You are NEVER hooked in.

[Tad Eareckson]

WILL save lives - and eliminate a lot of pain and destruction in the much more common lesser categories such as the one you experienced and the one...

http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5566/14704620965_ce30a874b7_o.png


...you witnessed. NO hook-in checker in recorded history has ever launched with a dangling carabiner. And ALL unhooked launchers - one hundred percent of them - have been one hundred percent certain they were safely connected to their gliders in the critical two second period.

The only thing we have to fear is to ever once not have the fear of launching unhooked. (I never have the first 'cause I always have the second.)

And that should also apply with respect to our buddies. On 2005/10/01 for the first (wind dummy) flight of that year's Team Challenge when Bill Priday did THIS:

06-04213
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7449/13891111960_87d494095e_o.png

09-05019
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2928/13891086719_3ba7e65d38_o.png

10-05124
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2933/14074543322_a183cc3a23_o.png


with his carabiner dangling behind his knees there'd been SCADS of assholes who'd been concerned about whether or not he'd done an idiot hang check...

03-03107
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2931/14074550972_3161a4a62e_o.png


...in the setup area. And there was NO ONE with the slightest doubt that he was safely hooked in until his glider climbed back up without him.

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

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

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

And that's all it would've taken. Just ONE PERSON not assuming that he was connected to his glider in the final seconds before his foot moved.

And as far as I can tell not ONE SINGLE INDIVIDUAL started doing, looking for, teaching, requiring hook-in checks in response to that horrifying spectacle - particularly the highly revered asshole who'd signed him off on all his ratings through his third and last. People packed up and went home, engaged in epic flame wars on the local forum, painted their carabiners orange, became really focused - and did nothing of any actual significance. Same deal with Kunio at Mingus a month shy of three years later.

You just making the declaration is a big help.

[NMERider]

Spot the hook-in check(s) (lift and tug)

Proper Glide Down Waterman Canyon +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1DpuaGpAs
Vicarious Icarus - 2015/03/21
dead

[Tad Eareckson]

Breath of fresh air. First of many I hope. Now see if you can get two other guys to do it and make each of them get two other guys to do it.
Really good to see you flying your T2 again. I was ninety percent sure 2014/01/29 was gonna mark the end of your flying career.

[Steve Davy]

That's totally awesome NMERider! And I like the music too.

[NMERider]

Breath of fresh air. First of many I hope. Now see if you can get two other guys to do it and make each of them get two other guys to do it.
Really good to see you flying your T2 again. I was ninety percent sure 2014/01/29 was gonna mark the end of your flying career.

Thanks Tad. I was more than 90% sure I was done with foot-launched flight after that whiplash injury but I heeled up well and without surgery.

On my second flight of the day I launched from a knob located in a gusty thermal trigger zone and could not replicate the 'lift and tug' of the first flight. What I was able to muster was to leave the control bar wedged on the side-sloping surface with nose level and back away from the control frame until I felt my leg loops were tugging on the backs of my thighs. Then I got off the hill before my glider ground-looped. I misspoke when I said 'flipped'. What happens on some of the gnarly places where I sometimes launch solo is the tendency for the glider to execute a ground-loop if the nose is raised. Once a leading edge digs into the surface the glider usually flips. I have run to grab a few hapless and helpless pilot's leading edges who were on their way to turning turtle who shirked a wire crew. This is the major reason I avoid wheels and prefer skids. I need to plant that base bar on the deck without resorting to gymnastic tricks to stabilize the glider.

Obviously I did not add any captions to this edit or I would have put in a plug for 'lift and tug', which sounds more like the job of a fluffer on a porn set. Maybe if I edit in some footage of a fluffer doing just this along with the less exciting hang glider version it will create a positive association and pilots will be more inclined to assume they are unhooked and then 'lift and tug' right before they 'get off'?

I think I'll start selling hang glider bumper stickers that proudly state, "I lift and tug before I get off!"
Perhaps some cool graphics could be added for T-shirt sales?

[NMERider]

That's totally awesome NMERider! And I like the music too.

Thanks Steve! That's my top Nuge track along with Journey to the Center of the Mind.

[Tad Eareckson]

What I was able to muster was to leave the control bar wedged on the side-sloping surface...

Never been in a situation in which I wasn't able to safely and easily lift the glider to the stops but I certainly wouldn't push this check on anyone for whom it would be problematic. Lift and tug is normally the most efficient and effective hook-in check but it certainly isn't the only way to verify.

...with nose level and back away from the control frame until I felt my leg loops were tugging on the backs of my thighs.

Retreat and tug. Bit more of a delay between check and launch but not likely a significant one.

I have run to grab a few hapless and helpless pilot's leading edges who were on their way to turning turtle who shirked a wire crew.

I'm not sure I'd have sprinted at full tilt. I'm not impressed by stupid macho rugged individualism and people who wanna show Mother Nature who's boss. I'll take wire help if it's three gusting to five if it doesn't inconvenience anyone and saves me a little wing torqueing effort. In conditions capable of turtling a glider...

This is the major reason I avoid wheels and prefer skids.

There's such a thing as locking wheels but although I never flew with skids (or locking wheels) they appeal to me. They can be made light, strong, clean, beautiful. Not as safe as a pair of big fat ugly wheels in all circumstances but a pretty reasonable compromise.

I need to plant that base bar on the deck without resorting to gymnastic tricks to stabilize the glider.

Yep. Steve Kinsley went out on the High Rock ramp somewhat ill advisedly minus assistance (may not have been any around - can't recall) and got caught by a wind that suddenly ramped up. Got blown off and smashed up pretty good but don't think any damage from which he was unable to fully recover. Told me he thought he could've gotten away with it save for the wheels which prevented him from planting the basetube, getting a foot in front of it, and holding the nose down.

And speaking of Steve Kinsley and the High Rock ramp and in keeping with the topic...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153
Hooking In

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/06 22:57:44 UTC

I am somewhat irritated at Lobsterman myself. Marc (Fink) believes, wrongly, that he happened upon me unhooked and about to launch. Just not correct. I was very much aware that I was unhooked. Told him so at the time. Story goes around and around and comes back to me now and then. So to Mark Cavanaugh's complaint that an incident is not relevant, in my case it is not even true.

But I did have an incident where I failed to hook in. At High Rock. Eddie Miller saved my sorry butt. Sure woke me up. Too bad Bill did not have a scare like that. I now have a nice DSL line through the tangle of Alzheimer's plaque. That was at least ten years ago and there is still not a blade of grass on that neuron path. So that is not how I am going to die.

What we really have to do is to vaccinate pilots, like I have been, but without the scare. How do you do that? How do you get them to internalize a procedure so that they do it no matter what distractions are present? I don't know. But I have come to feel that the communal effort to assure that pilots are hooked can be destructive of this purpose. I never intended to advocate that wire crews should not be vigilant; just that they avoid hijacking the process.

That was five days after Bill was killed.

I think this is more of a critical issue in the East than the West. You guys tend to be drier and have fewer trees and more launches on open moderate slopes. A lot of our heavily trafficked launches are ramps above steep slopes, scree, cliffs, escarpments. You guys tend to be able to abort and get away with scrapes and bruises, our guys tend to get seriously smashed up or killed.

[NMERider]

...

I have run to grab a few hapless and helpless pilot's leading edges who were on their way to turning turtle who shirked a wire crew.

I'm not sure I'd have sprinted at full tilt. I'm not impressed by stupid macho rugged individualism and people who wanna show Mother Nature who's boss. I'll take wire help if it's three gusting to five if it doesn't inconvenience anyone and saves me a little wing torqueing effort. In conditions capable of turtling a glider...

In one case I merely walked over just in time to stop the inevitable turtle in progress. The pilot hated and to this day hates my guts so badly (As if anyone can imagine such a thing? Oh the horror!) that subsequent to my thankless heroics, he has unloaded his glider and harness from not one but two trucks headed for launch as soon as I showed up in the LZ to throw on. I know I should be hurt or something but the tears of laughter have yet to subside even after all these years.

...

This is the major reason I avoid wheels and prefer skids.

There's such a thing as locking wheels but although I never flew with skids (or locking wheels) they appeal to me. They can be made light, strong, clean, beautiful. Not as safe as a pair of big fat ugly wheels in all circumstances but a pretty reasonable compromise....

You are correct about locking wheels. I have modified wheels so they lock and unlock easily and I have neglected to unlock these wheels before landing. Locked wheels tend to make pretty lousy skids and retain too much of that 'locked' quality when landed upon or the bar gets dropped. Skids are far from perfect but if designed reasonably well and having a contact surface with the right stiction to slip ratio are okay.

...I think this is more of a critical issue in the East than the West. You guys tend to be drier and have fewer trees and more launches on open moderate slopes. A lot of our heavily trafficked launches are ramps above steep slopes, scree, cliffs, escarpments. You guys tend to be able to abort and get away with scrapes and bruises, our guys tend to get seriously smashed up or killed.

This comparison is accurate as far as the sites I most frequently fly are concerned. In each case the pilots released immediately and rather than free-falling over a precipice onto rock had slopes mainly of dirt and brush.

[Tad Eareckson]

I know I should be hurt or something but the tears of laughter have yet to subside even after all these years.

You're a much better man than I am.

...and I have neglected to unlock these wheels before landing.

Somewhat analogous to conventional aviation pilots neglecting to drop their gear on approach. Also read somewhere about an Alaskan bush pilot who locked his wheels after landing on the ice. Forgot and took off with them locked just fine - but the subsequent landing on the paved runway didn't go very well.

This comparison is accurate as far as the sites I most frequently fly are concerned.

This still:

10-05124
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2933/14074543322_a183cc3a23_o.png


from this video:

http://vimeo.com/22468086


absolutely horrifies me. That's exactly what Bill Priday was doing - 'cept without being connected to his glider - and that's exactly the view he had a couple of seconds before his life was over.

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1152
Bill Priday's death

Cragin Shelton - 2005/10/03 15:13:27 UTC

You are not hooked in until after the hang check.

You did a hang check back in the setup area, Paul. You're totally good to go. Keep up the great work.

[NMERider]

I flew my Wills Wing Covert racing harness on Wednesday which was the first time in over two years. I was delighted at just how easy it was to do a lift and tug just prior to launch and verify that my leg loops were attached and the riser connected to the glider. I also posted a short video of my flight from Tuesday in which I perform a more obvious lift and tug shortly before having a little fun off the ramp. I was task racing on Wednesday and left the camera off to further reduce drag. I also get more sleep when there's nothing new to edit.

Tuesday Highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GF9eOsX2YE
Vicarious Icarus - 2015/04/01
dead