary of that cartel with which I wasted my time.

- And Lenami's friends - as far as I've been able to ascertain so far - are only interested in emotional outpourings and couldn't give a rat's ass about doing anything to prevent the next one. And this is a pretty good indication that if Katherine Louman-Gardiner had gone out with David for tandem hops and ended up as a lifeless pulp on the slope that Lenami Godinez-Avila would only be interested in emotional outpourings and wouldn't give a rat's ass about doing anything to prevent the next one. (And don't think I haven't done the math on how I'd almost certainly be treated by by rated glider jockeys if I could turn the clock back to a week before their impacts to try to get through to them).

- On Friday I wrote a long letter to Jon's attorney telling him that his client was set up for that disaster by the HPAC assholes who certified him as a tandem instructor with training which only INCREASED the likelihood of an unhooked launch fatality and, so far, haven't even gotten the courtesy of so much as an acknowledgment from the sonuvabitch.

- And I don't have many more cards to play.

And if no gain can be made be made in the wake of this one I don't see much in the way of hang gliding moving anywhere but south for the remainder of my lifetime.

Steve...

Where'd you go? You haven't logged in here since the end of last month and I haven't been able to find a trace of you anywhere else since. Gettin' worried.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=977
Flight Log (all flying-related activities welcome)
Bob Kuczewski - 2012/05/14 07:03:13 UTC

2012/05/13 - Torrey Pines
1. Bob preflighting his suspension at the staging area one minute and three seconds prior to launch and referring to it as a hook-in check:
Hook in check before launch:
v15_t02m41s.jpg
Image
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
At that moment, he banishes all concern about launching unhooked. He has taken care of it. It is done. It is out of his mind.

2. Ernie helps Bob hold the glider down on his shoulders to stay safe from the turbulent jet stream six inches above the wing and keep as much weight as possible on his feet so as to be able to deliver adequate torque for prelaunch yaw control:
Ernie wiring me at launch:
v15_t03m39s.jpg
Image
Ernie, satisfied that Bob's always excellent preflight procedures render the performance of a hook-in check totally pointless, clears launch:
Ernie clears launch:
v15_t03m43s.jpg
Image
Bob, wisely judging conditions once again too insanely dangerous to comply with the USHGA requirement to verify his connection just prior to launch and satisfied that his always excellent preflight procedures render the performance of a hook-in check totally pointless, takes to the air:
In the air:
v15_t03m44s.jpg
Image
Sorry Joe, I'm not all that impressed with the bozos you you've been signing off. Once you have their brains rotted out this badly it's totally pointless to try to do anything about the problem.
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Fox News, Salt Lake City - 2012/05/14

Lehi - A 66-year-old Colorado man was injured after he crash-landed his hang glider Monday morning outside of Lehi near Point of the Mountain.

Authorities say the victim, James Kearns, was unconscious when crews reached him. He was flown to Utah Valley Medical Center, where he is listed in serious condition. They say Kearns regained conscious before the helicopter transport and told deputies he had no recollection of the crash.

Utah County Sheriff's deputy Jim Bingham says witnesses tell him Kearns was flying erratic immediately after takeoff at about 9:25 a.m. They say Kearns may have experienced equipment malfunction and attempted to land at high speed, estimated at about 35 to 45 mph.

"It appears that he's experienced, because he was flying an intermediate glider, so he's flying something a new person shouldn't be flying," said Kevin Koonce, a hang gliding instructor.

Sheriffs have not determined the exact cause of the crash and are still investigating.

Deputy Bingham says he spoke with Kearns at the hospital and he appeared "fairly stable" at the time.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office is coordinating an investigation with the Federal Aviation Administration and Division of Natural Resources to determine the cause of the crash.
Zach Whitney - Point of the Mountain

It appears that he may have been unhooked from his hang glider at some point but as far as they can tell it appears that he was doing everything right.
Kevin Koonce

Before you launch you lay down, make sure you're hanging properly. And if you don't, you run, the glider takes off, you don't, you hold onto it, it's pretty easy to fall. It will be ugly at that point, but...
Keep 'em coming, guys. If you won't let me get my kicks fixing them I might as well get my kicks watching them.
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

The New Zealand Herald - 2012/05/15 08:27
Andrew Koubaridis

A New Zealand passport holder and hang gliding pilot says he was under "overwhelming stress" when he swallowed a memory card with images of an accident where a passenger fell 300 metres to her death.

William Orders, 50, was flying over Fraser Valley, in British Columbia, Canada, with Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, when Miss Godinez-Avila slipped and fell on April 28 - in full view of her boyfriend who had booked the trips as an anniversary present and was waiting for his turn.

Orders, who reportedly holds a New Zealand passport and has worked as a hang gliding pilot in this country, confessed what he'd done to police soon after the accident.

The Herald understands he tried to get a job at Queenstown hang gliding firm two years ago but was rejected.

He has been charged with attempting to obstruct justice and was held in custody for a week while the memory card passed through his system. It's believed it may contain footage from the video camera that was attached to the glider.

Miss Godinez-Avila slipped from her harness thirty seconds into the flight. She clung to Orders' body for a short time and pulled his shoe off but fell when she couldn't hold on any longer.

After his court appearance, Orders told reporters he wished he could relive the day and have it turn out differently.

"I will be left with the events constantly going through my mind, and that I will have to endure forever. Please believe me when I say I am sincerely and deeply sorry."

Orders apologised to the victim's family for his "panicked action" - which he blamed on "overwhelming stress" that included having his twelve-year-old daughter waiting where the flight was supposed to land.

He said he now realised his actions had caused further pain for Miss Godinez-Avila's family and brought negative attention to the hang-gliding industry that had been his "passion" for nearly twenty years.

"I have concluded that I cannot and will not return to hang gliding," he said.

His lawyer Lori Stevens told Canadian media he held expired New Zealand, Australian and British passports.

A Foreign Affairs spokeswoman last night said they were not aware of the case and consular assistance was not being provided.

Orders will return to court on June 18.
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Dan Garland - 2012/05/15 13:26
Salt Lake City

Here is a firsthand Witness Report from a student HG Pilot who witnessed the flight from the South Side POTM Landing Zone viewpoint. Thankfully, the pilot appears to be recovering.

Considering the force was great enough to cleanly break off a short portion of the keel that contains the kingpost and control frame, and to reportedly have also broken a hangstrap apparently disconnecting him from the glider, possibly upon impact, we are very grateful he is recovering and again wish him a full and speedy recovery.
I saw the whole event unfold. As a new pilot I watch everyone who enters the lower hill like a hawk.

The unidentified pilot flew erratically from launch. At first I wondered where his instructor was, he was so slow and unsteady. He was floating way too far from the hill with each turn until he was heading upwind at the south end of the parking lot at around forty feet altitude. He turned downwind and angled into the ground at high speed.

XXX and I were the first responders, found him unconscious and breathing with extreme difficulty.

He was unhooked which could explain the erratic flying but the keel was broken in two places, which indicates loading, and later a broken hang strap was found in the wreckage.

His brother is with him at the hospital and word is that he is conscious, has no broken bones, cuts on his face and a crushed vertebrae. He can move his feet, a good sign.

Still no clue as to why he had so much trouble, as his equipment clearly shows he has experience. I take from this an awe and reverence for our sport, and an appreciation for the fragility of life...
1. He can't have no broken bones AND a crushed vertebra.

2. As a new pilot what are you watching everyone for in the final five seconds before launch?
Dan Garland - 52741 - H-1 - Holloday, Utah - 2010/09/28 - Ryan Voight
Dan Garland - 52741 - H-2 - Holloday, Utah - 2010/09/28 - Ryan Voight
Dan Garland - 52741 - H-3 - Holloday, Utah - 2010/09/28 - Ryan Voight
Never mind.

3. Unhooked launchers do not fly slowly and unsteadily and do not make passes in front of the ridge in efforts to extend their airtime.

4. And if he had been unhooked you'd have known he was unhooked. Nobody ever needs more than a quarter second to identify someone who's free flying unhooked.

5. What do you mean "he was unhooked" when you got to him?

- Unhooked implies that he was previously hooked and, seeing as how he was unconscious when you first responded, it's a pretty good bet that he didn't unhook himself.

- He was undoubtedly using a locking carabiner since because it's only safe to use a nonlocking carabiner over water. So was the carabiner locked or not?

- Or was it an autolocker?

6. Yeah, the keel was broken in two places - indicating, as you imply, that he was suspended from it at the moment of impact.

7. A broken hang strap was NOT later found in the wreckage 'cause hang straps don't break. They can get abraded through or cut. So which was it?

8. Was there a broken backup loop found in the wreckage?

9. The video depicts a Wills Wing kingpost suspension glider.

- The spreader bar is one of the older jobs with the black plastic end fittings which always broke the first time you forgot pull the spreader out of the way before folding the collapsed control frame back. That was discontinued and replaced with a solid one piece aluminum job a good many years ago.

- It's shown in position engaging both sides of the strap.

- Assuming that someone didn't reengage one side of spreader AND that the carabiner was found empty it's impossible that the carabiner was fully engaging the primary suspension at launch.

- It's possible that there was a partial hook-in and that he disengaged upon impact but that would've been completely irrelevant with respect to the erratic flying and crash.

- Older Wills Wing kingpost suspension gliders didn't have integral backup loops so it's possible that he was hooked - fully or partially - to the backup only but that also would've been completely irrelevant with respect to the erratic flying and crash and a real stretch in any case.

Maybe a medical issue shortly after getting airborne?

But to try line that up with the empty carabiner...
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