You are NEVER hooked in.

[Tad Eareckson]

I've never used a single suspension harness...

I've owned and flown extensively a:
- stirrup (second to nothing for dune flying)
- Robertson cocoon
- High Energy Racer pod (single suspension)

Also flown:
- prone training harnesses (stirrups without the stirrups)
- knee hangers
- spaghetti

(Not fond of the latter two 'cause if you bend at the waist during a launch run your feet come off the ground.)

Never had a problem lifting and tugging or launching tight with anything on lotsa different gliders.

No experience with the current racing pods.

I'm pretty confident, however, that without adding any weight worth mentioning (leechline, bungee, velcro) or putting anything additional in the airflow I could engineer a solution for any harness for any individual to be able to feel leg loops tension as a consequence of being connected to his glider.

And, of course, while launching tight has its advantages, all that's important with respect to the hook-in issue is that there is a brief tensioning close enough to commitment - several seconds prior - that distraction/disruption, reliance on memory issues are taken out of the equation.

Even when it's smooth and straight in (or not) it's the guys in the race type harnesses that seem to struggle most on launch.

When there are two people available on launch EVERYBODY can can confirm with a lift and tug.

Discounting people using cameras...
- Launch 02 is an unknown.
- Launches 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10, and 11 have two or more people available.

When there's one person available on launch EVERYBODY can get a status report within two seconds of launch.

And, again discounting people using cameras, Launches 07, 08, 12, 13, 14, and 15 have one person available.

And it looks enough like there was enough smooth steady wind coming in for anyone who'd wanted to float his glider to have been easily able to.

We'll credit Launch 13 with a lift and tug and throw him out.

EVERYONE ELSE has the ability to comply with the USHGA regulation concerning hook-in checks but NOBODY- with the possible but highly unlikely exception of Launches 02 and 03 - is making the slightest effort to do it - or promote / insist upon compliance.

Twelve guys definitely got killed - for the purpose of the exercise - in the course of three minutes and nineteen seconds of relevant video.

As for the video above, IF Andy is checking that those guys are hooked in just prior to launch...

He's not. He's preflighting their suspension in the staging area.

The first thing I do is see if they are hooked in.

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

Steve Davy - 2011/10/24 10:27:04 UTC

OK- how many times does he need confirm that he is hooked in? And when would be the best time to make that confirmation?

Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24 21:04:17 UTC

Once, just prior to launch.

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

I agree with that statement.

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.

"OK, I've just seen that he's hooked in. Thank God. Big load off my mind."

Andy's just started making things more dangerous.

The first thing I do is see if they are hooked in.

That's the LAST thing you do - not the first.

Being hooked in in the staging area INCREASES the probability of an unhooked launch.

At Barr Mountain, Chandler Mountain, Chelan, Dockweiler, Hearne, High Point (West Virginia), Mingus, McConnellsburg, Mont Saint Pierre, Plowshare, Talcott Mountain, Towers (Sylmar), Whitwell, and Woodside approaching launch hooked in is the norm and there have been unhooked launch incidents at all of the above.

At Glacier and Makapu'u Points approaching launch hooked in is dangerous and forbidden and there have been no unhooked launch incidents at either of those sites.

Stated another way...

At sites and in cultures where the assumption is that people approaching launch ARE hooked in the fatality rates go up and at sites and in cultures where the assumption is that people approaching launch ARE NOT hooked in the fatality rates go down. (Big surprise.)

Next, I ask them if they want a hang check.

Fuck the hang check.

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

Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC

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.

It's more the problem than the solution. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. Anybody who teaches, does, requires, requests, asks about, offers assistance with, looks for hang checks is setting things up.

The ONLY thing a hang check is good for is to check bar clearance.
- No one ever needs to check bar clearance more than once per glider/harness combo.
- Nobody's ever been scratched ever been scratched 'cause his bar clearance was a little or way off one way or the other.
- People HAVE been killed 'cause they haven't done sidewire load tests.
- Most people never do sidewire load tests.
- If Launch Safety Director Andy wants to do something useful behind the ramp he should be requiring and observing sidewire load tests.

I also ask if they are in their leg loops.

OK, we've got our leg loops. We can cross that one off the list. No need for any confirmation on the ramp.

Then I give them an update as to what the conditions have been doing as I guide them up the ramp, holding on to a side wire.

Yep, everybody can now be assumed to be safely hooked in at this point so let's start discussing the weather.

It's a no brainer that the last thing on the mind of everybody who ever started noticing the basetube coming up a bit higher than usual on a launch run had been the weather.

...does that not satisfy USHPA's hook in check requirement?

No fuckin' way. It subverts it.

"Hey, I don't really need to do a good job preflighting my gear 'cause if I miss something somebody else will catch it."

"OK, preflight is over, everything is good to go, I'm hooked in and have my leg loops, time to move up to the ramp, get this baby in the air, and nail that cloud everyone's rocketing up to."

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26933
Video: St. John Fly-In Launches On Saturday

michael170 - 2012/08/22 00:43:42 UTC

Andy,

Would it be safe for me to assume that as launch safety director you checked that each pilot was hooked in prior to launch?

Andy,

I saw twelve out of thirteen gliders launch in clear violation of USHGA's and foot launch hang gliding's most critical and fundamental standard operating procedure. Shouldn't there have been a launch safety director appointed for the fly-in to make sure stupid shit like that didn't happen?

[Tad Eareckson]

United Press International - 2012/08/23 11:27

Probe: Hang glider's death was preventable

Vancouver, British Columbia

The death of a Canadian woman who fell in British Columbia in a tandem hang gliding jump in April was preventable, a professional organization says.

Late Wednesday, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada issued a report saying Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, wasn't strapped to the glider piloted by instructor William Orders.

She fell 1,000 feet to her death April 28 on Mount Woodside 75 miles east of Vancouver, the QMI Agency said.

The regulatory association's investigator Martin Henry said a "hang-check" to test connecting straps wasn't performed.

"It was preventable if procedures had been followed," Henry said. "The key point of the accident report, the inspection of the equipment and the view of evidence has eliminated any possibility of equipment failure."

His report notes there was a second accredited pilot assisting Orders and questioned how both missed a basic safety check, The (Vancouver) Province reported.

"The unusual aspect of a second pilot instructor being present for the event makes it difficult to understand how the multiple phases of the pre-flight [were] missed by both pilots, and how the hang-check was not performed," the report states.

Orders was charged with obstruction of justice by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the memory card of an onboard camera disappeared. Orders passed it into a holding cell toilet but no images were retrievable, police said.

Orders is to appear in court next April and is banned from flying.

Probe: Hang glider's death was preventable

REALLY? You mean running off a mountain with one of these things can, on the rare occasion, actually be survivable? Whoa! I think I'll get one for my nephew.

The death of a Canadian woman who fell in British Columbia in a tandem hang gliding jump in April was preventable, a professional organization says.

WHAT "professional" organization?

Late Wednesday, the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada issued a report saying Lenami Godinez-Avila, 27, wasn't strapped to the glider piloted by instructor William Orders.

Yeah. You always get the best reports from organizations investigating themselves.

The regulatory association's investigator Martin Henry said a "hang-check" to test connecting straps wasn't performed.

The fucking hang check doesn't check the connecting straps. The connecting straps need to be good for a lot more than the one G a hang check delivers. If you wanna check the connecting straps you LOOK AT THEM.

The fucking hang check doesn't tell you that you're properly and safely connected to the glider and it doesn't tell you that you're gonna be connected to the glider AT ALL by the time you're gonna start your launch run.

The ONLY proper, effective, logical, proven way to safely launch is to verify your connection within no more than five or ten seconds of commitment to launch. And you stupid motherfuckers REFUSE to implement that procedure.

"It was preventable if procedures had been followed," Henry said.

1. WHAT procedures? Either show us your goddam procedures or shut the fuck up about them.

2. IF your procedure to prevent someone from getting his head blown off by a nine millimeter is to always unload it before aiming it and pulling the trigger no one will ever get his head blown off IF the procedure is followed.

But that's a time proven really stupid and shitty way to keep heads from getting blown off.

An infinitely better procedure to keep heads for getting blown off is to have the person aim it at the ground and pull the trigger IMMEDIATELY before aiming it at a head and pulling the trigger. That way if there are any nasty surprises nobody - with the possible exception of an earthworm - gets hurt.

"The key point of the accident report, the inspection of the equipment and the view of evidence has eliminated any possibility of equipment failure."

No shit.

His report notes there was a second accredited pilot assisting Orders and questioned how both missed a basic safety check, The (Vancouver) Province reported.

What's an "accredited pilot"? Somebody specially trained to make sure other gliders are performing all of HPAC's imaginary Standard Operating Procedures in the staging area while he's getting his own glider ready to launch?

"The unusual aspect of a second pilot instructor being present for the event makes it difficult to understand how the multiple phases of the pre-flight [were] missed by both pilots, and how the hang-check was not performed," the report states.

Yeah, MOST unusual. Pretty much the only time you have unhooked launch incidents is when there aren't any other accredited pilots around.

Orders was charged with obstruction of justice by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the memory card of an onboard camera disappeared. Orders passed it into a holding cell toilet but no images were retrievable, police said.

Good job, Jon. Now the possibility of anybody in hang gliding getting to see this flight is even worse than that of a viewing of Rooney's 2006/02/21 Coronet Peak "flight".

Orders is to appear in court next April and is banned from flying.

By whom? His tandem ticket is suspended but who's saying he can't go solo at an unregulated site if he feels like it? (Which he undoubtedly doesn't.)

[Steve Davy]

...as I guide them up the ramp...

Damn. That is a significant detail that I totally missed (or it didn't register) until you quoted it.

[Tad Eareckson]

It's real hard to go wrong just assuming that detail is what's going on. It's something of a miracle to find anyone doing anything once beyond a staging area.

[miguel]

Whoa dude, in those short steps to the ramp, all manner of shit could break loose. The caribiner could secretly unscrew itself, the leg loops could unloop, the rigging inside the harness could come unrigged or the hang loops could unloop themselves from the keel.

That could be some serious shit.

Good thing we have our lift and pray to take care of it.

[Steve Davy]

Miguel,

If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.

P.S. Before you post smart ass shit, consider Kunio Yoshimura's kids might be reading what you write.

[Tad Eareckson]

If?

[Tad Eareckson]

Whoa dude, in those short steps to the ramp, all manner of shit could break loose...

OR something REAL could happen.

You could unhook to...
- adjust an instrument - like Dick Stark did.
- adjust a camera - like Werner Graf did.
- adjust a radio mounting - like Marc Fink did.
- secure your starboard tip fairing - like Dennis Pagen did.
- remove your harness and catch your other leg loop - like Larry Tudor did.
- retrieve your helmet from the setup area - like Tim Schwarzenberg did.
- retrieve your helmet from where it slid to JUST out of reach after you buckled it to your starboard cross spar - like Gilbert Aldrich did.
- help your cousin with his gear - like Sam White did.
- back off and wait for the wind to get a bit less intimidating - like George DePerrio did.
- wait out a lull in more comfort - like Bille Floyd did.

Then there's the remote possibility that you won't have a Launch Safety Director as thorough and totally excellent as Andy Long doing your job for you and watching your every move one fine thermal or ridge soaring midday. Then, having been conditioned to ascend the back of the ramp discussing the weather with the person assisting on your sidewire, you might find yourself discussing and engrossed in the subject as per your routine.

And then you might forget you were planning on hooking in after you got the glider into position because you were a bit concerned about moving it through the gusts, turbulence, rotor, potential dust devil, obstacle course, whatever while connected - like Bob Gillisse and Kevin Rooke were.

Or you might have forgotten to hook in and check before moving to launch because you were distracted with a...
- radio adjustment - like Eric Oppie was.
- conversation about the relative safety of hang gliders versus motorcycles with the bikers you're using for crew - like Richard Zadorozny was.

Or maybe it's just a real shit idea to flagrantly violate a solid, logical, effective, no cost safety regulation - even though you're ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE you're hooked in this time - 'cause it sets a Cragin Shelton / Bob Kuczewski / Paul and Ryan Voight caliber shit example and establishes a shit culture for less competent and disciplined pilots like Martin Apopot, Bill Priday, and Kunio Yoshimura.

There's been all manner of really horrible shit that's broken loose after people taking those few short steps - and everyone within shouting distance - were one so hundred percent confident that nothing would that complying with regulations and taking an action along the lines of what Launch 13 did would be an absurd waste of time and effort.

Now name me someone who was worse off for assuming that during those short steps up the ramp the carabiner had secretly disconnected itself, the leg loops had unlooped, the rigging inside the harness had come unrigged, or the hang loop had unlooped itself from the keel.

P.S. Anybody who thinks that a locked and/or locking carabiner and additional hang loops are making him safer is a total fucking moron - just like anyone who's positive he's now good to go because of what he did or remembers doing a minute or two ago.

[Steve Davy]

If a pilot has trained himself to never assume he's hooked in then it shouldn't matter if he arrives on the ramp hooked in or not.

If a pilot is hard wired to do a hook-in check just prior to launch then it shouldn't matter if he arrives on the ramp hooked in or not.

So Andy is making it less safe only for the folks that do assume they are hooked and don't do hook-in checks just prior to launch.

A competent, conscientious launch safety director would insist each pilot comply with the requirement of their rating, not doing so is a disservice to the pilot.

Andy's job should have been to insist that each pilot is in compliance with regulations before allowing a launch.

[Tad Eareckson]

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.