It was post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7619.html#p7619
and landed at the top of Page 74.
The next ten pages / hundred posts in the topic were uninterrupted Jean Lake and it was obvious the incident had needed a dedicated topic a long time back. And when we got our hands on the ass covering excuse for a report u$hPa Damage Control didn't want anybody to see or discuss I started one.
2015/05/31 08:18:47 UTC
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7910.html#p7910
So the relevant "Releases" posts really needed to be transferred over in order to make this topic a real quality reference.
I finally got around to the job 2020/05/11. Pulled those hundred plus an oddball:
2015/06/16 00:53:16 UTC
I'd later stupidly included in "Releases".
Start to finish:
2020/05/11 15:32:44 UTC - 2020/05/11 17:07:24 UTC
Then I went to work changing the 101 relevant subject titles, making format improvements, catching and fixing typos and more significant errors. And I found a lot more u$hPa crap that needed to be dealt with and eventually realized I'd totally missed some important shit and gotten some major shit wrong. Not surprising 'cause the objectives of both Vegas government/cultural and u$hPa damage control was to mislead and obfuscate.
Major differences however...
- Arys was THE story for Vegas (as he should've been) while u$hPa had scarcely heard of the eleven year old tandem student and was all about helping all us rated and paid up tandem and tow pilots learn how to better manage the inherent risks of tandem and towing - the items which hadn't been relayed and emphasized enough when we were buying our ratings from them and their operatives. Example: Check to see if your easily reachable two-string release can be made to function when loaded to five percent of expected normal tow pressure.
- Vegas gave us virtually no substantive information but what we did get was accurate and - after you'd really paid attention, thought about it, cross referenced with the u$hPa crap - devastating. u$hPa tried to bury us with a lot of irrelevant, useless, pseudo-intellectual, pretentious, misleading crap and outright lies but they made several slip ups and those provided keys to cracking the code.
And Vegas had the identity of and access to the driver and made sure nobody else got anything other than the tiny scrap which put 100.00 percent of the responsibility on the dead tandem instructor. Case closed.
I would pretty much agree with that 'cause the driver was thrown in totally over his head. But you could make pretty much the same case for Jon Orders 'cause HPAC’s a bunch of useless douchebags who qualified and rated him without ever training him in the only fundamental strategy that actually works for preventing unhooked launches...
048-35714
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...and he scored a felony manslaughter conviction.
Jean Lake Driver (JLD) failed to crank up the hydraulic pressure as he'd obviously been instructed to - but for all we know that was his first (and definitely last) experience behind the wheel. But if he'd executed properly the circuit tow could've put the glider up a mile and the inoperable release issue wouldn't have mattered and nobody would've ever heard about it.
And if that and his identity were known he'd be vulnerable. And even if he'd done everything right and the results were all on The Tandem Instructor his quality of life probably wouldn't be as good as it would have if he'd never been involved at any level.
And actually... His quality of life didn't stay the same anyway. He knows all this. He knows that if he'd cranked up the pressure Kelly and that little kid would've been OK, that he instead left them unable to climb out, assumed they were off, pulled a hard turn and floored it. And those actions were what pile drove Kelly and the eleven year old tandem student into the lakebed.
Here's another thought. It's a virtual no-brainer that JLD had never before driven a tow. Kelly didn't even get together with him a half hour before showtime for a solo run to a thousand feet. At the very worst that would've cut the number of fatalities in half. (And dispensed with the easily expendable half to boot.)
The original u$hPa report they had to publish in order to maintain veneers of competence and responsibility but don't want anybody who might matter to be able to access appears in one chunk as the first post on Page 11.
http://www.kitestrings.org/post7910.html#p7910
In this post (book) I've duplicated it in its entirety but cut it up and apart bit by bit. Enjoy.
The way Quest had been perfecting aerotowing for twenty years? Shortly before they splattered Zack Marzec and Jeff Bohl all over their runway after nobody had done anything worth mentioning wrong? Keep up the great work.Jean Dry Lakebed Accident Report and Analysis
2015/05/11
Dear Tandem / Tow pilot,
In USHPA's ongoing effort to improve the safety of the sport...
And of course nobody else....we are notifying all tandem and tow rated pilots...
The vast majority of tandem ops are AT - in which none of these surface tow, platform launch, payout issues are the slightest bit relevant. Then you have mountain launch - à la Rob McKenzie at Marshall. I don't know if in the course of his entire career he's ever been anywhere near either end of a towline but he gets access. And a new flyer working on a surface tow rating doesn't. Ditto for the:
- parents of a ten year old kid contemplating a surface tow as a present for his next birthday
- surviving members of Arys Moorhead's family
Yeah, if I published rot like this I sure wouldn't want the family to see it either.
The ones we've attempted to calculate will be least damaging to our corporation and its affiliates....of the facts...
- Of A recent hang gliding tandem/towing fatality? One of how many we never heard about? (For the US you gotta go back to 2005/09/03 Arlan Birkett / Jeremiah Thompson for a double and 1999/02/27 Rob Richardson for a tandem single. Both AT by the way. (To fuck up in platform to an extent like this ya really gotta bend over backwards.)...of a recent hang gliding tandem/towing fatality.
- Fatality. Singular. Oh good. Only ONE person died. I hope it was the student - and not the highly experienced and qualified instructor who was such a close friend of so many pilots in our community and tremendous asset to the sport.
...highly privileged tandem and/or tow rated pilot...USHPA's purpose in providing this information to you...
- How 'bout:...is to assist you in better evaluating the risks that exist in the sport of hang gliding, particularly those risks that apply to tandem and towing flights...
Any of those relevant?Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"A bad flyer won't hurt a pin man but a bad pin man can kill a flyer." - Bill Bennett
"Never take your hands off the bar." - Tom Peghiny
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
- Oh. Stuff like outboard wheel mounts, converting your cheap shit easily reachable release to a locking mechanism, flying your radio minus a helmet headset and PTT extension, using some guy you met in the parking lot a half hour ago as your driver... Those are all risks that exist in the sport of hang gliding, particularly ones that apply to tandem and towing flights. How 'bout hooking yourself into suspension secured with velcro? Is that something we also shouldn't do?
- Name one single issue that had shit to do with this being a tandem - beyond the number of dead bodies at the conclusion. That little kid was a bit of ballast and nothing more - for the purpose of this exercise.
- Yeah, these are all just inherent risks that weren't managed very well. Absolutely nothing to do with astounding levels of incompetence and criminal negligence. But the only times u$hPa's ever written any sane SOPs to deal with any actual issues it's never bothered to implement and enforce anything. Then it decided it wasn't and couldn't be in the safety business so now we gotta listen to all this nauseating, moronic, insulting crap about risk management.
You sleazy pieces of total shit can take measures to suck my dick. Fuck anybody who reads this and doesn't end up seething at the degree to which his intelligence is being insulted....so that you can take measures to reduce those risks in your own flights.
Obviously Kelly had to fuck up a whole bunch of issues at once to get this one as historically and spectacularly wrong as he did - inoperable release, driver who'd never driven before with a really foggy understanding of what was supposed to be going on flying solo minus an observer of any description anywhere, no radio option for any emergency situation, parachute left packed neatly in its chest mounted container, wheels mounted on extensions out from the control frame corners. And what do you want wheels for on a tandem instructional flight anyway? Is there any purpose to hang gliding beyond executing a perfectly timed spot landing flare? What was Kelly planning on using the wheels for? If it's not foot launched and landed it really doesn't fall under the definition of hang gliding.
- ...we followed Standard Operating Procedure and shredded the Tandem Instructor's...Immediately upon learning of this accident...
...ratings record. Next we coordinated a landing at McCarran to get our hands on as much of the physical evidence, videos, crime scene photographs, incriminating testimony as possible so we could pick and chose what we were gonna relay and how we were gonna present it.John Kelly Harrison - 53375 - H5 - 1996/10/23 - Joe Greblo - PL TFL TPL AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC - ADV INST, TAND INST
- OH! It was an ACCIDENT! Please accept my apologies for some of the preceding (and following) remarks.
...immediately called for an independent investigation by highly qualified individuals with no ties to commercial hang gliding...USHPA's Hang Gliding Chair of the Accident Reporting Committee...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TUGS/message/1184
aerotow instruction was Re: Tug Rates
...in order to eliminate or minimize conflict of interest issues. Just kidding.Larry Jorgensen - 2011/02/17 13:37:47 UTC
It did not come from the FAA, it came from a USHPA Towing Committee made up of three large aerotow operations that do tandems for hire.
Appalling.
- What percentage of the facts gathered by this bullshit special ad hoc committee are you reporting here?...assembled a special ad hoc committee to gather facts and assist local officials in their investigation of this accident.
- So when do we get the report from the local officials? Oh yeah... What happens in Vegas...
- Fuckin' local officials ingrates. Just how long is it gonna take before we hear a public expression of gratitude for their efforts?
- Anybody see anything about an accident scene investigation? What's it say on the side of the truck in KSNV-8-21819-1 two photos below? (I'm guessing the obstructed letters are "TIGA".) Did you review any photos from them?The committee members visited the scene, met with local law enforcement, reviewed the flight instrument track log, reviewed onboard- and ground-based videos, reviewed witness testimony, reviewed accident scene photos taken by local law enforcement at the scene, and inspected all the equipment involved.
- Wow! That sure was a lot of totally selfless effort and top quality work. Any of these motherfuckers have names? We'd so like to properly thank them on the forums and out at the flying sites. But I guess revealing identities could lead to face-to-face conversations and we certainly can't afford to have those sorts of communications going on.
- So how come we muppets got to see zero percent of the onboard- and ground-based videos, witness testimony, accident scene photos taken by local law enforcement at the scene, and photos of the equipment involved - beyond the stuff you couldn't suppress 'cause it was already public via mainstream channels? Were you afraid it would be too confusing for us stupid muppets and there'd be a strong likelihood of us reaching unapproved conclusions?
- Did you get to review any accident scene photos taken by local law enforcement not at the scene? I'll bet some of those could've been really interesting.
- Funny we don't hear anything about a single word being exchanged with the driver. Local law enforcement....
http://www.mynews3.com/mostpopular/story/nhp-sloan-road-fatal-two-killed/1YlS8qOzDkWWjKZNpvS-5g.cspx
Two dead in hang gliding accident in Jean - News3LV
2-2911The family of the boy loaded him into a truck and were on their way to a hospital in Las Vegas when they saw a highway patrol vehicle on the side of the road and stopped.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5496/14022629055_b87e14eb3f_o.png
KSNV-8-21819-1
22-13529
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KTNV13-5626
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06-04225
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...knows who the driver is and is meticulously avoiding revealing anything about his identity to the point of not tipping anyone off with use of a non gender neutral pronoun. And the more you motherfuckers omit information about him and the role of the driver the better we can zoom in on the really critical issues on this one.
And u$hPa, the Vegas area hang gliding dickheads, local law enforcement are totally 100.00 percent in sync on this strategy.
I so do love it when u$hPa committees are able to determine facts. Such a refreshing change from...From this investigation, the committee was able to determine the following facts.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec
Swift - 2013/02/27 14:22:49 UTC
Zack wasn't "sitting on the couch" when a cheap piece of string made the decision to dump him at the worst possible time.
William Olive - 2013/02/27 20:55:06 UTC
Like the rest of us, you have no idea what really happened on that tow.
We probably never will know.
...Standard Operating Procedure.Jim Rooney - 2013/02/28 01:17:55 UTC
Well said Billo
I'm a bit sick of all the armchair experts telling me how my friend died.
Ah but hg'ers get so uppity when you tell them not to speculate.
- They perished DURING the flight? They both died of fear induced heart attacks watching the lakebed come up at them? First I've heard of that phenomenon. Was it verified in the coroner's reports? And it contradicts:At 2:43PM on Friday March 27, 2015, Master rated hang glider pilot, Advanced Instructor and Tandem Instructor Kelly Harrison perished with his 11 year old student during a tandem hang gliding flight.
http://www.mynews3.com/mostpopular/story/nhp-sloan-road-fatal-two-killed/1YlS8qOzDkWWjKZNpvS-5g.cspx
Two dead in hang gliding accident in Jean - News3LV
That's never been retracted and nobody's ever called them on it. If they were doing CPR the kid didn't have a pulse to begin with so - not that it really matters - the statement that he died in the truck is rubbish. And everybody was doing fine from a medical standpoint until immediately after first contact with the surface. This COULD have been something of a Zack Marzec. He was conscious after a pretty devastating impact but was reportedly DOA. The glider and Kelly took most of the impact and Arys was certainly still in good enough shape for people to cling to some hope.The family of the boy loaded him into a truck and were on their way to a hospital in Las Vegas when they saw a highway patrol vehicle on the side of the road and stopped. NHP troopers attempted CPR and contacted Metro and the Clark County Fire Department, but the boy died in the truck, Trooper Loy Hixson said.
However there's never been a report from anywhere about anyone detecting a hint of a pulse after impact. If we buy Figure 3 there's about 2300 feet of line out at impact. JLD would've probably/maybe cut the towline before driving back to impact to avoid the risk of dragging the wreckage and whatever was left of its occupants. And Arys's family would've jumped into whatever vehicle back at staging about 1.7 miles to the WSW. Nobody got there in time for a pulse. And if they had we'd have heard about it.
And notice that these motherfuckers aren't telling us what the harness configuration was. Over/Under:
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Or Side-By-Side:
15-02619
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If Arys was still in good enough shape for the cops to try CPR at the Sloan exit he might have come out OK on an over/under after letting Kelly absorb just about all of the relevant impact. u$hPa knows that and doesn't wanna increase their liability exposure for a side-by-side tandem thrill ride operation.
That was either an over/under or she was starboard on a side-by-side. And if I had to bet I'd go with the former - more consistent with her concussion and I think AT is heavily biased to over/under. But let's not introduce that issue into our risk management bullshit, huh Rich Martin?Bill Bryden - 1999/06
During the tug's roll-out for the second launch attempt, the tug pilot (Corey Burk) observed the glider clear the runway dust and then begin a left bank with no immediate correction. At that point he noticed that the launch cart was hanging below the glider and immediately released his end of the 240 ft. tow line. The tug never left the ground and tug pilot watched the glider continue a hard bank to the left achieving an altitude of approximately 25 feet. Impact was on the left wing and then the nose of the glider. Rob was killed immediately from severe neck and head trauma. Rob's body likely cushioned much of the student's impact. She was basically uninjured but suffered short term memory loss (not uncommon in hard crashes) and did not recall the events of the accident.
- Was it really a hang gliding "flight"? Not for one millisecond was it ever off tow so I'd characterize this more as a hang gliding LAUNCH. And the power was being supplied and managed for 100.00 percent of the duration by the driver so he was functioning as a copilot at all times at the absolute least. And in the latter stages he was the ONLY human in the neighborhood exercising control over the stuff on the back end of the string. Once that bridle hooked over that port extended wheel axle there was absolutely and could be no piloting being committed at the glider end. (Pity Kelly kept on trying and never threw in the towel and hit the silk.)
- So why do you tell us NOTHING about the only individual involved who had any control of anything at any point that actually counted for anything?
- The eleven year old STUDENT. It was an instructional flight, his presence was a factor (you're making a stink about this report being tandem relevant), and he was a paid up member and ended up just as dead as Kelly. How come Kelly has a name and Arys doesn't? The general public doesn't give the least flying fuck about Kelly - and, relative to Arys, SHOULDN'T. (And note that we never heard much noise from the hang gliding community about the felony manslaughter convictions of Steve Parson and Jon Orders - whose relevant transgressions were a helluva lot more forgivable.) Subsequently that year:
2015/05/09 - Markus Schaedler
2015/05/17 - Scott Trueblood
2015/06/20 - Bertrand Delacroix
2015/06/26 - Trey Higgins
2015/08/23 - Rafi Lavin
2015/08/24 - Craig Pirazzi
2015/10/11 - Jesse Fulkersin
2015/11/08 - Karen Carra
These were all local news items. Combined plus Kelly they weren't a dust particle's percentage of the Arys component of this crash. And that's why you barely acknowledge his presence and existence as a component of this one. But the cost of doing this is that you're confirming for anyone still harboring the slightest doubt that this tandem instruction exemption is a total scam whose actual purpose is to sell rides to the public.
- At what stage of training was this unidentified (you're the only motherfuckers on the planet who've reported on this one and identified him as an eleven year old student and ONLY an eleven year old student) eleven year old student? What was his hook-in weight? What was Kelly's? Just how much control authority does an eleven year old kid have on a tandem glider when hooked in next to an adult male fake instructor? What percentage of your thirty day membership tandem students ever again go back up on a second ride? You want a semi legitimate tandem student go with Michael Elliot, Frank Spears, Victor Cox, Jeremiah Thompson.
Pity it didn't originate as a preflight.The flight originated as a platform launch...
What pilots in the area? How many tow rigs? Where did you get the data you needed to pronounce this a typical operation for pilots in the area? Or are you just head over heels in love with the word "typical" and using it at every available opportunity?...using a payout winch while circuit towing around Jean Dry Lakebed near Las Vegas, NV. The counter clockwise circuit tow around the lake bed was a typical operation for pilots in the area.
And if this was such a typical operation then how come Kelly couldn't get one of the dozens of typical drivers in the area for the day's activities? (And we know this guy had zero experience 'cause the report tells us about it to exactly the same extent they tell us about the previous experience of the eleven year old tandem student.)
Thank you so very much for the full and accurate reporting on the local meteorological conditions. Since you don't think they have any significant bearing on anything I guess you feel you can afford it.Winds were light on the ground (<5MPH), with recorded weather data indicating winds from the NE at 9-12 MPH during the hours around the tow operations. (See Figure 1: Location overview.)
THEY were flying it?They were flying a Wills Wing Falcon I 225.
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Show me a video still in which one of Arys's hands is anywhere near the control bar.
And since the Wills Wing Falcon I 225 has been designed for foot launched soaring flight and not to be motorized, tethered, or towed these short axle extensions off the base tube - outside the control frame - shouldn't present the slightest problem in the course of any imaginable tandem training flight. Those things have killed a Four (Harold Austin - 1991/06/09), a Five, and an eleven year old kid. I sure hope all the pairs that have gone into circulation have provided enough advantages to compensate. (Why don't you write us all another article on getting a handle on this safety thing, Mike?)The glider had eight inch diameter pneumatic wheels mounted on a short axle extension off the base tube - outside the control frame.
...and delivering...The payout winch was a typical hydraulic pressure controlled...
COOL!!! So the driver can just monitor the remotely positioned pressure gauge and as long as that needle's staying steady at an optimal position......payout winch system mounted on a trailer with a remotely positioned pressure gauge/control valve/pressure release lever that was in the cab of the tow vehicle.
039-05010
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...the driver/spotter can remain totally confident that everything's hunky-dory with the glider.
Right Jerry?Jerry Forburger - 1990/10
High line tensions reduce the pilot's ability to control the glider and we all know that the killer "lockout" is caused by high towline tension.
- Yeah, didn't you just pretty much say that? Are you getting paid by the word for this rot?The truck driver served both as the driver and winch operator, with control over the tow pressure control mechanism from inside the cab of the tow vehicle.
- Wow. Kelly can design a winch control system that can be operated remotely in the cab by a driver who maintains continuous control during a glider launch but can't design a hang glider tow release that can be pried open at altitude with two hands. Go figure.
- How much tow pressure was being transmitted to the glider? What's the point in telling us this crap while giving us ZERO information on its relevance? You don't report what settings were being used, how they translated to tow tension, whether or not any adjustments were made. They obviously WEREN'T 'cause this guy didn't have the slightest fucking clue what was going on behind him - and didn't get much in the way of useful input from the primary spotter.
The only point in telling us this crap is to load up this crap document and try to distract the reader to the point that he forgets about the critical issues that aren't being so much as hinted at. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like preparing rot like this for publication. (Fair amount of fun debunking and exposing it though.)
- Well at least there was a primary spotter. Who was he, where was he positioned? And when the glider was going down like a brick what was his response? Oh, he was just a spotter. Wasn't his job to do anything about a problem or report anything to the driver.There was no secondary spotter.
- Fuck spotters. Whenever we have one of these surface tow catastrophes that almost certainly COULD have been safely aborted by a dedicated spotter (see above) nothing happens. You want us to use spotters to increase the chances of survival of people who hook up with releases that aren't even operable when everything's going right? Fuck that.
An additional cook didn't do Bob Buxton any good whatsoever. Sean Buckner doesn't even spot the issue with the line being routed OVER the control bar before things start moving. If we get to rewind we get rid of Sean. Then Bob feels less secure, more anxious about the tow. Maybe double checks, catches the lethal issue before things start rolling. Ditto for Bill Priday at Whitwell. If he'd been up there alone his chances of launching unhooked would've been the same at the absolute worst.
Another thought on Bob...
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He's back there naturally ASSUMING that his fuckin' spotter will notice he's in trouble and will alert the driver, dial down the pressure, safely terminate the tow. Minus all that extra safety margin he's gonna make the easy reach while he still can with enough control margin to be able to survive.
I'm trying to think of tow incidents in which disasters have been averted by spotters with dump levers, hook knives, guillotines and not coming up with anything of any significant substance.
Focal point of a safe towing system. Doesn't matter what the breaking strength is - we can call it whatever we feel like in accordance with the way a discussion is going. The important thing is that it's TYPICAL - *EXACTLY* the way things work in AT. The typical shit is always the shit with the longest track records.A typical two loop / four strand weak link for tandem surface tow operations was properly installed and positioned between the tow bridle and the tow line.
What's the ad hoc committee's take on why it didn't work when it was supposed to?Donnell Hewett - 1980/12
A properly designed weak link must be strong enough to permit a good rate of climb without breaking, and it must be weak enough to break before the glider gets out of control, stalls, or collapses.
- How does one "ADJUST" a two-string? Is there something one can do to increase its load to actuation force ratio?The tandem instructor assembled the two string release and then adjusted it twice just prior to launch, but did not test the release before the flight.
- If the typical two-string release had been tested at the breaking load of the typical two loop / four strand weak link for tandem surface tow operations properly installed and positioned between the tow bridle and the tow line what would the results have been? (And we all know the answer...
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3107
I have a tandem rating!!!
...to that one.)Lauren Tjaden - 2008/03/23 22:20:15 UTC
The barrel release wouldn't work because we had too much pressure on it.
Why? He's not any trouble yet and hasn't discovered that he's converted his typical two-string release into a locking mechanism. He can only be calling about direction, speed, and/or hydraulic system pressure.Several times during the flight, the tandem instructor was observed making radio communications to the tow vehicle operator through a hand held radio (mounted on his right shoulder strap)...
It's not direction - that's looking fine at this point and isn't terribly critical and is unlikely to be fucked up anyway.
I'm gonna go with insufficient line tension. Why else would he have stopped climbing at this point?
Prior to this post I've had a scenario stuck in my head in which Kelly realized he had a release issue and was fucking around with it but that's obviously not happening. He'd have no reason to go to a release. He's trying to climb.
It's a common and solid platform practice to have the truck take off like a bat outta hell after the glider lifts off, pay out lotsa line, then simultaneously slow way the hell down and crank the brake pressure way the hell up. The driver's slowed down but hasn't cranked up the pressure - either sufficiently or most likely at all.
These assholes say:
but very conspicuously don't say what they were or that they were received. With that shit harness radio setup there's a real good likelihood that all the driver was hearing was periodic garbling mixed with wind noise....the tandem instructor was observed making radio communications to the tow vehicle operator...
Kelly can't climb 'cause he doesn't have any tension. He's gotta pull in to keep from stalling and the more speed he picks up the more he reduces tension.
Why tell us that his hand held radio had been radio checked just prior to the flight after you've just told us that the tandem instructor was observed making radio communications to the tow vehicle operator? And why haven't you told us what was being communicated to the "tow vehicle operator" - whom normal humans would refer to as the "driver"? 'Cause the local officials had determined within fifteen seconds of arrival on the horror scene at the intersection that no way in hell would anything ever be revealed about the identity of the Pilot In Command on this one?...that had been radio checked just prior to the flight.
- Does that include the fatal plummet? 'Cause if so it's a bit iffy characterizing that sequence as some form of flight.The flight lasted four minutes and seven seconds.
- Pity we couldn't have adjusted it down to four minutes and six seconds. At four minutes and six seconds everybody was still doing just fine.
- How was the PILOT able to climb to 670 feet AGL at between 250-600 fpm climb rates? It was a fuckin' GLIDER, wasn't it? Was there some really awesome thermal activity that you haven't mentioned going on? Or was there something else involved?During the initial approximate three minutes of the crosswind/upwind leg of the circuit tow, the pilot climbed to 670 feet AGL at between 250-600 fpm climb rates (see Figure 2: Annotated flight instrument data plot).
- What were the glider and the student doing while the pilot was climbing to 670 feet AGL at between 250-600 fpm climb rates?
- Nah. The pilot climbed to 670 feet AGL at between six hundred and ZERO feet per minute climb rates. He started out at 600 fpm and tapered off to zero. You're not still climbing at 250 fpm and then abruptly stopping at max altitude. Just look at the purple line on the Figure 2 graph below ferchrisake.
Bull fucking shit. This:The tow vehicle then began turning for the downwind leg of the tow as the glider continued flying upwind.
http://www.mynews3.com/mostpopular/story/nhp-sloan-road-fatal-two-killed/1YlS8qOzDkWWjKZNpvS-5g.cspx
Two dead in hang gliding accident in Jean - News3LV - 2015/03/27
is what the driver was doing and why - you sleazy lying sonsabitches. That line you've drawn for the truck's path in Figure 3 is absolute total fiction.The pair of hang gliders were in the air when the truck pulling the glider turned around abruptly, police said. The driver of the truck thought the tether had been released, as is usually done by the person in the glider.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhCW-Nm6nxw
Family of young hang gliding victim speaks out to Action News
That's from their perspective back where things got loaded - a bit shy of two miles WSW of impact.Elizabeth Gadley - 2015/03/29
Family members said everything was going smoothly until they noticed there was too much slack on the tether connecting the glider to the truck. They said the driver sped up to fix the problem and that's when things went wrong.
We go with what the cops reported was the driver's statement. The family's statement doesn't make any sense. He didn't fix the problem and continue at full speed to pile drive the glider into the lakebed. He thought the glider was off tow 'cause it was diving at a good chunk of twice min sink and pulling zilch tension (or what Rich Hass, President and Martin Palmaz, Executive Director refer to as "pressure") and "turned around abruptly" and "sped up" towards the middle of the lakebed to keep the towline / retrieval chute airborne long enough to prevent them from going down in the Creosote Bush scrub - as he had obviously been instructed to by Kelly. Somebody come up with another sane explanation for that action.
This is a circuit tow on a huge fuckin' lakebed. It's gonna pay out tons of Spectra if things go according to plan. He uses a retrieval chute (duh) as does everyone and his dog for platform. We can see it here:
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and with the wreckage:
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(The driver had obviously cut the towline shortly after he realized that the glider was still connected to it upon impact and just prior to flooring it back to what was left of the glider passengers.)
End of story.
Yeah, they're losing altitudeDuring this one minute part of the tow the glider descended to 390 feet AGL at between 0-530 fpm sink rate...
He's instinctively pulling slack out of the towline. This has just started to become a step tow. Would've probably worked if he hadn't been stupid enough to fly with those extended wheels....and the tandem instructor flew to the right of the tow vehicle track as slack developed on the tow line trailing to the left of the glider's flight path by as much as what appeared to be 120 degrees (see Figure 3: Glider and estimated tow vehicle tracks).
Guess it was a good thing the impact was with the ground and not a dirt biker (whose mother hadn't signed the waiver).The flight ended with a nine second lockout and impact with the ground.
Yeah, that's always the way. Before the bridle comes into contact with the glider's control frame...The lockout developed after slack quickly came out of the tow line and the bridle came into contact with the glider's control frame.
...the sideways force tends to pull the pilot over to the correct side to make the glider turn naturally in the proper direction. But once contact is made the glider immediately starts going the other way and the shit really starts hitting the fan.Donnell Hewett - 1982/09
In addition to the above mentioned roll and yaw tendancies, there is some sideways force on the pilot due to the body line. This is illustrated below:
As can be seen, this sideways force tends to pull the pilot over to the correct side to make the glider turn naturally in the proper direction.
Too bad they didn't go with MSL. That would've given the tandem instructor another 2395 feet with which to work. Maybe enough time for the tandem instructor to remember that he was flying with a parachute.The glider was at 390 feet AGL with the towline appearing to angle approximately 50 degrees left of the glider's flight path.
Bull fucking shit. There's no such thing as a partially developed lockout.The tow bridal first contacted the outside edge of the wheel adjacent to the left corner bracket. The glider quickly transitioned into a fully developed lockout...
Instead of being held off the control frame by the port sidewire as it slid down and cleared the corner and became relatively benign....as the tow line force increased against the control frame (see Figure 4: Glider descent side view).
Wow. Totally righteous stuff. These tandem instructors really know how to react when things start going south. (Pity he hadn't run that scenario through his head on the ground and pulled the extensions.) I so do hope the eleven year old tandem student was paying close attention to these procedures and getting his money's worth out of the session.The tandem instructor initially made two unsuccessful attempts to push the bridle off the wheel.
Oh, it was a typical two string surface tow release SYSTEM. Sounds complicated. Way too many parts. Simple is best.The tandem instructor next attempted to release from the tow line by pulling on the lanyard connected to the release pin of a typical two string surface tow release system.
You're sure it was the tandem instructor attempting this? Pulled twice with one hand without success sounds a lot more like what you'd expect from his eleven year old student.The tandem instructor pulled twice with one hand without success.
Wow! Who could've seen a situation like THAT developing!During his initial release attempts the bridle slipped off and over the outboard side of the wheel to become wrapped around the short extension axle between the wheel and the left corner bracket. The pin of the release mechanism started in a position pressed against the rubber of the pneumatic wheel and after the bridle wrapped around the axle, ended up on the tow vehicle side of the glider's tow line.
Excellent quick thinking in a really tight spot. That should've worked twice as well as what he got on his initial efforts.On failing to release with his initial one handed attempts, the tandem instructor then grabbed the lanyard with two hands and pulled twice with both hands.
What was the expression on the face of the eleven year old tandem student in the course of this nine second 390 foot pile drive phase? Anything like we see with this:But the release did not activate and they impacted the ground.
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victim of Tandem Instructor Brad Geary's lunatic antics at Torrey?
- What were his second and third indications?The first indication of the lockout to the tow vehicle operator was seeing the glider impact the ground.
- Highly likely in a side view mirror while he was still speeding towards the center of the lakebed to keep the towline out of the brush.
Oh. This was an ACCIDENT. Thanks for the clarification. Now I'm more motivated than ever to start implementing risk management measures.Post-accident inspection of the release showed the release pin still in place.
Oh! It was a TEMPORARY repair. Kelly survived impact long enough to implement a proper PERMANENT repair.A temporary repair was in place on the bridle's release pin lanyard arrangement.
What kind of repair did you say it was? I'm having a hard time with this concept.The release pin was prevented from being retracted by that temporary repair...
OK, people of varying ages... Try not to route the release pin lanyard in a fashion requiring exceptional force to affect a release when you're making a temporary repair. Probably not one such that exceptional force is required to Effect a release - either. Also when you're doing a permanent repair - just to be on the safe side....which routed the release pin lanyard in a fashion requiring exceptional force to affect a release.
Well that was a good thing then. They found that there was a temporary repair in place on the bridle's release pin lanyard arrangement which routed the release pin lanyard in a fashion requiring exceptional force to affect a release and they were able to activate the release following the accident only by the application of exceptional force and they only applied exceptional force. I believe Kelly also attempted to apply exceptional force to affect a release but not enough exceptional force to affect a release. (Fuckin' douchebags.)Inspectors on the ground were able to activate the release following the accident only by the application of exceptional force.
- Maybe he hadn't mounted it properly within an easy enough reach.Although the tandem instructor had a hook knife in a sheath on the right downtube next to the flight instrument, no effort was made to obtain the knife.
- You mean where all AT tandem rides securely velcro their brake lever actuators?
Hard to see a problem with that.Joe Gregor - 2004/09
There is no evidence that the pilot made an attempt to release from tow prior to the weak link break, the gate was found closed on the Wallaby-style tow release.
Oh rubbish.It did not appear that the tandem instructor was in an attitude where it would have been possible for him to extract the knife from its sheath and get to a position to cut the tow line bridle once the lockout fully developed.
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.
Although the tandem instructor had a parachute, no effort was made to throw the chute; it appeared that the instructor's focus during the lockout was exclusively on activating the release.
Name some fatals that don't.This accident demonstrates a "perfect storm" of multiple factors where the elimination of any one or two of them might have prevented the fatal result.
Hang gliding itself started getting exceptionally rare shortly after this one. It's now gone pretty much extinct in a lot of former strongholds.Although tandem hang gliding fatalities are exceptionally rare...
I'm sure it doesn't give the family of the eleven year old tandem student's any. On the other hand if you two motherfuckers were to go down in flames on the same ride......the rarity of such events should not give you any comfort.
Oh.Instead, you should review your own tandem and towing operational practices to see where you can take steps to decrease the inherent risks.
- These were all INHERENT risks. Given that I'd say that the three individuals involved here did pretty good - 'specially the two who were acting as something other than ballast.
- So when we were forking over all that dough to u$hPa operatives to get trained, rated, competent we just came away with useless crap and our cards don't really count for shit. Where do we go to download the refund forms?
You mean the Mike Meier of Wills Wing who markets the extended wheel mounts the tandem instructor and the eleven year old tandem student were using on this tandem instructional flight?You are encouraged to re-read the excellent article by Mike Meier, "Why Can't We Get a Handle On This Safety Thing?" (http://www.willswing.com/why-cant-we-get-a-handle-on-this-safety-thing/).
Pity he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge the existence of this one.Although published in 1998, the risk mitigation analyses and approaches in the article are timeless and still applicable.
Pity neither of those motherfuckers could be bothered to acknowledge the existence of this one. Maybe explain why the typical two loop / four strand weak link for tandem surface tow operations properly installed and positioned between the tow bridle and the tow line didn't succeed when it was supposed to.Additionally, the technical information in "Towing Aloft" by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden is an excellent and complete reference on towing equipment and procedures.
Oh good. Then people will have better understandings of why risk factors such as the ones relevant in this excellent report need to be managed better. And we can encourage other pilots to get tandem and/or tow ratings and thus have access to incident reports such as this really excellent one.The USHPA Safety & Training, Towing and Tandem Committees are working together on an operations advisory bulletin regarding tandem and towing operations to assist you in reducing your risk.
- That way you can continue going up with nonfunctional releases - like just about everything commercially available in the US - without having to worry much about not being able to safely terminate a tow.Recommendations for reduction of risk in tandem/towing operations will likely include:
- Recommendation that payout winch tow operations utilize knowledgeable and trained spotters capable of observing the entire flight and releasing tow tension by both dropping system drag and severing the tow line;
- What's the scenario in which a payout operation towline needs to be cut? If you're utilizing knowledgeable and trained spotters capable of observing the entire flight tell me how things can get so tits up that the towline needs to be severed. We got to this point:
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with a Hang Two student 'cause aforementioned student hooked up a three-string wrong and Mission Soaring Center had zilch procedures in place for preflighting launches. And, big surprise, none of their state-of-the-art equipment was geared to handle Fuck-Up One.
The people competent enough to have solid Plan B and C equipment in place aren't ever gonna need it and the people not are gonna need it and not have it - regardless of your bullshit ass covering advisories. Fuckin' Hang Five tandem instructor screwed up his two-string and never gave his parachute a thought 'cause he'd never before given his parachute a thought. Same way he never gave a thought to having a radio configuration that would be useable in any less than stellar situation.
- Why do you need a secondary release system for anything? Surface tows such as this one don't use them anyway.- Recommendation that before each flight, the Tandem Instructor perform a demonstration of the activation of the primary and secondary release systems immediately prior to every flight both as a teaching moment for the student pilot and test of the release system;
- Since when did we start teaching tandem student pilots about anything in flying in general and hang gliding in particular?
- How much load are we using when we demonstrate and test our typical two string surface tow release system? How many commercial operators have EVER tested the cheap bent pin crap they sell as releases under emergency situation loads?
- Ya think?- Recommendation that wheels not be mounted outside the control frame;
- Why weren't those things totally outlawed for towing right after Harold Austin? Or, for that matter, before?
- Has Mike Meier, author of the excellent article "Why Can't We Get a Handle On This Safety Thing?" expressed an opinion that wheels should not be mounted outside the control frame on towed gliders? Well, it was written in 1998 and one certainly can't think of everything on the first go. And it was such an excellent article that we certainly shouldn't be expecting an update this soon after that massive effort.
- Your Standard Aerotow Weak Link does that job pretty well. It's Infallible and the worst possible consequence is a bit of inconvenience every now and then.- Reminder of the low cost and easy reduction of risk through an early termination of a tow as compared to the potential high cost and inherent risk of continuing a "non-perfect" tow;
- When Kelly realized it was a "non-perfect" tow it was way too fuckin' late. If he'd been a competent pilot he'd have terminated that tow two years before it started and gotten himself a sane equipment configuration.
- Suck my dick. This tow could've gone to full altitude and would have if the JLD had known what he was doing. And if it had then embarrassment would've been the most severe consequence.
This:
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is a "non-perfect" tow. The low cost and easy reduction of risk through an early termination could very easily have been a dead glider pilot - as was the case in a very similar tandem situation when Corey Burk made a good decision in the interest of Rob Richardson's safety. The tandem rider got off with a concussion.
But thanks bigtime for so spectacularly revealing what an incredible load of totally incompetent stupid douchebags we have behind and in line with this document. And somebody find me one entity outside of Kite Strings who calls you assholes on anything.
- Kelly Harrison was Master rated by Joe Greblo 1996/10/23. What possible chance would any of us muppets have to do small fractions as well as Kelly did on this one?- Reminder of your ability to reduce the inherent risk by being ready, proficient and able to get through all of the sequential emergency lockout procedures - "release, cut, throw parachute" - within the time/altitude available.
- This was not a lockout. About the only way you can experience a lockout in payout is to crab back in line with the truck in a crosswind - à la John Woiwode. AT is the environment in which lockout tends to be a legitimate issue - and kill zone dangerous thermal induced lockouts are so rare as to be virtually nonexistent. This is a bridle hung up on an extended wheel as a consequence of a totally incompetently executed tow and it's so stupid and avoidable that it's not worth talking about with respect to preventing a rerun.
If you assholes hadn't licensed Kelly to sell thrill rides to eleven-year-olds this one would've been total Darwin Effect and nothing more. There was nothing to learn from this one:
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either - but it was a helluva lot more forgivable.
Note in the five bullshit recommendations above the conspicuous absences of references to driver qualification and radio communications. If either the driver had understood what he was supposed to be doing and what was supposed to be going on or Kelly had been able to tell him what he was supposed to be doing and what was supposed to be going on and what was actually going on this one wouldn't have happened. Always pay really close attention to what these slimebags AREN'T saying.
Next time you get a document like this pull it up in word processing, cross out all the crap about hook knives and spotters, visually scan it, figure out what you're not seeing and should be.
- But obviously only if you're a tandem and/or tow rated pilot with a paid up membership. Otherwise you couldn't possibly have anything of any actual value to offer.In response to this incident, your thoughts and ideas are actively solicited as we use the lessons learned to develop the operations advisory bulletin to help our other pilots and students avoid similar fates.
- Oh really? It's been a bit over five years since you sleazy assholes posted this where nobody could find or access this bullshit document. Where can we go - outside of Kite Strings I mean - to find a single fragment of a submitted thought, idea, comment on this bullshit? And where can we go to see Version 1.1? You don't even bother making a pretense of telling us where, how to submit anything. You just threw that crap in to present an illusion of giving a flying fuck about anything or anyone beyond corporate ass covering.
Five years. The kid would've been just sixteen now. Still seems like an eternity ago.Rich Hass
President
Martin Palmaz
Executive Director
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Figure 1: Google Earth overview of Jean Dry Lakebed location and glider track. Glider track color scaled for altitude - red surface levels and blue maximum altitudes.
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Figure 2: Annotated flight instrument data plot of Time vs Altitude, Vertical Speed and Ground Speed along with GPS ground track of flight.
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Figure 3: Annotated Google Earth plot of glider track and estimated tow vehicle track.
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Figure 4: Google Earth side view of glider descent path looking NW.
