You are NEVER hooked in.

[Tad Eareckson]

Star FM - 2012/04/28

Jason Warner, who is the safety director for the Hang Glider and Para Glider Association of Canada, tells our sister station News 1130 that the pilot was experienced, and is obviously distraught by what has happened. He says it's actually a very safe sport, and it's a shock when something this rare happens.

The Vancouver Sun - 2012/04/30

HPAC spokesman Jason Warner said he wasn't too familiar with what happened in New Zealand and could not "confirm or deny" whether Parson - who is no longer a member of HPAC - was still offering flights.

Shocked! SHOCKED!!!

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

Jason Boehm - 2012/05/01 13:07:29 UTC

when i take someone tandem, the responsibility that they are hooked in rests squarely and only on me- i mentioned this to my gf yesterday...and she brought up that when I take her tandem I always check like 3 times to make sure everything is right

another pair of eyes couldn't hurt. but it isn't something i count on

Yeah Jason...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1167
The way it outa be

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 UTC

One last attempt.

We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, etc. Bob Gillisse redux.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.

Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC

What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.

1. I'll bet you always check like three times to make sure everything is right.

2. So when you finally get to launch position you're ABSOLUTELY SURE everything is right.

3. And you sure don't count on another pair of eyes 'cause you know damn well that neither you nor any of the other assholes with whom you fly ever bother locking onto the suspension of someone's glider just prior to launch any more than y'all bother with hook-in checks just prior to launch.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

mvent2009 - 2012/05/01 14:54:45
Merida, Venezuela

Sad news...
Always do a hang check before takeoff.

Tom Galvin - 2012/05/01 15:16:52
Pagosa Springs

A hang check is part of your preflight. Every rating in the US requires that:

USHPA Standard Operating Procedures:

With each flight, demonstrate method(s) of establishing that pilot is hooked in JUST PRIOR to launch.

Do a Hook-In check every flight.

I'll bet that traces back to Steve Kinsley by way of Yours Truly.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

David W. Johnson - 2012/05/01 20:59:31
Huntsville, Alabama

This made it over into the skydiving forums as well. Sounds like a hang check was not performed.

Sounds like you don't read a whole lot of fatality reports.

Something similar happened with a pilot at Henson's Gap in Tennessee a few years ago.

No it didn't. It happened TO a person who came out of a shit program and was never trained to be a pilot at Whitwell in Tennessee a few years ago.

I never get into my harness until it is hooked in because of this.

1. Of course you don't.
2. So what were you doing BEFORE Bill ran off the ramp without his glider?
3. Why did it hafta be a fairly recent local death to get you thinking about this issue? The dozens which preceded it weren't good enough?
4. What the fuck was you're asshole "instructor" saying about the issue?
5. Have you ever read the fucking requirements for your fucking rating?
6. Did you even bother reading what Tom Galvin said about your fucking rating requirements less than six hours ago?

I hate to see friends walking around in their harnesses. Makes me nervous.

But you are one hundred percent totally cool with seeing your friends - and your daughter - move their gliders to the front of the ramp and run off with no more in the way of a verification than Lenami got three days ago.

Asshole.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

Steve Baran - 2012/05/01 20:08:08
Chattaroy

Hmmm, I walk around with mine - then hook in. Mainly since that is always how I've done it. I didn't think I could really get into my harness very easily with it being attached to the glider first. Now that I envision really giving it a try I think it may work out OK.

I don't fly with other pilots often but our group in the area is growing.

I dunno, Steve... If your area includes stuff within a 230 mile radius it sounds to me like the group might've just gotten a wee bit smaller and lost a little growth potential.

I'd just as soon be safer AND not make other pilots nervous with my current habits.

Yeah, Steve. Good idea. Go with the flow. The last thing you want around launch is nervous pilots. You want everybody nice and relaxed - focusing entirely on the conditions and launch run. Just like Jon and his family, Lenami and her boyfriend, and all the spectators at Woodside were early Saturday afternoon.

So, thanks for posting that. I'll give it a go next time I go flying.

Total fucking morons gravitate to other total fucking morons with a force absolutely ASTOUNDING to behold. I wonder if we could get some kind of extract by grinding up their testicles that would help get this Emerald Ash Borer situation under control.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25963
Woman killed in B.C. hang gliding fall.

Manta_Dreaming - 2012/05/01 17:10:47

Lock is the keyword - I've had my strap in the carabiner but it was snagged just a bit on the latch. Locking takes care of this problem however I can see this might have happened and when it went slack came unhitched.

Jack Barth - 2012/05/01 19:17:03

Locked carabiner, Ironic thing happened about a month past. I read an article here regarding hang loop getting snagged in the entry gate. It had never happened to me and couple of weeks later I caught myself with the hang loop snagged and the gate open. Thirty years plus and this had never happened?

If it's locked it's fully engaged and closed.
But just looking at it to verify that it's fully engaged and closed accomplishes the same thing.
And there are lotsa situations in which you can be flying when it's a bad idea to be connected to the glider with a locked carabiner.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27514
Press Accuracy? Tandem accident in Brtish Columbia

Andrew Stakhov - 2012/05/02 12:15:20
Toronto

Talked to a buddy of mine that runs tandem operation in the area. He said about a dozen people called in to cancel bookings and call volume for new signups dropped by two thirds. The BS that media is pulling on this is actually going to ruin people's livelihood...

See Steve? You were getting yourself all worried about nothing.

I think that all the problems we've been having with crowded setup areas, long launch lines, packed thermals, and LZ traffic have already started evaporating. I think that this single tandem launch / solo landing event last weekend is heralding a golden age for this sport.

And no need to alter your procedures or start complying with USHGA rating requirements. What you're doing almost always works just fine for almost everybody who operates that way.

[Tad Eareckson]

Bookings with Vancouver Hang Gliding

Trip Includes:

- Free transportation from the Landing field to launch by our 4WD shuttle
- The flight

Extra
- Video footage of your flight in memory card - $30

Mint flavored - an additional five bucks.

[Tad Eareckson]

Kelly Sinoski - 2012/05/02
The Vancouver Sun

Hang gliding pilot accused of swallowing evidence

William Jonathan Orders is suspected of ingesting video recording of fatal flight and will appear in court today.

Hang gliding pilot William Jonathan Orders is accused of swallowing key evidence in the death of Lenami Godinez, who fell 300 metres after becoming detached from a tandem glider last weekend.

Affidavits filed in Chilliwack Provincial Court, and obtained by Global News, suggest Orders attempted to withhold evidence by swallowing a memory card potentially containing a recording of the fatal flight.

Orders, who has been charged with obstructing justice, is scheduled to appear in Chilliwack Provincial Court this afternoon on a bail hearing. He has been in custody since the incident.

Orders, who has 16 years experience, is owner-operator of Vancouver Hang Gliding.

He was taking Godinez, 27, on a tandem hang gliding flight last Saturday when she became detached from the glider shortly after the pair launched off Mount Woodside near Agassiz.

Godinez grabbed desperately at Orders, even clinging to his feet while he tried to grab her harness straps, but she continued to slip before falling to her death.

Her body was found by searchers seven hours later in a clearcut about twenty metres from one of Orders' shoes.

Her death has shocked the tight-knit hang gliding and paragliding community, who use Mount Woodside as a popular launching point.

It has also prompted Attorney-General Shirley Bond to look into the regulations around hang gliding, which falls under Transport Canada but is largely self-regulated compared with the restrictions placed on larger aircraft, float planes, skydivers, ultralights and even hot air balloons.

There have been five hang gliding fatalities across Canada in the past decade, three of those in B.C.

Calling Godinez's death "an absolutely horrific tragedy," Bond said Tuesday she has asked staff for background on the regulations around the sport. But she added she will wait until investigations by the police and BC Coroners' Service have been wrapped up before she considers whether to pursue any changes.

The Coroner's Service, she added, may potentially provide recommendations around regulation, depending on its investigation.

"There are a number of parallel investigations underway as we speak. Obviously I have to be very careful," Bond said in Victoria.

"I need to be certain about the gap that exists, if it does, and what I want to have happen most expeditiously is that the two investigations that are underway, both criminal and by the Coroner, take their course and then we will make a decision about whether there is a role for the provincial government."

BC Coroners Service spokeswoman Barb McLintock said Tuesday the interest in the case could lead to an inquest but no decision has been made yet.

So Jason...

Star FM - 2012/04/28

Jason Warner, who is the safety director for the Hang Glider and Para Glider Association of Canada, tells our sister station News 1130 that the pilot was experienced, and is obviously distraught by what has happened. He says it's actually a very safe sport, and it's a shock when something this rare happens.

Jessica Peters - 2012/04/29
Agassiz Observer

Experts in hang gliding said Saturday that they cannot recall an incident like this ever happening in the sport's 25-year history in Canada.

The Vancouver Sun - 2012/04/30

HPAC spokesman Jason Warner said he wasn't too familiar with what happened in New Zealand and could not "confirm or deny" whether Parson - who is no longer a member of HPAC - was still offering flights.

Just how much real difference is there between Jon swallowing the card and you motherfuckers clumsily trying to lead the press and public into believing that unhooked launches are virtually unheard of events in hang gliding? Aren't these just varying degrees of the whitewash, coverup, deception?

[Tad Eareckson]

The Vancouver Sun - 2012/04/30
Kelly Sinoski
Tiffany Crawford

Warner said he can't recall a fatal accident like this happening in Canada.

1. Yeah. Jason said:

HE can't RECALL a FATAL accident LIKE THIS happening IN CANADA.

2. Well *I* can recall a fatal "accident" like this happening in Canada.

Doug Hildreth - 1988/11

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

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

Well... It was a solo. And a dude. And he was over twice as old. And it was from the other end of Canada. And he was from Massachusetts - which isn't even a Canadian province. And he only fell a tenth of the distance. Really not all that much like it.

"We work very hard to make sure our safety standards are adhered to," Warner said.

1. Just how hard can that be? I've looked all over the goddam HPAC website and couldn't find any indication that any of you motherfuckers had ever heard of the failure to hook in issue - let alone come up with a strategy to address it or lifted a finger to implement anything.

Warner said HPAC is considering new safety measures following Saturday's tragedy.

1. Yeah. What better time to consider new safety measures than AFTER a tragedy.

2. And only 31 years after USHGA amended its regulations to require that a verification of connection status immediately precede all flights for all ratings.

"We're now strongly encouraging the buddy system where somebody looks at your equipment before you launch," he said.

Yeah.

- Let's not go totally nuts and REQUIRE the fucking PILOT IN COMMAND to verify the critical connections (just) before launch - let's STRONGLY ENCOURAGE a BUDDY SYSTEM in a sport in which the planes launch one at a time and usually at least several minutes apart.

- Funny. I don't recall hearing about any other hang gliders at launch when this disaster went off.

- Great idea! Really makes ya wonder why nobody in the entire history of hang gliding has implemented anything like this before.

- Have you bothered to look at anything sane that actually DOES work?

- Asshole.