You are NEVER hooked in.

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2021/05/14 04:33:19 UTC

NMERider - 2021/05/12 16:57:46 UTC

There was a previous fatal FTHI on April 16 at the same launch...

Absolutely incredible. We go almost exactly nine years without a fatal and then kill a solo and half a tandem at the same launch in the blink of an eye.

Federico told me with tone of surprise and perplexity, implying "how can you forget the hookup?"

Can we IMAGINE how he felt halfway down the ramp and realized what he'd just done? On a tandem with a bucket lister securely hooked in?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=64594
Another 'Failure to Clip In' Fatality.

Harry Martin - 2021/05/12 14:51:31 UTC

It boils down to one thing and one thing alone...POOR LAUNCH HABITS!

Lift the glider and feel the leg loops or straps.
Lift the glider so high it hurts the crotch. It should be your launch religion.
Only then will you know you are hooked in.

For a tandem launch, you had better feel YOUR straps to be sure.

Don't rely on gadgets and friends. The gadgets can fail and your friends may not be your friends.
If you are the last to launch and there is no one around, you MUST have FAIL SAFE launch habits.

Here's a question for the HG world...Why no tandem harnesses?
Why is the pilot harness not permanently attached to the passenger harness?
Maybe that would stop pilots and/or passengers from failing to hook in.

I don't know about schools today, but the school I went through decades ago, ALWAYS taught me to lift the glider high before launch. Feel the straps. It takes the slop out of launch. Now, I watch Youtube videos and all I see is sloppy launches. It's your neck. Just stuff to think about.

Harry
http://HarryMartinCartoons.com
Casper, Wyoming

It boils down to one thing and one thing alone...POOR LAUNCH HABITS!

Bullshit. THE one thing to which it boils down is the Industry Standard assumption that whenever one is at launch position he's obviously totally good to go 'cause he's a solid u$hPa Three or better and has an extremely well trained brain. It needs to be the opposite.

Lift the glider and feel the leg loops or straps.

I always did. But:
- It doesn't identify a partial hook-in.
- Not everyone can do it on all gliders in all circumstances.
And for procedures to be solid they need to be universal.

Lift the glider so high it hurts the crotch.

Why? That still won't catch a partial or a Garck velcro issue.

It should be your launch religion.

Fuck religion. If you want religion then go with Aussie Methodism - along with prayer in your last seconds of life.

Only then will you know you are hooked in.

I won't. My memory isn't that good. I NEVER *KNOW* I'm hooked in. The instant I KNOW I'm hooked in is the instant I start opening myself up to the possibility of an unhooked launch. After I've done everything I can think of to ensure that I'm hooked in I'll start my run under the assumption that my odds are a fair bit over fifty/fifty... But tell me why anybody ever NEEDS to know he's hooked in? 'Specially when he virtually always has a whole flock of assholes back on, behind, around the ramp doing that for him?

For a tandem launch, you had better feel YOUR straps to be sure.

1. But if it's just you solo... Really not that big of a fuckin' deal.

2. Why? This:

046-35321
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047-35705
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048-35714
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won't catch everything in the zone he's just visually checking?

Don't rely on gadgets...

The guys who use the gadgets don't launch unhooked. The reason they have the gadgets is 'cause they know they're capable and afraid of doing it.

Notice the way no gadgeteer has ever attributed a save to his toy? They're creating the gadgets out of fear. These:

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.

are the assholes most likely to launch unhooked and least likely to catch anybody else about to.

...and friends.

Incidents like 2005/10/01 Bill Priday and 2008/08/30 Kunio Yoshimura show us that when we're on the ramp we don't ever have any friends. And if you don't believe me then go through all of Greg Porter's stuff and find me a reference to the latter's previous existence. (Guess it doesn't count if you're going off from the launch sixty yards to the left of the one from which you had your own similar incident.)

The gadgets can fail...

The gadgeteers know they can fail. They're probably even less likely to launch unhooked after they DO.

...and your friends may not be your friends.

In a dickhead magnet sport like hang gliding you can count on it. 'Specially given that your more decent sorts - like Scott Wilkinson and Randy SkyWalker - tend to fade out after witnessing stuff they think or know they could've prevented.

If you are the last to launch and there is no one around, you MUST have FAIL SAFE launch habits.

On a scale of one to ten... Craig Pirazzi?

Here's a question for the HG world...Why no tandem harnesses?

1. How 'bout no Western AT releases that don't stink on ice?
2. There ARE integrated over/under tandem harnesses. They use NOTHING BUT for AT launched rides.

Why is the pilot harness not permanently attached to the passenger harness?

Maybe 'cause on this latest instance they'd have had to recover twice the number of bodies from the slope? If - as has been suggested - Federico had unhooked to adjust or retrieve something while prepping for a launch... And we've never yet had a double fatal on an unhooked tandem launch - despite Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's best efforts.

Maybe that would stop pilots and/or passengers from failing to hook in.

"Passengers" - which are supposed to be STUDENTS - *NEVER* hook themselves in. The guys who run these rides only want to dispose of their bucket listers as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I don't know about schools today...

This wasn't anything remotely related to a school operation. And all schools do is teach students how to execute perfectly timed landing flares within five yards of the old Frisbee in the middle of the LZ.

...but the school I went through decades ago...

Who? I've never found documentation of one single school ANYWHERE teaching this one right.

...ALWAYS taught me...

ALWAYS taught you? How many times did you need to understand the significance of being connected to your glider prior to running off the ramp? I only needed to hear this message one time.

...to lift the glider high before launch.

How long before launch? Pat Denevan figures all his students' memories are good for a minimum of fifteen seconds. Which is at least ten times as long as I figure my own memory is good for. But he must be right 'cause I've never heard any of his products advocating for anything less convenient.

Feel the straps. It takes the slop out of launch.

1. So does going down on a platform...

16-00901
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...or dolly. But due to the severe danger of tow launching inherent in all the extra complexity...

2. Bullshit. Glider down on your shoulders in light air... It lifts off in two steps.

Now, I watch Youtube videos and all I see is sloppy launches.

1. How often do you see sloppy platform and dolly tow launches?

2. This issue doesn't have shit to do with shit to do with proficiency in execution of physical skills. The guy who just inspired this discussion was a national champion.

It's your neck. Just stuff to think about.

Big help, Harry. You may be doing things and have the basic mindset right but your contribution to the discussion is a waters muddying disaster.

And they still got better things to talk about on the Jack and Bob Shows.

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2021/05/16 14:44:13 UTC

http://www.facebook.com/

Fabio Giongo - 2021/05

That day, for Enzo it was the second flight of the day, at 83 years old it seems that he left without hooking up, Federico told me with tone of surprise and perplexity, implying "how can you forget the hookup?"

Why does anyone in this sport with a Hang One or better need to ask this question? This issue has been killing people in hang gliding since about Day 2 and people of all experience and proficiency levels in nearly all environments make this error all the fuckin' time.

Good - or bad - thing he didn't ask me that question. I'd have gone nuclear on his ass and had him grounded until he fully understood how one could forget to hook up. Also REMEMBER to hook up but forget that one had subsequently unhooked and hadn't reconnected. It's been speculated that that was the case on 2021/05/08 and it's not a bad bet that that was what actually happened.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/message/11700
Question

Zack C - 2010/11/18 05:59:03 UTC

The first thing I learned to do in the field at Lookout was a hang check. I was told a story by my instructor about the then-recent death of a pilot who launched without being through his leg loops. The instructor called this pilot an 'idiot'. This is how I was taught to think from Day 1.

Don't worry, Federico. You're a national champion with qualifications coming outta your ass. Definitely NOT an idiot.

But at this point:

05-0022

you realized you were the biggest idiot on the planet and wouldn't hold that distinction for long. Just another seven seconds - as things turned out. If you'd realized that three seconds prior to that point then everybody's day would've gone a lot better. We need signs just behind all hang glider launch ramps - "TOTAL IDIOTS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT - CREW AND PASSENGERS INCLUDED"

How can you forget the hookup? Scores of ways. The vast majority of unhooked launches leave the would-be pilot in good enough shape to recount the issues and details. And when that's not the case you damn near always have glider people from launch who were observing, crewing, part of the problem and know exactly what happened and why. We have no shortage of accounts. And you know what they say about those who fail to learn from history.

People at launch are hooking, unhooking, rehooking all the fuckin' time - battery's dead, forgot the gloves, need one more to launch this glider, missed tensioning the third batten out to port, guess my driver will need the keys, camera's not swittched on, dust devil.... And you don't need that many monkeys with typewriters to make one of these happen.

And the most critically important assembly point on the whole fuckin' wing is straight BEHIND you. You can't see it without expending some significant effort.

And I'm saying it's a no brainer that the number of carabiners connected but not locked is at least totally dwarfed by the numbers of carabiners that aren't connected at all until:
- accidentally caught by the guy moving to launch position
- noticed by a wire assistant
- launch is irreversibly initiated

And now that I think about it...

Your buddy's reaction was "How can you forget the hookup?" So what was your reaction to his reaction? Mine would've been my jaw dropping to the floor followed by "You've GOT to be kidding me!" and - assuming it was someone about whom I gave a rat's ass - a very substantive conversation.

And speaking of conversations... 2021/04/16 (a month ago today) was the date of the one with Federico regarding the unwitnessed Enzo Giordani FTHI launch fatality. The incident itself was six days prior.

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2022/03/24 03:40:13 UTC

Have been going through forum topics and cleaning things up from most to least submissions. Today - 2022/03/23 (barely still on EDT) - finished with this one, had found on the Davis Show a photo and started thinking back. He is the only unhooked launch fatal I've known personally - just a bit of one afternoon at Manquin on 2004/09/20 (at which point he had a year plus eleven days left to live) - but enough to be very favorably impressed by him.

That one (at...

09-05019
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http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2933/14074543322_a183cc3a23_o.png
10-05124

...Whitwell) was probably as major as they get for a solo and sent major shockwaves through our sleazy national organization. And the traffic generated at the time of the incident on the Capitol Club rag:

Topic numbers - UTC times of first posts - Posts - Initiators

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=
1149 - 2005/10/01 02:42:09 - 11 - Team Challenge: Daily Update Thread - Scott Wilkinson
1152 - 2005/10/02 01:58:29 - 20 - Bill Priday's death - Scott Wilkinson
1153 - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 - 29 - Hooking In - Steve Kinsley
1160 - 2005/10/03 18:13:15 - 04 - launching unhooked - Christy Huddle
1166 - 2005/10/04 13:52:34 - 71 - Thoughts on responsibility... - Scott Wilkinson
1167 - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 - 05 - The way it outa be - Steve Kinsley
1168 - 2005/10/04 22:08:25 - 10 - Memorial Service for Bill Priday - Holly Korzilius
1169 - 2005/10/05 02:31:47 - 01 - A note from a member of Bill Priday's family... - Scott Wilkinson
1170 - 2005/10/05 12:44:00 - 05 - another safety issue, reaction to stress - Lauren Tjaden
1172 - 2005/10/05 15:07:06 - 01 - Remembrance of Bill Priday - Daniel Broxterman
1175 - 2005/10/06 00:03:51 - 03 - Re[2]: Thoughts on responsibility... - Ralph Sickinger
1176 - 2005/10/06 00:11:02 - 02 - Re[4]: Thoughts on responsibility... - Ralph Sickinger
1179 - 2005/10/06 15:38:18 - 01 - Re[6]: Thoughts on responsibility... - Ralph Sickinger
1180 - 2005/10/06 16:26:01 - 03 - Final Words on Wire Crew Vigilance - Scott Wilkinson
1182 - 2005/10/06 21:18:03 - 01 - unhooked--unhitched - Marc Fink
1183 - 2005/10/07 01:07:30 - 03 - Hook in training starts on day one... - Richard Hays
1188 - 2005/10/07 12:03:16 - 03 - Harness main - Shawn Ray
1192 - 2005/10/07 17:10:34 - 01 - The Lawsuit Mentality - Cragin Shelton
1187 - 2005/10/07 12:00:39 - 05 - Hookin wrap-up - Marc Fink
1189 - 2005/10/07 12:44:57 - 04 - Gary Smith's video - Shawn Ray
1206 - 2005/10/11 13:54:43 - 04 - A Celebration of Bill Priday's Life - Scott Wilkinson
1220 - 2005/10/14 04:45:34 - 01 - Safety Reminders on the CHGPA Web Site - Cragin Shelton

Some selections:

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

Chris McKee - 2005/10/03 13:29:56 UTC

I've always been a die-hard fan of the Aussie method, but I can not do it with my new Viper harness. Its a bitch to get into normally, let alone do it while attached to the glider. I'm just committed to having a set pre-takeoff routine with checks/doublechecks prior to flying. Would love any input on any Viper harness owners and if they are able to get hooked in via Aussie style.

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

Chris McKee - 2005/10/03 14:17:29 UTC

Something I have never understood with our sport and with accidents like this happening every year, I am at a loss. In every form of organized aviation, be that military or general avation, we live & die by a checklist. Especially in multi-piloted aircraft, we check and cross check to make sure nothing has been missed. During flight school, I was required to have my checklist in hand and my hand in physical contact with the skin of the aircraft on every preflight. The only time I was allowed to remove my hand from contact with my aircraft was to turn the page of my checklist, and God help me if I was on the wrong page as I continued. I don't understand why we don't have a checklist. I had a written checklist when I first started flying hang gliders and have since let the written part wist away. I still do a full preflight and revert back to my training and touch my glider all the way around. I am just as guilty for not having it written down anymore, but hopefully my preflight routine has been ingrained enough. I just can't understand how a hang check can be missed. There is only 1 thing holding us up against gravity and that is a simple carabiner hooked thru 2 pieces of nylon webbing. I guess I'm just venting, but God I hope that everyone who flies any form of aviation understands how important a preflight is. I am so paranoid about preflight and hooking in that I check at least 5 times every time I fly to make sure everything is where I put it and nothing has come undone. I'm not saying that you have to be Obsessive-Compulsive like I am, but this is the most preventable accident we could ever experience. Its not us against Mother Nature, its us against ourselves. If I'm on launch crew, its the first thing I look at when a person is coming up the ramp. I don't care if your GPS is set or your camelbak is in place. I look to make sure you are hooked in. The sad thing to say is I caught Bill unhooked on launch at the Pulpit Fly-In and made him do a full hang check before I would wire him off. Obviously this was not ingrained into his routine or it wasn't beaten into him enough during his training. As Instructors and Observers, we MUST ensure that new hang glider pilots are trained in proper preflight. It must be a routine and not something that is taken lightly. Once you are qualified as an H2, you are the pilot of your aircraft. It is yours and yours alone responsibility to preflight your aircraft and ensure proper safety. A wire crew doublechecking you is not something you can count on. If you begin to count on them to catch your mistakes, you run the risk of failure in a self-launch condition or with inexperienced wire crew. Half of the posts on this forum are people asking how to program their GPS or how to go XC. Make sure you worry about the most basic off all principals of flight and that is ensure you do it safely. I really hope this is a wake up call to all of us old and new pilots alike and that you realize you are mortal. Spend more time preflighting and making sure you will take off and return to terra firma safely. With nearly 20 years of flying experience, I've lost more friends to pilot error than I have to enemy fire. Please don't add yourself to my list. Preflight. Preflight again. Be paranoid and continue to check until its second nature.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=924
Tragedy at Team Challenge

Shawn Ray - 2005/10/03 15:09:13 UTC
Chambersburg

A Quote from Chris in our club that Bill belonged to. I didn't know this I was down in the lz filming...
Chris McKee - 2005/10/03 14:17:29 UTC

The sad thing to say is I caught Bill unhooked on launch at the Pulpit Fly-in and made him do a full hang check before I would wire him off. Obviously this was not ingrained into his routine or it wasn't beaten into him enough during his training. As instructors and observers, we MUST insure that new hang glider pilots are trained in proper preflight. It must be a routine and not something that is taken lightly. Once you are qualified as a hang 2, you are the pilot of your aircraft.
I didn't know.
Shawn.

(Pic of Bill And Chris At the Pulpit Fly-in)

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

Allen Sparks - 2005/10/03 15:33:32 UTC

In 1976 I launched unhooked during a windy assisted cliff launch. By some miracle, I walked away from that idiotic mistake without more than a few bruises. It is something that I am not proud of, and I occasionally wonder why I survived.

Maybe talking about it can serve as additional motiviation.

The feeling of terror and helplessness that arises while you are hanging below the basetube by your fingers ... is something you don't ever want to experience.

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

Chris McKee - 2005/10/03 17:18:49 UTC

I'm usually not one to stand up for Marc, but I'll go out on a limb on this one. I think its his wording that came across wrong rather than his intent. Marc was questioning a previous post of a launch crew questioning Bill on whether he was hooked in. I was the safety director at the Pulpit Fly-In and was one of the people questioning Bill about his hang check. When Bill assured us that he had accomplished his hang check, I just asked him why he wasn't hooked in then? We forced him to back off of launch and complete a full hang check in front of us. It is daft to think anyone would of let him launch in that condition and I do not believe Marc was alluding to that thought. I know emotions are very raw and we are all hurt at this loss. We are all in shock and just trying to figure out the why's to be able to deal with this and move forward.

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

Chris McKee - 2005/10/03 17:27:34 UTC

I will argue reliance on a checklist as I have lived with them for over 3,000 hours of military aircraft flight time. As a military pilot, I have a preflight checklist, an engine starting checklist, a pre-takeoff checklist, a pre-landing checklist, a post-flight checklist and a mission checklist. I don't think that much indepth of a system is appropriate for hang gliding, but the mentality behind it is. After your basic preflight you are done. You do a hang check (pre-takeoff check) right before flight. If you do anything out of the normal cycle i.e. having to unhook to restow gear, etc, you return to the beginning of your hang check and start from the beginning to make sure you do not miss a step. You don't have to re-preflight your glider, but you've set yourself up for a repeatable routine. Once you involve yourself in something outside of normal hang check, you set yourself up for failure if you do not repeat it from start. As I said, I'm OCD, but I have gone so far to take my glider off of the cart at Ridgely and reset myself at the end of the line to make sure I haven't missed anything in my haste. I can't force anyone to do as I do, but I can recommend that you adopt a repeatable process for prechecks and don't let anything distract you unless you are willing to complete it once you deal with the distraction.

Chris was a major waste of space who somehow managed to get promoted through elementary school without ever being able to grasp the concept of a paragraph. Like he was promoted through the u$hPa Pilot Proficiency System without ever being able to grasp the concept of a hook-in check - let alone being able to get the concept through to a newish Three from an incompetent flatlands training environment. The highlighted text in his 2005/10/03 14:17:29 UTC post is what's quoted by Shawn.

The Pic of Bill And Chris At the Pulpit Fly-in is actually a Pic of Chris And Bill - left to right respectively - at the Pulpit Fly-in. I wasn't sure at first but...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1160
launching unhooked

Christy Huddle - 2005/10/03 18:13:15 UTC

It is really tragic when a death occurs that could have so easily been avoided. I was stunned to read about Bill's death and remembered how much fun he was at the Pulpit fly-in. He was obviously loving life.

In any case, I make it a point on mountain launches (especially) to hook in before moving to launch.

Whitwell reminded me of Zirks except the LZ glide is much greater. Not a forgiving place to launch unhooked.

(If you potato long enough on launch, is someone?bound to notice if you happened to be unhooked?)

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 12:56:59 UTC

Christy asked that if you potatoed the launch long enough would not someone be bound to notice that you were not hooked in.

I think one of the reasons people don't notice is that we often have black harnesses. The black riser mains are not very visible. I thought Dave Proctor had a good idea: Get Steve W to make some flourescent orange velcro chute line covers to replace the black ones.

Scott Wilkinson - 2005/10/04 13:11:21 UTC

Steve hit on a possible contributing factor to Bill's accident. In our exhaustive discussions afterwards, the fact surfaced that Bill had a Wills Wing glider (with the characteristic short, white hang loops), and a High Energy harness. I don't know if this is true of all High Energy harnesses...but Bill's harness had short mains. So he had installed a 12" long (or longer) extension loop that was black.

The end result was that, at a glance, even when Bill was not hooked in, an observer would have seen a long black strap running from his harness up to his white WW hang loop...and possibly interpreted this as him being hooked in (because this is how most WW harnesses look when hooked in).

Again, this is just a possible contributing factor---not the sole cause.

Regardless, just knowing this makes me second Steve's suggestion---that making harness mains flourescent orange (or some bright color) could help. I also think that any harness in which the carabiner is more than a few inches below the keel (in other words, in plain sight) is a bad idea. Not technically, but visually. A pilot's carabiner---when hooked in---should be easy to see at a glance from any angle. Bill's wasn't.

We can clearly enough see that in the photo. (Glider's a Sport 2.) Also that the spreader and carabiner are properly oriented. Somebody please find me a still (from a non Kite Strings person) illustrating same. (Although PJ's rigging (almost certainly also on a Sport 2) at the kill site (while he's killing both the hook-in check and cliff launch birds with one stone) isn't bad.)

And...

04-2125
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Good freakin' luck with your ideas for getting fellow flyers at launch to better catch suspension issues.

12-3215
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NMERider · Post by **NMERider** » 2022/03/31 03:09:03 UTC

Thanks for those last frame stills. The video for that FTHI came up in my YouTube feed a few minutes ago. It's quite spectacular. I haven't kept up with this topic in a long time.
https://youtu.be/mV6R2PnUz8s

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2022/04/03 21:24:35 UTC

For the record... You got us started on this one back at:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post12174.html#p12174

Original video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXH_bfT2rUI

Hwang Jae-yong DELTA AEROSPORTS - 2019/03/21

But what the hell... Rip it off and move it from South Korea (37°22'52.45" N 128°25'15.95" E) to Brazil.

In this Brazilian rip-off fifteen comments to date - not one of them even remotely hinting at anything in the way of a hook-in check. The sport's most lethal treasured institutions:
- hang check
- base leg completed by two hundred foot minimum
- perfectly timed spot landing flare on the old Frisbee in the center of the LZ
- infallible weak link - one with which Davis is happy
- reliable release within easy reach - one with which Davis has never had a problem
- civility
- respect and concern for any presumed feelings and wishes...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8051
Mishap -- Initial Report

Jeff Eggers - 2022/03/04 14:05:12 UTC
McLean, Virginia

CHGPA Members - I'm saddened to write that we lost Ward Odenwald in a fatal accident yesterday (Thursday) at Woodstock. The mishap occurred at approximately 3:10 pm when Ward's hang-glider impacted a tree while setting up to land in the bridge/cornfield LZ. Local residents responded to the crash and activated emergency medical response and local sheriffs removed the glider from the area. Sheriffs notified Ward’s family late Thursday evening. John Middleton and Rich Heigel are both in touch with Ward’s family. We will get the club further details as they become available. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and all of Ward's friends at this extremely difficult time.
---
CHGPA President - USHPA 82627 - FCC KK4QMQ

Anthony Lloyd - 2022/03/05 18:44:42 UTC

-
Last edited by A.Lloyd on 2022/03/07 13:33:19 UTC, edited 1 time in total.

Mark Cavanaugh - 2022/03/07 08:06:25 UTC

Family and friends of Ward who may be checking into our forums for the first time might be unaware that we are deliberately not posting very much at the moment.

That's intentional. We don't want to add to their burden. And a forum is a poor substitute for meaningful conversations.

But Ward has many friends here. So please know that he and you are in our thoughts.

Jeff Eggers - 2022/03/29 00:11:02 UTC

CHGPA Members-

The mishap report from the fatality mishap earlier this month is on the club website, accessible only to members.

It is accessible under the member section at the bottom under Reports. The report has been submitted to USHPA and it is archived in our club google drive folders.

...for any snuffed pilot's family - eternally. (I'd crossed paths with Ward a few times in the earlier years of my career.)

And we all know how horrified and traumatized families become when accurate and comprehensive incident reports are made publicly available. We learned that the hard way under the back in the days of R.V. Wills and Doug Hildreth.

Gawd. I think yours is the first hang gliding primary mission post from someone other than Yours Truly since 2021/01/17 23:46:34 UTC:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post12205.html#p12205
Steve Davy

And your post brought us to a total of 12221 - cool palindrome. Sorry to have been a bit slow in seeing it - about 2022/04/03 00:30:00 UTC. Nowadays I tend to go a fair bit between checks for new traffic - even though I'm always logged in and frequently working on stuff. But thanks bigtime, Jonathan. Substantial morale boost.

Brian contacted me via PM 2022/03/14 19:24:04 UTC after finding himself unable to post to the forum. I was able to scratch the surface of the problem in the Administration Control Panel but soon threw in the towel and ran to Zack.

The problem - he fixed and explained to me - was that Brian was in the "Registered users: usergroup and that had somehow gotten its setting switched to "Read Only Access". (Davis, Jack, Rooney, Sam have that much.) Until just now I'd been worried that others might have been similarly blocked and given up and split but I've made every Member I've deemed an overall asset to the mission - eighteen individuals currently in the group - a Moderator so not bloody likely. (Brian had requested that I leave him as a regular member.)

As I reported in my previous post... Been working fixing problems and making improvements to our collections of posts from Day 1 to present since about mid February. Started with "instructors and other qualified pilot fiends" with its 1865 top level of posts and have been working down the decreasing levels of prolificacy. Have completed the aforementioned, "Weak links", "landing", "The Bob Show", "You are NEVER hooked in." and am at present a bit over halfway through "Releases" - 7718 / 63 percent of the palindrome. One could spend a freakin' lifetime...

<BS> · Post by **<BS>** » 2022/04/05 16:17:37 UTC

Thanks Tad and Zack.

Tad Eareckson · Post by **Tad Eareckson** » 2022/09/23 19:00:24 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mX2HNwVr9g
Hang Gliding Crash
andyh0p - 2011/04/24

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21868
Don't Forget your Hang Check!

Long dead video, brought to light on The Jack Show, one of my earlier stills harvesting projects when I was WAY too conservative on bandwidth issues. Very low resolution. Pulled nine frames at the time.

Of the fifteen discussion participants all but Eric Hinrichs are now extinct. And Grant Bond was killed launching at the same site 2013/05/30.

The site is Mount Bakewell. I haven't yet identified the launch but 31°51'02.02" S 116°45'55.81" E gets you in the neighborhood.

At least three other individuals at launch - likely all flyers. And nobody looks to verify that he's hooked in. What a waste of time and attention doing so would be in a land in which nobody ever enters a harness not properly connected to a glider.

Glider maxes out at 18-0919.

Watching the separation and the reactions of those in launch area it appears that our would-be pilot has stayed healthy. We have confirmation at the end of the clip where we can see him on his feet coming back up the slope. And he never publicly identifies himself or gives us an account of the incident.

Nice looking cloud street not far to the east.

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