Kelly Sinoski - 2012/05/03 23:00:08 UTC
Vancouver Sun
Out of Office: Godinez fatality
I'm away from the office and will not be checking my email until I return on Tuesday, May 15.
If you have an urgent news tip, please contact the Vancouver Sun news desk at:
sunnewstips@vancouversun.com
or call 604-605-2900. Otherwise, I will reply to your email when I return. Thanks and have a great day, Kelly
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 00:15:01 UTC
To: Tiffany Crawford
Sent the following to one of your colleagues about an hour and a quarter ago. Seems my timing left something to be desired.
---
http://www.kitestrings.org/post2068.html#p2068
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 14:35:02 UTC
RE: Godinez fatality
Hi Tad,
Thanks for your letter. I am interested in speaking with you today (FRIDAY) if possible, for a weekend story.
Are you free to speak for a 10 minutes or so by phone?
Thanks,
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 15:24:30 UTC
Re: phone call
Definitely.
***-***-**** - land
***-***-**** - cell
Apologies in advance for my cough.
Thanks.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 16:06:27 UTC
RE: phone call
Thanks. I'll be in touch with you most likely this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Take care of that cough!
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/04 18:16:09 UTC
a little background
I'll be available at the land line until 17:30 local / 14:30 Vancouver and out for dinner after that. I'll keep the cell phone on though until 20:00/17:00 but then will have to switch it off for a couple of hours or risk seriously pissing off the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (which I'll do anyway if I don't work really hard to stifle the cough (which I've gotten pretty good at over the course of the past year)).
I'll probably be back home around 22:45/19:45 and can talk late if that works.
And tomorrow is wide open.
A little background...
Early in 2009 I was asked by the USHPA Towing Committee Chairman to help him revise the aerotowing regulations - which, as they have always been, are riddled with huge, deadly, and deliberate loopholes designed to absolve the commercial operations and national organization of any responsibility when they negligently kill a student or rated pilot. The 2005/09/03 Jeremiah Thompson / Arlan Birkett Hang Glide Chicago tandem fatality is a classic example.
A recent comment on the revisions from one of the dinosaurs of the sport:
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=929
Training Manual Comments / ContributionBut the reaction of the Towing Committee at the 2009 Spring Board of Directors meeting was to not even bother to read them or even contact me telling me they hadn't even bothered to read them.Bill Cummings - 2012/01/10 14:04:59 UTC
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Tad's procedures for aerotowing should become part of any training manual. Tad must have put hour upon hour of gathering together his written procedure.
At that point I was smoldering and made public a draft letter to the FAA and the US hang gliding machinery reacted as one might expect of any entity with closets stuffed with skeletons.Sorry, I don't have a name or date to go with that one - but it's from a USHPA Director.Perhaps a strongly worded letter from Tim (Tim Herr - USHPA lawyer) will do the trick. We can't force Tad to work within the USHPA framework but we can make it unpleasant and expensive for him if he chooses to makes derogatory and false statements about USHPA to the FAA he can't back up.http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876John Moody - 2010/02/03 09:09 UTC
Houston
Bob, I had already looked over the first two links you posted about the Capitol Hang Glider Association and knew that Tad was an active member in the early '90's and I had also looked over his Flickr pictures of releases. It was the third link that turned out to be the really good one. I read the whole thread from top to bottom, about a three hour chore for me and keeping score as it bounced from person to person was hard for a while. The one thing I found I could seriously relate to was Tad Eareckson. He is my newest Hero now.
Hang glider CrashHelen McKerral - 2010/09/07 00:16:04 UTC
South Australia
There have been numerous threads in the past about unhooked launches and ways to prevent them. One constant poster, Tad, had an unfortunate brow-beating style that flooded threads and got him banned, but IMO his point was nonetheless valid; people simply got so annoyed by his style, they stopped listening and his message was lost.
Basically, the idea is that no matter whether you use the Aussie method or not (another emotive topic), or how you do your hang check (step through or hang, look, feel, whatever) the VERY LAST THING you do immediately before every launch is to lift the glider up off your shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and you FEEL the tug of your legloops around your groin/thighs.
More important, I think, is a change in mindset: that you constantly assume that you are NOT hooked in. That is the default mindset and only after you've done the lift and tug - immediately before every launch - do you decide you're hooked in. Also, because the default assumption is negative rather than positive, you are much less likely to start any run unhooked.
The way I've tried to incorporate it is to make L&T the first part of the physical act of lifting the glider to my shoulders in preparation for launch i.e. instead of lifting it to my shoulders, I lift it higher (L&T), then lower it to my shoulders, then start my run. In strong conditions this is more difficult but I often launch with a tight hangstrap then anyway (always in the Malibu, occasionally in the Litesport).
I've adopted the lift and tug but I'm an old dog learning a new trick and I still forget to do it some of the time. However, although I've found that it's very hard to remember to do if you try to remember 'L&T', if you change your mindset to, "I'm not hooked in", it's easier to recall. It would be easier if I had learned it from the start, so it was a physical muscle memory instilled from my first days on the training hill, just like the grapevine grip changing to bottle.
Even if you don't follow the "mindset" part, it's an extra layer of security and there is no possible harm in it if it is an *additional* check; for me, a third one after Aussie method (hook harness to glider), hang check (look at biner, feel loop and riser, tug each leg strap), then walk to launch, do whatever (wait, set glider down etc.) and then the final lift and tug as I pick up my glider immediately before I start my run.
I won't go into any more pros and cons of any of these things, they've been debated ad nauseam and every possible permutation has already been covered, just do a few searches.I'm a hero to the fraction of a percent of this sport that has a clue what's going on but I'm a whistleblower and the vast majority of this sport - from here to Europe to Australia and back to Canada hates my guts and my actions on this Lenami Godinez incident aren't gonna do anything for my popularity.Allen Sparks - 2010/09/07 01:03:18 UTC
Evergreen, Colorado
Oscar,
I'm very happy you weren't injured.
Helen,
Thanks for the Tad 'lift and tug' reminder.
I have launched unhooked and experienced the horror of hanging by my fingers over jagged rocks ... and the surreal result - i.e. not being significantly injured.
I am a firm believer in 'lift and tug' and the mindset of assuming I am not hooked in. It is motivated by the recurring memory of my own experience ... and the tragic deaths and life-altering injuries of good friends.
Anyway...
Looking forward to the conversation. I'm really hoping that you guys can do a Sixty Minutes expose which will either get these organizations to clean up their acts, destroy them, or do some combination of the two.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 02:44:57 UTC
odds and ends
Forgot to mention...
Steve Kinsley of Washington, DC is a hero on this issue. I'm very confident that he was the first person to understand and articulate that the hang check and any other preflight checks and procedures which reassure the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch increase the probability of him getting killed.Steve Kinsley - 1998/02/02 01:59
I would like to second Judy's hook in post. I particularly like the emphasis on implementing the USHGA standard of verifying that you are hooked in just prior to launch. In practice, that means a visual check or a tug on the harness lines after ALL CHECKLIST ITEMS (including a hang check) have been completed.
I started doing that after my near launch unhooked from High Rock several years ago. It works. I think I have a reasonable claim to being the world's most scatterbrained living hang glider pilot. But I can say that I don't think I am going to get my lunch by failing to hook in. You should be able to say the same. I have special knowledge when it comes to forgetting things. So trust me here. You need to do this.http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153Steve Kinsley - 1998/05/01 01:16
So Marc thinks the Australian method will forever ban human error and stupidity. I suspect that eighty percent of the flying community would have unhooked to fix the radio problem instead of getting out of the harness entirely. It is easier. And there you are back in the soup.
"With EACH flight, demonstrates method of establishing that pilot is hooked in JUST PRIOR to launch." Emphasis in original.-- USHGA beginner through advanced requirement.
I know of only three people that actually do this. I am one of them. I am sure there are more but not a lot more. Instead we appear to favor ever more complex (and irrelevant) hang checks or schemes like Marc advocates that possibly increase rather than decrease the risk of hook in failure.
Hooking InHere's an excellent reenactment of one of these devastating incidents which beautifully illustrates exactly why it's so dangerous to rely on a hang check for confirmation of connection status:Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC
I already see where the anger and grief take us. We need to do hang checks, double hang checks. And who was on Bill's wire crew? How could they let that happen?
When Bob Gillisse got hurt I suggested that our local institution of the hang check is more the problem than the solution. I still believe that. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. I often do not see pilots doing a hook in check. Why should they? They just did a hang check and they are surrounded by friends who will make sure this box is checked.
But what if there is no hang check and you are used to one?
DO A HOOK IN CHECK. You need a system that you do every time regardless of how many hang checks you have been subjected to that assures you are hooked in.
Rescue 911-Episode 415 "Hanging Hang Glider (Part 1)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls2QiDtSO7c
BeatleMoe - 2008/05/14
dead
(Doug Rice was the guy who signed me off on my Novice (level two) rating on 1980/04/07 and I worked with him as a junior instructor in the fall of that year.)
Part 2 if you're interested:
Rescue 911-Episode 415 "Hanging Hang Glider (Part 2)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX_6UZ2UWEE
BeatleMoe - 2008/05/14
dead
A collection of relatively inconsequential unhooked launches...
Crash delta remorque
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0lvH-KxGlQ
Towing Foot Launch Collection Rigid Wing.mpg
5:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKebsmnVUk
Un-Hooked Aerotow Hang Glider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51qpPLz5U0
B FTHI @ Barker 11/6/2010
http://vimeo.com/16572582
password - red
2-112
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7600/28811055456_925c8abb66_o.png
Launching unhooked Hang Glider Crash.wmv
1:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4JFe7rUCnc
Acidente asa delta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwbPK7sCCtk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mX2HNwVr9g
Hang Gliding Fail
andyh0p - 2011/04/24 - dead
03-0325 - 06-0511
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/13512258445_6b5a3662d0_o.png
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/12931220073_1609b59b17_o.png
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864885_3b8ca2da8c_o.png
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52378864870_2129572e3a_o.png
18-0919 - 21-1025
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL00UefQqZA
Forgot to clip into hang glider
The first glider off on this one:
Launch on Mingus 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEhuBU64t18
is Kunio Yoshimura. In year minus five days from that upload date he's gonna skip one hook-in check too many and die down the slope of that mountain with his horrified wife and kids watching. (The parachute almost opened in time.)
From Doug Hildreth, USHGA Accident Review Committee Chairman - 1981-1994Bull's-eye.Doug Hildreth - 1981/04
Just before the first step of your launch run, lift the glider and make certain that the straps become tight when you do so.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.1. Fifteen seconds is at least three times too long.Doug Hildreth - 1990/03
The other significant increase is in failure to hook in. Typically there are about the same number of non-hook-ins in the questionnaire group, so that it is safe to say that there were at least ten failures to hook in this year. It has occurred in the tandem sector too, both pilot and passenger.
The instructional programs to assure hook-in within fifteen seconds of launch have apparently not caught up with the masses.
2. There were NEVER any instructional programs which taught this issue properly and virtually none which any attempt whatsoever.Doug Hildreth - 1991/04
Werner Graf, a Long Beach, California pilot was vacationing in Switzerland in October 1990. He prepared to launch, but unhooked to adjust his camera. He then proceeded to launch without hooking back in.
Since this pilot was killed outside the United States he will not be counted as a U.S. fatality. But it should be noted that he is just as dead as he would be had it happened in the U.S., and we report it here to once again try to get everyone's attention about this extremely basic, but terribly serious mistake. You MUST ensure that you ARE hooked in within fifteen seconds of launch--EVERY TIME.Close friend of Steve Kinsley but - strangely - has never even heard of a hook-in check.Joe Gregor - 2007/05
USHGA Accident Review Committee Chairman
Lesson learned: HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK!That was the last I ever heard from those ass covering bastards. If those ass covering bastards had published that article and started backing their own regulations there's a chance that the message might have filtered to your neck of the woods prior to last weekend.Subj: FTHI
Date: 2009/10/13 16:03:35 UTC
From: nick.greece@ushpa.aero
To--: TadErcksn@aol.com
Hi there,
Sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. Your ideas are being considered at the committee chair level. I sent your article to Joe Gregor, the safety chair, for comment and he will get back to you shortly.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!
Nick
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25321
Stop the Stupids at the USHPA BOD meetingUSHPA's current solution to the unhooked launch issue:Mark G. Forbes - 2011/09/29 02:26:23 UTC
USHPA:
- Treasurer
- Region 1 Director
- Elections and Allocations Committee Chair
- Insurance Committee Chair
We can establish rules which we think will improve pilot safety, but our attorney is right. USHPA is not in the business of keeping pilots "safe" and it can't be. Stepping into that morass is a recipe for extinction of our association. I wish it were not so, but it is. We don't sell equipment, we don't offer instruction, and we don't assure pilots that they'll be safe.
Pre Flight Safety for Hang Gliding - Revision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8qZESnFvQ
USHangGlidingParagli - 2011/02/23
Note that in the entire film not only is there zero mention of a hook-in check but there is not ONE SINGLE LAUNCH included which depicts ANY kind of prior check prior.
The first ten seconds of this video:
Dunlap 2-12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWbu0su1fA
constitute the best launch safety film ever made in the history of hang gliding.
The ten minutes and forty-two seconds of what USHPA put out are deadly rot.Note that the official USHPA PILOT PROFICIENCY SYSTEM - Standard Operating Procedures - 12-2 states:USHPA UPDATE - 2012/03/30
Risk Assessments and Mitigation at Flying Sites and USHPA Chapter Events
In order to reduce the possibility of incidents involving bodily injury to pilots, spectators and the general public due to hang gliding and/or paragliding activities engaged in by members of USHPA, the USHPA Board of Directors adopted and is implementing the following Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan.
APPENDIX A
USHPA Flying Site Recommended Operating Guidelines
The official USHPA PILOT PROFICIENCY SYSTEM - Standard Operating Procedures - 12-2 remains the governing guideline for pilot proficiency and all USHPA Members and USHPA Chapters should conduct their flight operations in accordance with those standards.
USHPA recommends that each USHPA Member, whenever he flies, and each USHPA Chapter, in connection with the management of sites under their control, follow these guidelines in conducting flight operations. USHPA encourages each USHPA Member, whenever he flies, and each USHPA Chapter, to use, further enhance, and adapt these general recommendations, and add site specific operational guidelines to further increase spectator and pilot safety at the sites they fly and manage.
4. All pilots should perform a harness connection check before launching.But now it's just something that all pilots SHOULD DO (if it's not too much trouble) whenever they feel like it - five, ten, fifteen minutes before launch, whenever.With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13132
Unhooked Death Again - Change our Methods Now?http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15337Quinn Cornwell - 2009/01/24 19:57:03 UTC
HPAC Accident Review and Safety Committee Chairman
No, don't think about the jagged boulders. That'll mess with your head. Don't ever tell pilots to think about "Oh, if you screw this up, you'll crash and burn into those jagged rocks down there, so make sure you don't screw this up." This sort of psychology is detrimental. It's good to be conscience of the dangers in hang gliding, pointing this out right before you start running is just plain stupid.
unhooked take off clipQuinn Cornwell - 2010/02/11 19:50:00 UTCI didn't say that.Tad Eareckson - 2010/02/11 12:30:15 UTC
But you're not gonna do it, are ya Quinn? You're not EVER gonna do 'cause it just isn't what you were taught.
Are you saying if someone isn't taught something, they just won't use it despite hearing it outside their learning environment (say a course)? That's preposterous.Tad Eareckson - 2010/02/12 21:08:45 UTC
Yeah, I'm afraid I pretty much AM saying that.
Ten years ago I was still naive and stupid enough to believe otherwise but not anymore.
Not after thirty years of seeing people continuing to get killed for the same stupid and easily correctable reasons with our culture flat out refusing to implement such cheap (in this case free), obvious, and spelled out in black and white fixes.Notice that this guy was going Aussie and missed both loops whereas Norm just missed one but caught it with lift and tug?I was up at launch in Oz when I did a hang check for a guy getting ready to launch (in line). He didn't have his leg loops in. Might have been deadly, might not have... but he was doing it the Aussie way.Well what ARE you saying? I've NEVER heard you either say you'll do it or give me one good reason not to.I didn't say that.
Will you just do it ONCE on your next launch? OK then, how 'bout you just suit up in the setup area and do a dry run? Don't do it for me - do it for Doug Hildreth, Rob Kells, or Bill Priday. It could give you AIDS but I think the chances are slim.
This is a global problem we could eliminate as effectively as smallpox but it doesn't start working until we get a critical mass of the population vaccinated.But Quinn HPAC-Accident-Review-and-Safety-Committee-Chairman Cornwell, didn't. And now the RCMP have a couple of videos depicting most of the last few seconds of Lenami's life because an HPAC certified tandem instructor also thought that he could use preflight procedures effectively enough to eliminate the hook-in check as the first action of his launch sequence.Quinn Cornwell - 2010/02/13 03:44:56 UTC
Sure, and I'll video tape it and post it here.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27538
Unhooked - A Human Error TrapThanks much for taking the time to understand this issue. It sure would've been nice if the people who've been running this sport for the last three decades would've done as much.Robotham - 2012/05/04 17:08:56 UTC
I know your system works because I've done it for the last 28 years.
Unfortunately your procedure is too simple and logical for most people, they want elaborate procedures and endless reams of redundant equipment.
Tad
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 13:58:49 UTC
RE: odds and ends
Hi Tad,
Thanks for this. It helps me explain it all a little better. I need to keep it simple so the general population understands the difference between doing a hang check and then doing a last minute hook-in check. I was diverted onto a breaking news story yesterday so I didn't finish the story.
I will heading back into the office today to complete it. I'll send you a rough draft of your comments later this morning.
Cheers,
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 17:07:54 UTC
Re: "last minute"
Thanks for getting back to me but lemme emphasize one thing...
That trick, walking to the next room to retrieve something, arriving at the door, and having absolutely no idea what it is you you're looking for, which ALL OF US do about five or ten times a week, takes SECONDS.
I did a trial run yesterday from the kitchen table to the bedroom doorway and at a comfortable pace and we're talking well under ten seconds for our brains to turn to totally useless mush.
I can't cite any actual data but it's a pretty good bet that there have been people who were connected to their gliders sixty seconds before launch and managed to run off the hill without them.
Stare at the clock on your computer display and wait for sixty seconds to tick by. That exercise can get real boring.
When I'm standing on the edge of a cliff without enough wind to float the glider and waiting for a good puff of air to come in I'm constantly verifying my connection.
I think:
- Lift the glider.
- OK, you're connected.
- Am I really connected? Did I do that check a few seconds ago?
- Yeah, probably, but, what the hell, let's check it again.
Over and over and over until the instant I commit.
It becomes a sort of nervous fidgeting you do while awaiting a cycle.
Excellent example here:
CRV Speed Gliding launch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7Ym4O38SA
The pilot is Chris Valley and he's a real long way from making it onto my list of favorite people but he's one of the very few who has his head wired exactly right on this issue.
Tandem pilots are gonna have more problems verifying themselves AND their passengers but SOME KIND OF CHECK should be conducted within no more that five or ten seconds of launch.
It could be something as simple as using another pilot or briefed spectator to give a verbal confirmation.
"Carabiners - pilot and passenger - engaged?"
"Affirmative."
Ten seconds go by - DO IT AGAIN.
As far as getting this concept of hang check versus hook-in check to the general public is concerned...1. The hang check (or whatever else one does prior to arriving at launch) is a component - usually the last - of one's ASSEMBLY and PREFLIGHT procedures and MUST NOT be used to reassure the pilot he will be connected at the moment of launch.Jesse Bruce Benson - 2009/01/25 16:27:19 UTC
I get what Tad is saying, but it took some translation:
HANG CHECK is part of the preflight, to verify that all the harness lines etc. are straight.
HOOK-IN CHECK is to verify connection to the glider five seconds before takeoff.
They are separate actions, neither interchangeable nor meant to replace one another. They are not two ways to do the same thing.
2. The function of the hook-in check is ONLY to verify the connection and nothing more and is ALWAYS the first component of one's LAUNCH SEQUENCE.
3. Recognizing that foot launching a hang glider is the equivalent of pointing a gun at your (or your passenger's head and pulling the trigger is my proudest accomplishment in hang gliding.
- If I can get that point across to one percent of the glider crowd you should have no problem with at least 95 percent of the general public.
- A tensioned (assembled and ready to fly) glider is the equivalent of a loaded gun. It can kill you in a New York minute (two seconds Vancouver) if you're wrong about connection status upon commitment to launch.
- Fully engaging the carabiner(s) to the suspension is equivalent to flipping the safety on.
- Sometimes people forget to flip the safety on when they're getting the gun prepped.
- There are also valid reasons (rabid wolves and bears) which cause people to flip the safety off between preparation and showtime.
- At showtime - even thought the pilot is "POSITIVE" the safety is on and functional he points the gun at the ground and gives the trigger a good pull.
- Then - and ONLY then - does he point it at his (and, where applicable, his passenger's) head and pull the trigger.
- If there's a delay of five or ten seconds he points it at the ground AGAIN and pulls the trigger.
- And we need EVERYBODY - launching pilots, students, passengers, assisting pilots, commandeered crew - to make sure that this happens - EVERY TIME.
- And if the CHECK is missed - EVER - the flight should be considered AND REPORTED as a fatality for the purpose of the exercise.
That's the only good shot we have at preventing our next regularly scheduled fatality.
Thanks in advance for the draft. I'll keep my ear to the wire and get on it as soon as possible.
If you've got any slack time I've posted the article which I submitted for publication in the national magazine in 2009 at:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post2088.html#p2087
Staying tuned,
Tad
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 17:24:30 UTC
RE: "last minute"
Hi Tad,
Thanks for elaborating on this point. I wish I could put it all in a story unfortunately I have very a very tight word count allowance.
Here is a rough draft that I said you could see just to verify the wording is correct. There is much more I would like to talk about however again because of space constraints I am unable to. I just wanted to get the point across about the last-minute checks and how they could save lives.
---
Hang gliding tragedies like the one that claimed the life of a young woman in the Fraser Valley last weekend could be prevented if pilots were required to do last minute checks immediately before launch, says a former instructor with nearly three decades of experience.
Hang gliding pilots tend to assume everything is okay as long as they've done a hang check, says Tad Eareckson, an American hang glider who practised the sport from 1980 to 2008. Hang-checks, which are part of a pre-flight checklist, involve the passenger and the pilot lying down while another person holds the glider to confirm that that the suspension system is correctly fastened."
But Eareckson argues that hang checks are not enough because, after they're completed, anything can happen during the time before the launch.
The problem, he says, is that the hang check and any other preflight checks reassures the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch.
He cited an incident where a pilot had dropped his helmet while waiting in line to launch so he unhooked himself to retrieve it. He then forgot to rehook the harness.
Eareckson compared the problem with that "scatterbrain" human experience of going into a room and then forgetting why you went in there.
"When you check at the moment before launch it is muscle memory. There are a lot of things going on at launch and [the pilot] may remember hooking back in -- but that may have been a memory from last weekend," said Eareckson, in an interview from Maryland,
Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell about 300 metres to her death last Saturday, shortly after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley. Tandem flights involve two people strapped to each other.
The pilot, William Jonathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a card that may contain video evidence of the incident. During a court appearance Friday, the man's lawyer told reporters that police have recovered the memory card.
The cause of Godinez-Avila's death is still under investigation by the BC Coroners Service.
Nothing has been proven in court.
The incident has ignited debate over how safe the sport is and whether government bodies -- such as the Transportation Safety Board -- should regulate the industry. In Canada, the industry is self-regulated by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.
Eareckson's push to get the industry to adopt his verification immediately prior to launch idea seems simple enough but he says it has been met with controversy.
The last thing a pilot should do is what Eareckson calls "the lift and tug," a procedure which involves lifting the glider off the shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and the pilot is then assured of being hooked in.
"If you feel the tug then you are connected to glider. Once I learned that action proceeded every launch for my entire career.
When asked about whether pilots should be doing a last minute verification check, Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliders and Paragliders Association of Canada, said "that might be a good idea."
He said the association had begun contacting all schools and senior pilots since the accident and asking them for suggestions to improve safety practices. The association is also investigating the accident and has suspended Orders' tandem instructor certification,
He did not know when the association would make any possible safety recommendations.
"It's a large task and everyone has their twist on things - there are a lot of good ideas out there," he said. He noted that another idea would be for tandem pilots to vocalize the process to the passenger as they are doing their final checks.
The association maintains the sport is safe and that there are very few fatalities.
Yet Eareckson argues it's not safe, and says it's precisely that attitude that keeps the industry from doing last minute verification checks.
For the length of his hang gliding career, Eareckson said whenever he would launch he always assumed he might die when he flew off the cliff. "You need to be thinking about those jagged rocks. You've got to be scared," he said.
"It's a loaded gun issue. Assume the gun is loaded so don't point it at your head. That has to be the assumption when you are launching off a glider. You must always assume you are not hooked in."
Orders owns Vancouver Hang Gliding and has 16 years of experience as a hang-glider. He was certified in 2009 as a tandem instructor.
A video on Orders' website shows a hang glider, taking off without doing a verification check, but that is acceptable among industry professionals because it is not included on the preflight checklist.
Eareckson contends that the only way to ensure proper checks are done is for the industry to be held accountable by a government agency. The government not the association should provide regulations and have the power to revoke certification, he said. Warner would not comment on whether Transportation Canada should regulate hang gliding.
Meanwhile, about 30 hang gliding pilots from across the Fraser Valley on Saturday attended a memorial service for Godinez-Avila at the site of the accident.
"It was really emotional," said Warner, who attended the service. He said one pilot played the saxophone while others laid flowers. "The word among pilots is she tried something we all love -- and embraced it with open eyes and an open heart -- so we embraced her as one of our own. So it is like losing a pilot and we feel that pain."
Godinez-Avila's family was not present at the memorial, he said.
Godinez-Avila was celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend with hang-gliding flights. Police have said the boyfriend was waiting for his turn to a ride last Saturday afternoon when he watched Godinez-Avila fall.
Her body was found later that day after a search in a heavily wooded area.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 18:17:04 UTC
How's this?
---
Hang gliding tragedies like the one that claimed the life of a young woman in the Fraser Valley last weekend could be prevented if pilots were required to do last instant checks immediately before launch, says a former instructor with nearly three decades of experience.
Since 1981/05 the United States Hang Gliding Association's regulations have included a provision for all flights for all ratings stating that:
"With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch."
Hang gliding pilots are almost always trained to assume everything is okay as long as they've done a hang check, says Tad Eareckson, an American hang glider who practised the sport from 1980 to 2008. The hang-checks, which may be part of a preflight checklist or procedure, involve the passenger and the pilot lying down while another person holds the glider to confirm that the suspension system is correctly fastened.
But Eareckson says that while the stated intent of the requirement is that a hook-in check - other than a hang check - be conducted at the position and moment of launch to immunize the pilot from the inevitable lapses of memory and distractions which occur while preparing to launch, the revision was never implemented or enforced on any meaningful scale.
The problem, he says, is that the hang check and any other preflight checks are being used to reassure the pilot that he's hooked in before committing to launch.
He cited an incident in which a pilot's helmet had slid out of reach during launch preparations so he unhooked himself to retrieve it. He then forgot to reconnect the harness.
Eareckson compared the problem with that "scatterbrain" human experience of going into a room and then forgetting why you went in there.
"When you check at the moment before launch it is muscle memory. There are a lot of things going on at launch and [the pilot] may remember hooking in -- but that may have been a memory from last weekend," said Eareckson, in an interview from Maryland.
Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, fell about 300 metres to her death last Saturday, shortly after launching a tandem flight off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley. Tandem flights involve two people suspended from the glider.
The pilot, William Jonathan Orders, 50, of Burnaby, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly swallowing a card that may contain video evidence of the incident. During a court appearance Friday, the man's lawyer told reporters that police have recovered the memory card.
The cause of Godinez-Avila's death is still under investigation by the BC Coroners Service.
Nothing has been proven in court.
The incident has ignited debate over how safe the sport is and whether government bodies -- such as the Transportation Safety Board -- should regulate the industry. In Canada, the industry is self-regulated by the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada.
Eareckson's push to get the industry to implement the requirement of verification immediately prior to launch seems simple enough but he says it is widely met with hostility.
The last thing a pilot should do, when possible, is what Eareckson calls a "lift and tug," a procedure which involves lifting the glider off the shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and the pilot is then assured of being hooked in.
"If you feel the tug then you are connected to the glider. Once I learned that action it preceded every foot launch for my entire career. This action is not possible for all gliders in all circumstances but it is critical that SOME last moment check be performed.
When asked about whether pilots should be doing a last minute verification check, Jason Warner, safety officer for the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada, said "that might be a good idea."
He said the association had begun contacting all schools and senior pilots since the accident and asking them for suggestions to improve safety practices. The association is also investigating the accident and has suspended Orders' tandem instructor certification.
He did not know when the association would make any possible safety recommendations.
"It's a large task and everyone has their twist on things - there are a lot of good ideas out there," he said. He noted that another idea would be for tandem pilots to vocalize the process to the passenger as they are doing their final checks.
The association maintains the sport is safe and that there are very few fatalities.
Yet Eareckson argues it's not safe, and says it's precisely that attitude that keeps the industry from doing last minute verification checks.
For the length of his hang gliding career, Eareckson said whenever he would launch he always assumed he might die when he ran off the cliff. "You need to be thinking about those jagged rocks. You've got to be scared," he said.
"It's a loaded gun issue. You have a loaded gun you're about to aim at your head and attempt to fire. Point it at the ground first and pull the trigger to verify that the safety's on. You must always assume you are not hooked in and check to make sure you're wrong."
Orders owns Vancouver Hang Gliding and has 16 years of experience as a hang-glider. He was certified in 2009 as a tandem instructor.
A video on Orders' website shows a hang glider, taking off without doing a verification check, but that is acceptable in Canadian hang gliding because no such requirement exists.
Eareckson contends that if the industry finds it unable to implement this procedure then it doesn't deserve to continue to be self regulated.
Warner would not comment on whether Transportation Canada should regulate hang gliding.
Meanwhile, about 30 hang gliding pilots from across the Fraser Valley on Saturday attended a memorial service for Godinez-Avila at the site of the accident.
"It was really emotional," said Warner, who attended the service. He said one pilot played the saxophone while others laid flowers. "The word among pilots is she tried something we all love -- and embraced it with open eyes and an open heart -- so we embraced her as one of our own. So it is like losing a pilot and we feel that pain."
Godinez-Avila's family was not present at the memorial, he said.
Godinez-Avila was celebrating an anniversary with her boyfriend with hang-gliding flights. Police have said the boyfriend was waiting for his turn to a ride last Saturday afternoon when he watched Godinez-Avila fall.
Her body was found later that day after a search in a heavily wooded area.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/06 18:41:46 UTC
more odds and ends
Just wanted to make it real clear that this lift and tug / hook-in check idea and practice preceded my entry into the sport and this is not MY idea. MY idea is that our national hang gliding organization should start adhering to some of its own regulations and stop pretending they don't exist.
I may have misspoken yesterday about government regulation because - while "self regulation" may have been a dismal failure to date, I'm not the least bit convinced that government would do any better.
And where government HAS gotten involved in hang gliding in the US, all it did was make things more expensive while doing NOTHING to address some really deadly problems.
However, if these organizations are unable to implement procedures then the sport needs to be strangled. Some people will die no matter how well the acts are cleaned up but there's no excuse for continuing to kill people like Eleni and Lenami when the fixes are free and so incredibly brain dead easy.
P.S. I'm already the most hated person in hang gliding on at least a couple of continents. I'm expecting some pretty vicious attacks upon publication. But... what the hell, I'm pretty used to them.
P.P.S. Check the punctuation with respect to quotes and apostrophes. I rushed and just threw in the vanilla ones.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/06 23:12:17 UTC
RE: more odds and ends
Hi Tad,
I do have it in my notes that you favoured government regulation but that's ok if you don't feel that way we won't put it in the story.
I have sent your concerns outlined in this email to the editing desk. Unfortunately I am travelling and not in the office because my aunt had a heart attack and I'm heading to another city to be with my family in hospital. I am, however in constant contact with the desk and I have asked them to take out the part where you say you want government regulation.
Thanks
Tiffany
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/07 00:36:47 UTC
Re: regulation
I probably spoke a little too quickly/broadly out of the anger and frustration I'm feeling with this one of many hang gliding issues but the sport has been getting better and better over its history of dodging accountability and shirking it's duty to protect its pilots and the public.
It's a very long record of good accident review chairmen being pressured to dumb down reports, paint the dead guy as a moron so incompetent that nobody with a functional brain could EVER find himself in similar circumstances, and suppress ANY information which puts an instructor, school, or operation in less than dazzling light.
Self regulation is an inherently bad and corrupting idea. I don't hafta tell you what happens when coal mines, offshore oil rigs, and Wall Street operate without oversight and enforcement. It always helps things a bit for a while when somebody up the ladder goes to prison.
USHPA and little brother HPAC are in some desperate need of some daylight, shakeups, and FEAR.
What I wrote in the revision......is a good statement of my position.Eareckson contends that if the industry finds it unable to implement this procedure then it doesn't deserve to continue to be self regulated.
(Any chance I could get another review of the article before it hits the wire?)
If you get bored:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post1455.html#p1455
Some of this kinda thing goes WAY back.
Very sorry to hear of your family situation. Best wishes for as good an outcome as possible.
Thanks again for your interest in something we CAN easily fix.
Tad
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/07 21:32:37
another analogy
Launching without a hook-in check immediately prior is like standing on the shoulder of a highway and running across without looking both ways for traffic a couple of seconds before.
One might get away with doing the highway trick as many as three or four times before getting killed.
Since those odds totally suck NOBODY - over the age of about four or five - EVER runs across the highway without checking both directions immediately prior.
And ALL ten percent or more responsible adults start conditioning ALL kids old enough to walk to stop and look both ways EVERY TIME before crossing a street.
The problems with hang gliding are that...
1. The "adults" running it are only about five percent responsible - at best.
2. Preflight procedures can reduce the probability (made up numbers) of getting:
-a) a near miss to one in about five hundred
-b) knocked down and bruised by a car screeching to a halt to one in a thousand
-c) seriously injured to one in five thousand
-d) killed to one in twenty thousand
3. So why bother fixing a problem that's only fatal on 0.0005 percent of foot launches?
4. And if a pilot career includes five hundred foot launches his chances of getting killed are only one in forty.
5. So just encourage everybody to do better preflight procedures.
6. And screw looking both ways for traffic before running across - just not that big a deal.
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/09 14:45:00 UTC
sunnewstips@vancouversun.com
ticrawford@vancouversun.com
weekends / hang glidingIn the US when people say "weekend" they usually mean Saturday and Sunday, maybe with a Friday or Monday, occasionally both tacked on. Very few people will include a Tuesday or Wednesday.Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/04 14:35:02 UTC
Hi Tad,
Thanks for your letter. I am interested in speaking with you today (FRIDAY) if possible, for a weekend story.
It has now been eleven days - including most of one and all of another weekend - since a 27 year old girl was killed by the aviation equivalent of a drunk driver - someone too mentally impaired to perform his job safely.
In this case the mental impairment was the result, not of an introduced chemical substance, but of the training he received from the regulatory agency for that flavor of aviation in Canada - the regulatory agency which teaches its drivers to pause at the intersection of a highway, then accelerate across it without looking both ways first 'cause there's hardly ever anything coming.
I have worked my ass off for years fighting drunk drivers clubs like:
- United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
- Capitol Hang Gliders Association
- Maryland Hang Gliding Association
- Houston Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association
- Highland Aerosports
- Blue Sky Hang Gliding School
- Lookout Mountain Flight Park
- Hang Gliding Federation of Australia
- Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada
- Wills Wing
- The Oz Report
- HangGliding.org
to try to prevent Kunio Yoshimura, Yossi Tsarfaty, and Lenami Godinez-Avila from happening with...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhpa/
Houston Hang Gliding and Paragliding AssociationZack C - 2010/10/15 13:25:50 UTC
Houston
Speaking of which, while I can fault Tad's approach, I can't fault his logic, nor have I seen anyone here try to refute it. You may not like the messenger, but that is no reason to reject the message.
Sunday I performed a hang check at Pack, stepped onto the ramp, and proceeded to wait for a lull in which to launch. Due to this discussion I realized at this point how dangerous it was for me to assume I was hooked in. It's like assuming it's OK to lock your car because you remember putting your keys in your pocket a few minutes ago, only the consequences of being wrong are much worse than a call to AAA....some small measure of success.Zack C - 2010/12/13 04:58:15 UTC
I had a very different mindset too back then and trusted the people that made my equipment. Since then I've realized (largely due to this discussion) that while I can certainly consider the advice of others, I can't trust anyone in this sport but myself (and maybe the people at Wills Wing).
But the Drunk Drivers Club has a lot more power than logic, common sense, and Yours Truly ever will so two weekends ago in your backyard another life was needlessly lost and a whole bunch of other ones were irreparably devastated in a very dramatic fashion which inspired a global/viral response from the press.
I felt that this would be an excellent better-late-than-never opportunity to expose the incompetence, apathy, stupidity, callousness, hypocrisy, corruption of the Drunk Drivers Club, contacted your newspaper and worked my ass off for days to educate you on the dynamics, psychology, logic, history of this issue and foolishly allowed myself to believe that you weren't just wasting my time and would be doing something more professional than publishing quotes from the lying Drunk Drivers Club morons most responsible for this latest catastrophe.
YOUR JOB is to investigate issues and INFORM the PUBLIC. I did your job for you, complete with links for independent, verifiable, corroborative sources, and handed it to you on a silver platter - exclusively and FOR FREE.
And all I've seen your paper are more fluffy reruns of the self serving crap that the Drunk Drivers Club officials are feeding everyone.
And that rerun crap you keep circulating just helps increase the chances that tomorrow some other family is gonna get a phone call informing them that their daughter's body was just recovered from the slope a thousand feet below takeoff altitude.
And if I don't hear something back from you guys REAL SOON and REAL SUBSTANTIVE to indicate your intention of DOING YOUR JOB ethically and competently I'm gonna start reprioritizing a few things. And the results of those efforts might show up down the road a bit in the criminal procedures which WILL happen and the civil actions very likely to happen.
Sincerely.
Tiffany Crawford - 2012/05/09 14:58:29 UTC
RE: weekends / hang gliding
Tad,
Please note that I have been away from the office because of a family tragedy.
However, for your information, I wrote a full story on this. I also came in on my day off on Sunday to make sure it was completed because I had three other assignments on the weekend that took precedent. The story was filed and edited on Sunday. But an editorial decision was made to hold the story and instead the paper ran a different story by a different reporter about the memorial service instead. This was not my decision and it is the type of decision that is made very often in the news business industry. Please do not send me threatening letters.
Thank-you,
Tiffany Crawford
Tad Eareckson - 2012/05/09 17:18:31 UTC
sunnewstips@vancouversun.com
ticrawford@vancouversun.com
hook-in check issue
01. Sounds like your aunt died. I'm very sorry.
02. My letter was intended for The Vancouver Sun organization of which you are a part but not you personally.
03. I'm a lot happier when people keep me informed - by ANYONE - about what's going on.
04. Sunday I raced through an edit of the draft under the impression that time was a big issue.
05. The editorial decision was a REALLY BAD ONE.
06. The editorial decision to continue the hold is another REALLY REALLY BAD ONE.
07. Here's the last time I heard from a print publication about an editorial decision on this issue:Still waitin' to hear back from my old flyin' buddy Joe. So I get a bit of a short fuse when I don't hear things from people over a time span I consider to be "short".Subj: FTHI
Date: 2009/10/13 16:03:35 UTC
From: nick.greece@ushpa.aero
To--: TadErcksn@aol.com
Hi there,
Sorry it has taken me a bit to reply. Your ideas are being considered at the committee chair level. I sent your article to Joe Gregor, the safety chair, for comment and he will get back to you shortly.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions!
Nick
08. The two big international hang gliding forums are the Oz Report and HangGliding.org.
Here's a fairly recent post from one of the two administrators of the Oz Report:
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25129
Ridgerodent gone?Davis is scum and "Scare", Gerry Grossnegger, the other administrator, is useless - and a former president of the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada and someone with whom I've had fairly extensive but fruitless personal correspondence on safety issues.Davis Straub - 2011/09/10 04:47:32 UTC
Nothing from me or Scare. I did lock down two threads though. One had a link to a Tad thingy.
And from "Mission Statement and Site rules for HangGliding.org":And I'm getting a bit tired of having this message suppressed.No posts or links about Bob K(uczewski), Scott C Wise, Tad Eareckson and related people, or their material. ALL SUCH POSTS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED. These people are poison to this sport and are permanently banned from this site in every possible way imaginable.
09. When I Google:
"Lenami Godinez" "hook-in check"
I get TWO returns - one to HangGliding.org and the other to my own forum. The mainstream press has totally and globally dropped the ball on this.
10. I'm not threatening to kill your dog. But I am saying that:
- the "editorial decision" to hold or pull that article - or even include MENTION of the hook-in check issue - was inexcusable;
- if I don't get a guarantee that something solid on the hook-in check issue - with or without my name attached to it - will hit the wire REAL SOON I'm gonna try to find another mainstream media organization in which the editorial decisions DON'T suck;
- and I'm probably not gonna be too shy about expressing my sentiments about the way The Vancouver Sun has handled this issue.
P.S. Please understand that it ain't no fun being a whistleblower no matter who you are are what the issues are. But I don't have a problem with my conscience for not making every humanly possible effort to prevent the tragedy at Mount Woodside two Saturdays ago.