http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28305
Bob Buxton Truck Tow Accident Video
Scott Buxton (I Soar AZ) - 2013/02/10 10:17:16 UTC
Phoenix
Bob Buxton Truck Tow Accident Video
Bob Buxton Truck Tow WHAT Video?
Hello,
I am posting this for my Dad, Bob Buxton. My Dad wants to make the video of his truck towing accident...
...crash...
...on (2012/10/03) public so that others may learn from his mistake.
- Mistakes.
- Not just his.
- Good freakin' luck.
The cause of the accident was tow line was hook up over the control bar.
And...?
Pilot error.
PILOTS errors. As is ALWAYS the case when a glider is taking off from flat ground, there was more than one person flying it and when one crashes it's damn near always due to mistakes made at both ends of the string.
Bob has been Hang gliding 38 years incident free.
Bullshit. It's a SERIOUS incident whenever one...
- slope launches minus a hook-in check a couple of seconds prior
- aerotow launches with a:
-- standard aerotow weak link
-- release that stinks on ice
and it's a notable incident incident whenever one...
- truck tow launches with a release that stinks on ice
regardless of how many times the "pilot" gets away with it.
Mostly mountain flying.
Nobody in Arizona has ever even HEARD of a hook-in check.
He has truck towed a handful of times. He knew the tow line was supposed to go under the base bar. Just made a mistake hooking it up.
Oh no dude. Also made mistakes in:
- not preflighting
- going up configured such that he had NO SAFE OPTION for releasing himself
- towing with total idiots on the front end
Bob wants everyone to know he takes full responsibility for the incident and there is no one to blame but himself.
Donnell Hewett and the vast majority of people who've been involved in hang glider towing in the third of a century since he started institutionalizing his lunacy are also to blame.
What we...
Define "we"?
...can learn from this accident is have a checklist, go through the checklist and make sure everything is good to go before take off and flying.
Yeah, like nobody's ever heard of doing that before.
Not just truck towing. Have a checklist and go through it every time you fly.
Yes. I'm sure everyone has been standing at launch at Mingus looking at little three by five cards in the moments before launch in the months since this one and that they've been a really big help.
Bob is still recovering at Health South Rehab Facility in Glendale. Bob suffered a severe head injury (bleeding on the brain). He still has a long road ahead of him in recovering. Bob wants to say thank you for all the thoughts and prayers.
Well, prayers anyway. There's virtually never any more in the way of THOUGHTS occurring after one of these than there was immediately before. But PRAYERS? You can't FIND a better crowd in the prayer department.
And I'd personally like to add that if he had to get his head smashed in at least he got it smashed in doing something he loved.
007-04101
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3679/13745950735_90aabe780a_o.png
0:41 - Really cool the way they engineered the platform system so the PILOT can RELEASE THE GLIDER FROM THE TRUCK WITH *BOTH* HANDS ON THE *CONTROL* BAR. I like that. Good thinking.
And for the next NINE SECONDS he's a PASSENGER...
016-04308
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3799/13746342624_c9b015f814_o.png
022-04610
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/13746340634_a74b33d285_o.png
...a DOPE ON A ROPE - totally incapable of affecting anything in the emergency other maintaining some countering action to misrouted tow force and waiting for the inevitable full tension lockout and impact.
Funny that the weak link didn't fail.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18868
Almost lockout
Ryan Voight - 2010/09/07 02:50:00 UTC
Weak link in truck towing WILL (read: should) still break in a lockout situation... but as everyone has already pointed out, it takes a lot longer because the glider can continue to pull line off the winch.
There is a limit to how fast line can come off the winch though... so the forces still build up, and the weaklink still fails.
I've always heard that it would. And, of course...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14230
pro tow set-up
Ryan Voight - 2009/11/03 05:24:31 UTC
Glider will pitch up, break weaklink, and you fly away.
...always in plenty of time to let you fly away.
And...
HANG GLIDING FOR BEGINNER PILOTS
By Peter Cheney
Published by Matt Taber
Official Flight Training Manual of the U. S. Hang Gliding Association
Towing equipment
- Hook knife: A hook knife is a razor-sharp cutting tool that can slash through lines in an instant. You should never tow without one - in an emergency, you can use it to cut the tow-line or bridle. The hook knife must be mounted on your harness so that you can reach it quickly and easily.
...did anyone notice if he even HAD a hook knife?
Wayne Ripley - 2013/02/10 12:10:11 UTC
Cromwell, Connecticut
I don't know anything about truck towing...
That's OK, Wayne. It's pretty fucking obvious that nobody else does either.
...so please don't take this as anything but the need to know but, can the guy in the back release the line and would that have helped?
Since it's pretty fucking obvious that the guy whose ass is on the line has no ability to do so.
Absolutely ASTOUNDING the success Donnell, Peter, Steve Wendt, Ryan, Wills Wing, USHGA, the Flight Park Mafia have had in brainwashing the hang gliding public to the point that it can no longer even CONCEIVE of the concept of the PILOT being able to release himself in an emergency.
088-05301
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3708/13746233274_c1a80f35c1_o.png
P.S. Isn't anybody gonna comment on that salad bowl on a string he was using for a helmet? I think this would be a really good time to discuss the best kind of helmet to have when you're truck towing with a release that stinks on ice.
