http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27396
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face
Paul Edwards - 2012/10/17 15:41:42 UTC
Scooter tow faillure... or Never Land On Your Face
Rather ironic spelling of "failure".
A few weeks ago I had an accident...
No you didn't.
...while attempting to scooter tow for the first time. I would like to share it because it accentuates several things we already know.
Things we ALWAYS already know.
I hope I can highlight some well worn topics in a way that may help someone else down the road avoid making the same mistakes that I did.
Good freakin' luck. I've been playing that game for decades and I don't think my successes have made it into double digits yet.
The system was set up in the Henson's...
Henson.
.. Gap LZ. The electric winch was on the high ground at the southeast corner and the pulley was on the low ground at the northwest corner. This was my first ever attempt at scooter towing, or doing any type of static towing at all.
That wasn't static towing. That was stationary winch towing. In static towing you're using a fixed length towline.
I was to be foot launching...
Safety Compromise 01.
...my Sport 2 155.
The wind was light and variable, but was most consistently tailing at about three mph with decent length nil wind cycles in between.
Safety Compromise 02.
There were about twenty gliders in the middle of the lower LZ directly in front and below where we were launching from. (I know... you're already thinking
.
On that count... Not necessarily.
You're right.)
I rigged up my aerotow release the same way I always do (three...
TWO.
...point release attached at the chest loops and approximately six inches in front of the hang strap on the keel)...
Which gave you no practical means of aborting the tow in an emergency.
Safety Compromise 03.
...and stepped into position. We decided to try a foot launch.
Safety Compromise 04.
I have been eager to give this a go ever since I first learned about it.
You didn't learn enough about it. Saint Steve of Manquin is able to get away with some shoddy aspects by keeping safety margins on other aspects a mile wide.
I was really looking forward to the landing practice.
By which you mean FOOT landing practice.
Safety Compromise 05.
The operator gave me a ground school lesson on how it's done. He explained the differences between Static Tow launches and mountain launches... specifically emphasizing that the nose angle would be higher (relative to the horizon) than I'm accustomed to. I understood what he was telling me.
What did he say about the importance of wheels and the ability to abort?
Safety Compromise 06.
I set my initial nose angle and take my stance using the grapevine grip. When I am ready I shout "GO! GO! GO!"
Under the assumption that you're hooked in.
Safety Compromise 07.
...and the operator starts pulling the line.
Under the assumption that you're hooked in.
Safety Compromise 08.
I run. I run some more. Still running. Just as the glider starts to lift off my shoulders I feel the line tension increase and it's as if the hand of God grabbed me by the chest and pulled me through the control frame.
- If you'd been on a dolly at that point you'd have had no trouble getting airborne.
- Note your inability to dump the towline at this point.
My feet struggle to keep pace but I just can't run that fast.
That's why you don't see many foot launches at aerotow operations. And the fact that you don't see many foot launches at aerotow operations is the reason that blown aerotow launches are virtually nonexistent.
I begin to fall forward. With my hands in the grapevine position falling forward means I'm also pulling the bar in even more...
Yeah, hang gliders aren't really designed to be launched, flown, landed, crashed by people upright with their hands on the downtubes.
...and that's when time slowed down.
As I fell the base bar touched earth, dug in, and the power whack commenced.
Inadequate wheels for the surface.
Safety Compromise 09.
I watched the nose of the glider come down in front of me like a white curtain. It seemed to take about four seconds for it to fill my vision. During that time I watched my left hand come in front of me to break my fall.
That move is usually more effective at breaking the arm than the fall.
I watched the ground slowly swing up to meet my face. I flinched away and felt my helmet hit the dirt. I actually had enough time to think "Oh, that wasn't bad at all".
I thought the crash was over... I honestly did. Then my face hit the dirt and the weight and momentum of my body behind it squashed my right eye socket into the ground.
At the end of the day, I had some nice bruises around my eye and several fractures in my nose. It took about three days for my nose to stop bleeding altogether. Despite that, I felt good enough to fly a couple of days later and haven't had any real issues since. After three weeks and consulting with an ENT specialist I am not going to have any surgery or treatment. My nose is a bit crooked and my breathing through the right nostril is a lot more limited than it used to be. My glider was undamaged save a small crease in the nose cone.
Good thing you were using a standard aerotow weak link - with something inside the legal range you might have really been hurt.
Safety Compromise 10.
There were a whole list of things wrong with my scenario. I have identified the following contributing factors:
The big one is kind of general. It was my first time attempting a new skill. I should have chosen a more incremental progression in my learning process. Had I integrated that mentality I never would have made the attempt on that day. Call it Intermediate syndrome. I was brimming with confidence and didn't fully pause to consider all of the factors that were against me. In retrospect, the poor judgement I displayed is so obvious...
01. Poor conditions (tail or nil wind).
02. Intermediate glider (Sport 2... should have tried it on a Falcon first).
I'm not so sure that would've done you any good.
03. Towing downhill.
You're objective is to build up enough airspeed to get safely airborne. Downhill is an advantage.
And the more quickly the ground drops away from you the lower are your odds of hitting it.
04. Inappropriate release set up. My aerotow release is set up to help me keep my nose down on fast aerotows... not ideal for scooter tow.
Rubbish. The early phase of a scooter tow is very similar to aero. And your trim setting wasn't preventing you from nosing up on your launch attempt any more than it does on an aero launch or flight when your pitch attitude is a helluva lot higher than it ever got on this effort.
Also, the release handle is mounted on the base bar. While launching I had no way of releasing from the tow line.
Matt Taber - 1990
A hook knife is a razor-sharp cutting tool that can slash through lines in an instant. You should never tow without one - in an emergency, you can use it to cut the tow-line or bridle. The hook knife must be mounted on your harness so that you can reach it quickly and easily.
You didn't have a hook knife be mounted on your harness so that you could reach it quickly and easily? In an emergency you can use this razor-sharp cutting tool to slash through your lines in an instant.
1981/04/12 - Joel Lewis - 31 - Advanced - Columbia, South Carolina - Seagull 10 Meter - Atlantic Ultralight Mini-Hill winch
Low-level lockout. Hands on downtubes, release on basetube, missed on first attempt to release. Pilot hit head first.
Joel had been my roommate when we were working at Kitty Hawk Kites the previous October/November. How much longer do you think it's gonna take us to learn that lesson, Paul?
You wouldn't have been able to release if it had been mounted on the downtube either. That's another reason it's a real good idea to dolly launch with both hands on the basetube at all times and engineer so they can stay there while aborting a tow.
05. Crowded field.
Not relevant.
And although not ideal, if you'd gotten that far you'd have almost certainly had things under control well enough to deal with the situation. And if things weren't going very well as you got within striking range you or your driver could've aborted the tow.
06. Small field (for scooter towing at least).
Not relevant. You used less than ten percent of it as it was.
07. Casual atmosphere. This wasn't presented as a training opportunity, but more as a "here it is, jump on if you want to". I think that would be fine for pilots experienced with the technology, but not for first timers.
No. There is NOBODY for whom foot launching in those conditions on that surface with those wheels and no capability of aborting the tow would've been appropriate.
08. Wheels... I have the small white WW wheels. The grass in that part of the LZ is thick and wiry and about five to six inches deep. Again, a Falcon with those big ol' M&M wheels would have served me well.
Definitely. HOWEVER...
It's a pretty safe bet that you were in that field with your set up Sport 2 155 'cause you'd shortly before landed in it. And you could've been hurt just as badly or a lot worse blowing the landing.
Any time you're coming into a field with a surface onto which you can't safely belly in on whatever you've got, wheels, skids, or basetube, into a field in which your safety is dependent upon a standup landing, you are rolling dice. Ditto for putting yourself in a position in which you may hafta put it down on a surface onto which you can't safely belly in with whatever you've got.
09. Nose angle too low. The vast majority of my experience is mountain launching... mostly from radial ramps where a progressive lowering of the nose is required. An intellectual understanding of AOA while static towing wasn't enough to prevent my years of muscle memory from taking over once the launch began.
No. When you attained adequate airspeed you'd have lifted. But you were having to run so fast that you lost control of the situation. You aerotow all the time and launch just fine with that direction of pull and air and ground speed with no muscle memory problems kicking in.
10. Helmet too big and loose. I believe that the helmet itself broke my nose. If I had not been wearing a full face I would have suffered serious damage to my jaw and who knows what else. Had I been wearing a tighter fitting full face helmet I probably would have not been injured at all.
Do try to avoid situation in which your helmet, weak link, or parachute is gonna be an issue. A lot of the outcomes tend to really suck no matter what.
So in summary, I'd say my one big takeaway is that I somehow allowed myself to get lulled into taking this casually. I've only heard scooter towing painted as a safe and easy way to learn to fly. There were a bunch of pilots with a lot more experience than me standing around and they all seemed cool with it.
And they're all also totally cool with skipping hook-in checks - which is what made it possible for Bill Priday to run off the ramp at Whitwell with his carabiner clipped to the side of his harness fifteen and a half miles to the southwest seven years prior.
The operator...
Whom, I note, we're not identifying.
...himself is an expert...
Just like Bobby Bailey is the best tow pilot in the business and a fucking genius when it comes to this shit. A ten year old kid with a checklist who'd never been near a throttle before could've done a much better job on this one.
...and he was clearly under the impression that everything was fine.
Anybody who thinks any aspect of hang glider towing is fine is either a total moron or has been living in cave the past thirty years.
I DON'T BLAME ANYONE BUT MYSELF.
BULLSHIT.
In ANY tow operation there are at least two people making go / no go decisions, piloting, and responsible for what happens to the glider. There are two people who - under many circumstances - have the ability to save or kill it.
When things go right the guy on the upwind end of the string always gets rewarded with great driver points. But when the glider crashes and burns it's always the entire fault of the guy who was underneath it at the time.
Bobby's:
- shit inaccessible and inoperable two and one point releases and standard aerotow weak links fail left and right;
- his front end weak links leave the glider with the rope so often that people don't think incidents are really worth mentioning;
- his bridles wrap half the time in emergency simulations;
- he has no problem towing unqualified people up with his junk equipment off of junk dollies;
- he supplied the power that got Robin killed;
- damn near all of the crashes, injuries, and fatalities in aerotowing since the introduction of his Dragonfly would've been preventable had not people with their noses stuck up his ass blindly followed his lead...
but he's still the best tow pilot in the business and a fucking genius when it comes to this shit.
The driver has a responsibility to make sure the people he yanks into the air are qualified and properly equipped. (And damn near all Dragonfly drivers do everything they can to make sure they're not.) This guy screwed the pooch a lot more than you did.
These factors contributed to my forgetting some of the most basic principles of good judgement and caused me to ignore without consideration the many red flags.
- Group intelligence.
- And lotsa items that should be considered red flags are, instead, considered standard operating procedure.
Fly safe!
Or don't.
