You are NEVER hooked in.

[Steve Davy]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27598
My first flight with no edits

Judy Phillips - 2012/11/18 19:01:30 UTC
Newnan, Georgia

You can see I am super paranoid about being hooked in.

How very odd.

[Tad Eareckson]

Yeah Judy, ya know there's a USHGA regulation that deals with that issue...

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

The idea is that you stay super paranoid right up to a couple seconds before you run off the cliff - regardless of what your idiot fucking instructors taught you.

http://vimeo.com/53779513


But I guess you stopped being paranoid about 39 seconds before you ran off the cliff.

And now that you're a seasoned veteran I'm guessing you stop being paranoid after you've done a hang check behind the ramp - just like all the other Lockout seasoned veteran assholes.

[Steve Davy]

Are you saying you wouldn't sign her off on that one? If not, what else would you have her do?

[Tad Eareckson]

I'd have her go back and do an assisted hook-in check in the relative calm behind the launch. As it was she had no way of knowing if her bar clearance was still optimal.

And that could've proven critical on that flight in the violent turbulence she entered at 1:35. Well it could've proven critical if she had ever proned out. But now that she's had ten mountain flights Matt and Gordon may feel that she's adequately prepared to shift to advanced mode.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27598
My first flight with no edits

Judy Phillips - 2012/11/18 19:01:30 UTC

Video footage of my first flight - Sept. 7, 2008 - no edits. The raw footage is the best to me. When the video gets shaky and "useless", I had a big smile, a big scream, and the tears were flowing.

My take is that when a first high flight is that emotional of an experience the student hasn't been prepped very well.

I fought broken four wheelers, 100 degree heat, freezing cold, too big for me equipment, and mostly I fought myself.

And let's not forget...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=4334
OUCH!!!

Judy Phillips - 2007/11/12 22:00:48 UTC

So, on Saturday, I had my first (and hopefully last crash).

It was on my last flight, (due to my decision after the crash) and I was going to start flaring the new Falcon 145 in an effort to get off that damn hill! Lauren went down to the landing area and had told me to wait until I got a wind cycle that I liked before launching. There were a few other students and Randy up there with me.

So, I'm waiting as the wind was crossing and was starting to get real switchy. Finally it calmed down enough that I thought I could get a good launch/flight/flare. I pick up the glider, yell "clear" and go.

On launch I got a little cross wind right as my feet had started to leave the ground, which I corrected. The flight was a bitch because I kept getting knocked to the left and I was having to make corrections, and even then couldn't stay on target.

Since I was already off target and was having trouble finding it again, I decided the best thing I could do was to just try and keep my wings as level as possible and just wheel it in.

Now, Lauren was waiting for me to get ready to land as she was going to yell "flare" if it looked as though it would be possible. So after coming out to trim and moving my hands in position to flare, she yells, as my wings are level at this time. So, I start to do it. I got my hands up but hadn't completely locked my elbows, when I zoomed!

When I realized how high I was (it looked like I went up about ten feet) I freaked out and couldn't finish the flare. I held what I had and floated down a couple of feet, when a big gust blew me even father to the left, which then caused the wind to be at my back.

As the glider starts its process of recovering from the stall, it felt like the wind was contributing and pushing it on over.

I nosed into the ground very hard. My helmet was knocked off of my head as I was going down. As soon as I saw that I was going to crash, I took my hands off the downtubes and allowed myself to swing through the control frame, as I was in a pretty bad situation. Luckily, I was hanging pretty high and I didn't take any of the impact. I crimped the basetube pretty bad though.

...standup landings and Lauren.

It may not be a perfect first flight but it was perfect at the time. You can see I am super paranoid about being hooked in.

Not a tiny fraction as much as I am.

First flight with a cursory, "I love ya'll" just in case I died.

Yeah, three seconds prior to launch. Very useful. Might be a good idea to make that your standard operating procedure - since you obviously have no intention whatsoever of ever following the USHGA standard operating procedure which protects you from the most highly probable means of dying...

1979/12/31 - Jerome DuPrey - Sirocco III - Lookout Mountain

Hang IV Canadian pilot, with over six hundred flights. Another tragic failure to hook in by a veteran. Hung onto the control bar uprights almost to the landing area, but fell from 50-75 feet after a 360.

...in that situation.

http://vimeo.com/53779513

Walt Conklin - 2012/11/18 19:36:38 UTC
Montana

Ya done good Judy. Yeah, I remember when you first posted that flight. We were all stoked, as with all of your flights.

What a wonderful supportive little community you have there, Jack.

You did the correct thing, when you were "unsure" at launch. You reset yourself!

And from that point on she was SURE! And how can a pilot possibly go wrong being...

Rob Kells - 2005/12

Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method, but rather the fear of launching unhooked that makes us diligent to be sure we are hooked in every time before starting the launch run.

...SURE about something?

Your flight path was straight and true.

Probably every bit as straight, true, and fast as the aforementioned Hang Four with over six hundred flights under his belt.

Now it's four years later. I can hardly wait for the redux of your mountain launch.

I'm pretty sure it'll look about the same. I don't see a lot of variation of procedure at the Lookout, Henson, or Whitwell ramps.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26541
Novice looking for critique

Shane Beams - 2012/07/02 21:36:31 UTC

Below is a link of a mountain launch I had at Blossom Valley this weekend. I've only got a few hours and am looking for advice on my flight.

Your flight isn't the point at which you're most likely to get killed - if you keep on going the way you've started.

Things done right, wrong, areas for improvement, etc...

I'm currently working on feeling for lift when I turn and working on smoothing out my turns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhrFaoh2WlU


Thanks!

michael170 - 2012/07/04 01:07:19 UTC

What does this guy do before starting his launch run that you didn't do ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_6jwH4RYA

Shane Beams - 2012/07/05 15:28:40 UTC

I would say the point you're likely trying to make is the lift check, which I normally do, however I also normally do a hang check in the setup area. Having just completed a hang check I was confident I was hooked in.

None-the-less, a good habit to be in regardless. Thanks.

Idiot.

michael170 - 2012/07/06 01:50:20 UTC

How many folks have launched unhooked that were NOT confident they were hooked in ?

Robert Seckold - 2012/07/06 02:23:46 UTC

Ah the old confident I was hooked in fallacy. So many people in our sport dead because of this.

One hundred percent of the people who've launched unhooked were one hundred percent confident that they were hooked.

Shane Beams - 2012/07/06 14:44:13 UTC

Not to beat a dead horse here because I agree that doing a lift check out of habit is a great idea.

This isn't a "great idea", dude. This is what you use to keep your stupid ass alive.

But the moment after you do a lift check you are "confident you're hooked in" at which point you launch.

BULLSHIT. I'm NEVER confident I'm hooked in. I ALWAYS assume I'm not.

Every single launch the pilot must do something to verify his confidence that he's hooked in...

Why? Does it say somewhere in the SOPs, or immutable laws of the universe, that a pilot must EVER - after preflight or just prior to or during launch - be CONFIDENT that he's hooked in? What possible benefit could a state of mind like that bestow?

...having done a full hook in check twenty seconds prior to launch I had this confidence just as one would if they had completed a lift check twenty seconds prior.

- I didn't have a ghost of doubt that you were brimming with the confidence of being hooked in from the point of your hang check on.

- It would scare me TOTALLY SHITLESS to run off a ramp based on some idiot check I'd done - or thought I'd done - more than two seconds prior.

However, one can never have too much certainty with regard to being hooked in.

I sure can, buddy. For me the least trace of certainty is like the least trace of Ebola virus.

I will endeavour to always do a lift check in the future, if nothing else to reinforce the habit.

Yeah, sure ya will.

michael170 - 2012/07/06 19:38:13 UTC

Shane,

You just made my day. Thanks.

No, this guy's totally clueless. "I will ENDEAVOR" means "Hell, I just did a hang check a minute ago. Why bother?" He's just oozing with confidence in himself - and that's the absolute last thing you wanna see in a pilot.

Robert Seckold - 2012/07/06 23:12:23 UTC

I will endeavour to always do a lift check in the future, if nothing else to reinforce the habit.

Shane you said you only have a few hours up, pilots who have had 27 years up in this sport who always did a hang check before launching have launched unhooked.

And launched with unhooked passengers.

The flaw in relying on your memory, is memory is flawed, especially at the critical time of launching when so much is going on.

It was a nice start, Robert. Too bad you're never gonna be able to understand that at the critical time of launching when so much is going on there's one thing going on that almost always dwarfs all other considerations to near the point of insignificance.

Here is one scenario where your method will and has fallen down for so many pilots.

By "YOUR method" do you mean the one John Heiney taught him and signed him off for?

You are at launch, you have done your lift check...

We haven't seen him do a lift check. HIS method is to do a hang check to establish certainty that he's hooked in, stand up, free his pod boot, pick up the glider, shuffle a couple of steps to launch position, check traffic, and run off the top of the mountain.

...just as you go to launch something happens (you choose what happens, camera not turned on, forgot water bottle etc etc etc) that requires you to unhook. You come back to your glider pick it up, you have the memory of doing a lift check and BAM you have just loaded the gun that will kill you.

BULLSHIT.

- The whole concept behind just prior to launch, hook-in check, lift and tug is that you NEVER rely on a MEMORY - more than two seconds old - of having done it. You DO NOT LAUNCH without having done it within the past two seconds. And it's virtually or, with a little bit of breeze, actually effortless - so there's no reason or incentive NOT TO.

- And you can cite NO record of a lift and tugger launching unhooked.

- And we're not gonna get into pilot/harness/glider combos in which it's problematic right now 'cause that is most assuredly not the case with respect to Shane.

- You "ALWAYS" wiggle into your harness "ONLY" when it's attached to your glider and "NEVER" unclip while you're in it. So you're always ASSUMING the gun isn't loaded. That approach sucks as much with hang gliders as it does with firearms - and we have the documentation.

You are a new American pilot...

This guy doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a pilot. A hang glider PILOT *NEVER* assumes he's hooked in.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876
Hang glider Crash

Helen McKerral - 2010/09/07 00:16:04 UTC
South Australia

More important, I think, is a change in mindset: that you constantly assume that you are NOT hooked in.

Even Australians are capable of getting this concept.

...have you even heard of or been told of the Aussie method.

Yes, Shane. Let Robert explain to you the "Always Assume You're Hooked In Method".

In Australia pilots do not walk around in their harnesses.

Or they'll be hunted down and killed by Aussie Methodist enforcement squads. But in Australia they won't put the Aussie Method in their regulations because...

http://ozreport.com/13.003
Forbes, day one, task one

Davis Straub - 2009/01/03 20:50:24 UTC
Forbes Airport, New South Wales

Meanwhile there was dust devil carnage in the launch line. A dust devil happened right in front of Michael Williams and he and two other pilots who were hooked in were pulled up and flipped over. One pilot had two people trying to hold him down and they had to let go.

The pilots were okay and apparently the damage to the gliders can be repaired here in Forbes.

...the practice totally sucks in many circumstances and environments.

They attach their harnesses to their glider during set-up and do not unhook the harness until they are in the landing area packing up. A pretty simple technique that does not rely on memory at the most critical time of launching.

Yeah. It relies on:
- a lot of extra hassle at training hills, scooter tow, and dunes
- a rejection of sites at and/or conditions in which it's impractical and/or dangerous
- unwavering discipline

In the above scenario of forgetting something, Aussie pilots climb out of their harness and fix/do whatever they have forgotten, they never un-hook as I said until they land and are packing up.

Yep. Almost all the time they do.

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

And when the discipline is breached the chances that the guy under the glider or anybody in the vicinity will run a final verification or catch the problem are total shit.

Now I will more than likely get a few posts from people trying to justify their American method...

I've told you this before, Robert, but THIS:

With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWbu0su1fA


is the AMERICAN method - even if 99.9 percent of Americans are too fuckin' stupid to make the slightest effort to comply with it.

...and how at their site it is impossible to carry their glider to launch with the glider attached, etc, etc, etc.

Yeah Robert...

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

Eric Hinrichs - 2011/05/13 21:31:06 UTC

So I used their method and I'm hooked in, carrying my glider to launch and someone yells "Dust devil!" Everyone around runs for their gliders (most of which are tied down) and I'm left standing alone in the middle of the butte with a huge monster wandering around. I heard later that it was well over three hundred feet tall and some saw lightning at the top.

Let's just ignore the situations which don't fit the model.

I have only been flying for eight years and I just get tired of coming to my home here on the org reading time and time again about another pilot dead because they launched un-hooked.

People dying after launching unhooked is just a symptom of the fundamental problems. The fundamental problems are that assholes like Shane are confident they're hooked in at launch and do NOTHING to confirm that they are within the final five seconds.

Fly high fly safe Shane.

Yeah Shane. Maybe you should just fly Yosemite. That's high and steep enough that you've got a pretty good shot at getting your parachute out and open sometime after you've launched with a lot more confidence about being hooked in than you should've had.

[Tad Eareckson]

P.S. Robert...

Would it kill you to JUST ONCE - while you're shoving Aussie down someone's throat - to back the hook-in check / just prior to launch / always assume you're not hooked in messages?

For both good and bad reasons you're not gonna get EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME getting into his harness only after it's connected to his glider. So why aren't you endorsing what, from your perspective, could only be extra layers of security? Is it just so that you can get to say, "See? That person died 'cause he wasn't using the Aussie Method." more often?

Also...

If you're so freakin' positive that Aussie is appropriate for all sites in all conditions then why aren't you ripping into Rooney when he tells everyone it's not an option for Coronet Peak?

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3638
FTHI

Markus Schaedler - 2012/11/23 00:06:55 UTC
West Hollywood

Preventing Omission Errors in Hang Gliding

Steve Davy - 2012/10/25 06:23:16 UTC

An article by Tad Eareckson:

http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/FTHI.pdf

Nice article - thanks for sharing.

1. Thank you - you're most welcome.

2. How will this affect/alter at launch:
- your own procedures?
- how you assist and observe others?

3. Ever wonder why this is the first time you've heard something like this?

I stumbled over this article - related subject:

http://ozreport.com/docs/do_hareparsonssummary.pdf

The subject is related but the article is totally clueless and useless. And the fact that you're citing it makes me a bit nervous about how well you really understood my article.

[Steve Davy]

High Adventure Hang Gliding and Paragliding - 2012/11/07
Rob and Dianne McKenzie

Local advanced HG pilot is distracted by a new radio arrangement and fails to hook in prior to launching Crestline. Luckily the glider rises before too much groundspeed is obtained and the pilot falls down with no injuries. Hang check... hang check... hook check hook check!

[Tad Eareckson]

I can't find the original report but anyway...

Luckily the glider rises before too much groundspeed is obtained...

One of tens of thousands of glider jockeys who prefers to perform lift and tug DURING rather than - like it says in the SOPs - JUST PRIOR TO launch.

Hang check... hang check... hook check hook check!

The problem and the solution.

Great job, southern California training programs and clubs.