landing

[Tad Eareckson]

P.S. I wouldn't have grounded him. He's gotta learn to fly in less forgiving conditions sometime and he had the skills.

But if I suspected he were iffy I'd have:

- towed him way the hell upwind

- ordered him to stay upwind of the airport

- told him if he got downwind of the airport and things were still the least bit questionable at a thousand feet to IMMEDIATELY turn tail and shift into Plan B mode

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29372
Death in Texas

Zack C - 2013/06/25 04:59:58 UTC

I was present the day of the accident and the only other pilot in the air at the time. Winds were strong aloft (~20 mph) and Kevin got too far downwind of the airport to make the glide back. The field he attempted to land in would have been a challenge for even the most experienced pilots, but he was undoubtedly out of options.

Kevin was the first to launch after we waited for some storms in the area to dissipate. (One pilot flew for a couple of hours before the storms.) Surface winds were around 13 mph with gusts. I launched immediately after Kevin when the tug returned. Conditions were rowdy near the ground but smooth above a couple hundred feet with little in the way of lift encountered on tow.

I found some zero sink once off tow and soon the air became much more active, with 300-400 fpm climbs as low as 1100 feet. I looked for Kevin but never saw him, so I suspected he was skyed out above me.

The high wind made it difficult to stay with the lift (I didn't want to land out) and I got low after 40 minutes. The thermal activity combined with mechanical turbulence from the wind made for very rowdy conditions near the ground - some of the worst I've seen at Columbus. I landed at the airport without incident but heard the medical helicopter as soon as I touched down and feared the worst.

I was not present at the site of the crash, but the field is here:

http://goo.gl/maps/8fNYE

Winds were from the SSE. No one (in the club at least) witnessed the crash.

The following is an account from one of the pilots that broke down his wing:

There are an area of opening on either side of the road around three to four hundred yards to the north from the end of the airstrip. Jeff landed on the east side of that area earlier this year in a small patch between barbed wire fences.

Kevin went in on the opposite (west) side of the road and it appears from the final position of the glider that he clipped a two strand power line set at about twenty feet and running east/west across the field.

The glider then continued another forty to fifty yards and likely contacted a tree at low level, rotating around ninety degrees to the right with the pilot swinging through and taking out the left downtube and keel. The sail was pretty much undamaged so not even clear that the glider nosed in heavily or went in on a wing.

The top wire from the kingpost to the nose was broken and there were electrical burn marks at the top of the kingpost and near the base of one of the uprights, indicating likely pathway for a shock current.

While we'll never have Kevin's account, I don't think he ever landed out before and I suspect he was fixated on making it back to the airport. There are suitable landing options downwind of the crash site, but making them would have required giving up on making the airport with some altitude in the bank.

Zack C - 2013/06/25 05:03:37 UTC

Here's a video of his first aerotow solo:

http://vimeo.com/69056841


Kevin contributed much to the club in his short time with it, converting an old Cushman utility vehicle we purchased into a customized vehicle for transporting gliders, dollies, gear, and people around the airport. Pictures of this work, as well as a few pictures of him and his Sport 2, can be found on his flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/k_p_obrien/sets/72157632181416257/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k_p_obrien/

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29372
Death in Texas

Casey Cox - 2013/06/26 00:00:51 UTC

I was going to comment more but I think the details, map, and video tell a fairly accurate story although the video was Kevin's first solo flight in a SS and not his Sport 2.

1. Yeah Casey, I too was horrified watching him land prone on eight inch pneumatic Finsterwalders with both hands glued to the basetube until after the glider had rolled to a complete stop. Can you imagine what might have happened to him if he had been coming down in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place instead of at an airport?! The kind thing to do would have been to slash his tires, cut his sidewires, burn his card, and tell him to forget hang gliding and take up checkers.

2. Was there anything in THIS video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i4owd0akd0


http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8696380718_787dbc0005_o.png


that would've prompted you to say anything to Zack Marzec prior to his flight on the afternoon of the day after he posted it? I rather doubt it 'cause I haven't seen any evidence whatsoever that a single tow configuration anywhere has been modified in response. I guess people are just figuring the odds of getting tumbled by a dust devil after being whipstalled by the Rooney Links in their pro toad setups are too low to be worth worrying about.

3. That landing area selection was FAR from the horror story I had envisioned before seeing it.

May all learn from this tragedy.

As usual, there isn't a goddam thing to learn from this one that hang gliding shouldn't have thoroughly understood forty years ago.

[Zack C]

That landing area selection was FAR from the horror story I had envisioned before seeing it.

Some more info on the field, from one of the pilots on the scene:

If you zoom in, you can see the two power poles from which the two lines are strung. The upper line being the hot line and the lower being the neutral.

He severed the lower neutral line about half the distance between the poles.

If you follow the dirt road into the property, where it intersects the tree line is where he was found.

I'm guessing he's talking about the two poles bordering the SE edge, but I see four poles total.

Another pilot on the scene, one of our most experienced and a frequent XC/competition pilot, said the following:

It almost look landable on Google Earth but that’s not the way it looks from the ground.

The Google Earth image does not reflect the fact that this area could not possibly be considered a landing field and while you are correct about rotor, I don’t know a pilot who could safely land a hang glider (even a Falcon with drogue chute or a paraglider) in that field in any wind condition without a massive amount luck.

However, the first pilot (far less experienced) said this:

My thoughts on the issue:

He may have done everything right.

Yes, he probably could have picked a better field, but except for the power line, this field wasn't all that bad. It has a slight downward slope to the north.

My take is that he never saw the power line until he was in it.

Judging by how low he must have been to sever the lower line, and the length of field left, he may very well have already been on final, vertical, into the wind, wings level, and ready to land.

The issue was the power line, not necessarily the field or his approach/set up.

I don't know how anyone could have spotted this line from the air. It's hard to see from the ground!

I haven't seen the field in person, but just going by the map, I'd do everything I could to avoid having to land in a field like that. That said, it seems like there were better options, such as along side the road. This is why I'm wondering if he was turned into the field by turbulence. There's a lot we'll never know (no camera unfortunately).

Zack

[Steve Davy]

I wouldn't have grounded him.

Please explain why you think a hang two has any business flying an aircraft with no engine, marginal lift to drag performance, and limited control authority in conditions that were strong aloft (~20 mph) and surface winds around 13 mph with gusts.

He's gotta learn to fly in less forgiving conditions sometime...

No he doesn't. Learning is a choice one makes. Learning to fly in less forgiving conditions is also a choice.

...and he had the skills.

What skills are you referring to?

[Tad Eareckson]

Some more info on the field...

Shoulda been more specific but I was thinking of the whole area - along the road, other side of the road - when I wrote that. Hell, much as I'm terrified of pavement, let's throw the road itself into the options bag at that point.

So now it's looking like it WAS invisible powerlines that did it. I remember a couple of things being relayed back in my early years...

- If there's a building ASSUME powerlines and start working on locating them.
- Don't look for the powerlines. Look for the poles, especially where they're:
-- hardest to find
-- most likely to be
in the trees at the edges of the field.

P.S. Not that one should be assuming no powerlines when there ISN'T a building.

[Tad Eareckson]

Please explain why you think a hang two...

Shit very similar to this one has happened to Fours and Fives. Granted, a Four or Five wouldn't have gotten out of range in these particular circumstances, but it happens all the time. I myself have had do bail on Ridgely and settle for something a similar distance downwind.

...has any business flying an aircraft with no engine...

The nice thing about not having an engine is that you can't get a nasty surprise by losing one - you're already in engine-out emergency mode.

...marginal lift to drag performance...

A high aspect ratio double surface with faired tubing, no reflex bridle, and a VG cord? Compared to the Seahawks and Lancers we used to graduate to? These things aren't a whole lot worse than a Redtail.

...and limited control authority...

There's no indication that the glider was doing anything other than what it was told to when it was told to at any time during the flight.

...in conditions that were strong aloft (~20 mph)...

He allowed himself to get out of range - he wasn't blown out of range.

...and surface winds around 13 mph with gusts.

Wasn't a problem on takeoff for him or anyone else I've heard about. And there's no indication that it was an issue on landing approach.

And around twenty aloft and a bit trashy in the slot and LZ describes a day in this neck of the woods in which everyone and dog is heading to Woodstock with any rating - without an "n" in it - and glider you wanna name.

No he doesn't.

Well, no... But he SHOULD. Move him upwind two thirds of the Columbus runway length and he has the same day Zack does. Or move him downwind a runway and two thirds and he has lotsa fun and comes out on the plus side.

Learning to fly in less forgiving conditions is also a choice.

Unless we're content with sled runs pretty much ALL the conditions in which we fly are less forgiving.

Throw the wind out of the equation (which I really prefer to do at a tow site). There's NOTHING to stop him from taking off - and/or landing - in that same monster thermal that Zack Marzec encountered a couple of seconds before his Rooney Link very clearly provided him protection from a high angle of attack.

What skills are you referring to?

Kevin was a natural, learned quickly, and handled every new situation he encountered with skill. He was confident but not cocky.

His skills as a less than one year Hang Two were probably not appreciably/significantly inferior to mine as an over quarter century guy with most of the merit badges. And extraordinary skills tend to be worth shit when the shit hits the fan.

Judgment - to stay out of situations in which shit can hit fans and to best respond if/when it does - is the ticket.

My take... I think with a one minute briefing cautioning him to stay upwind and telling him when to bail if he got downwind he'd have been fine.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29372
Death in Texas

NMERider - 2013/06/26 03:55:20 UTC

The Sport 2 is a fantastic, forgiving, easy to fly glider with a great performance envelope that inspires a pilot's confidence. And the last part is what has my attention. I do not have stats on the number of Sport 2s sold or the expereince levels of the pilots who own and fly them. But this is the second fatality in Texas in a year...

Holy shit! EXACTLY a year - same date. Everybody find something else to do on 2014/06/16.

...on a Sport 2 and it's certainly no fault of the glider.

Maybe the problem has more to do with Texas than glider models being flown. Not this one, actually, but the recent history has been way less than stellar.

Last summer we had two pilots at Sylmar break an arm within a month of each other while making minor landing errors on a Sport 2.

Sorry, Jonathan, I'm not seeing coming in with your hands on the downtubes as a MINOR ERROR. I see it as BEGGING for crashes and injuries.

I have been aware of a number of other injury crashes on the Sport 2 and again I am not faulting the glider.

Compare/Contrast the configurations with what we saw Kevin doing in the video.

I have been flying a Sport 2 155 myself over the past month and pushing the glider to its XC limits whenever I can. I came back to the sport after a 26-year break in 2008...

If you took a 26 year break in 2008 it's gonna be a while before you came back to the sport.

...onto a Sport 2 and within 33 hours I switched to a T2 144 even though my landings were very spotty at best. I moved up because I kept finding myself unable to penetrate out of situations I kept putting myself in.

Now that you mention it...

If we hop in the time machine and swap out Kevin's Hang Two Sport 2 for a competition ship he probably finishes the day OK.

Now I have returned to the Sport 2 after logging six million feet...

...1136 miles...

...of total climbing in the past five years and I have a better perspective on the glider. It's so damned easy to fly and land and climbs so well that it's easy to forget it's a glider and it's easy to get casual with one's landing technique. I am concerned that the glider's strengths bring out less experienced pilots' weaknesses.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27415
Friday the 19th with Hawks & Friends!

NMERider - 2012/10/24 21:47:05 UTC

I have to say that landing on the wheels is so much fun it's not funny.

"Fun" in this context being a synonym for "safe".

I consider the Sport 2 155 (I have never flown the 135 or 175) to have an excellent safety record. It isn't the glider that's been crashing. It's been the pilots' doing in every case I am aware of.

I tend to lean a lot more towards the instructors.

This is no disrespect to any pilot injured or fallen but an observation gleaned from a LOT of very hard flying and then coming back to the same glider with a much different set of skills.

As I write this, I am recalling more and more accidents with more severe injuries that occurred on a Sport 2 when it was flown in very robust conditions by pilots without the expereince needed to handle the level of turbulence.

1. That's the second time in this post you've spelled "experience" that way, Jonathan. There's a lot to be said for doing things right across the board.

2. The "accidents" and injuries are damn near all happening because people are coming in with their hands positioned such that...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

...they can't control the glider and...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses

Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC

Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.

...the geometry is optimized for breaking arms and ripping up shoulders. Lose/Lose.

All of this begs the question: What can YOU do as a mentor to newer pilots who are now flying a Sport 2 or similar glider?

Have them:

- assume that they're not hooked into it three seconds before moving a foot and check to see that they're wrong

- optimize their landings for safety in the environments in which they ARE and SHOULD BE coming down rather than the ones in which they AREN'T and SHOULDN'T BE

- always work on tight approaches

For starers I would suggest letting newer pilots know that it's easy to go longer distances or launch into more robust conditions than you may be prepared for on a Sport 2 and find yourself in over your head.

He'd have been LESS fucked on a Falcon?

That's not what happened here.
- He allowed himself to get too far downwind of the airport to penetrate back.
- He didn't use the:
-- performance he had with his glider; and
-- wind that got him in trouble
to reach brain dead easy landing options.

Sort of like Icarus Syndrome but too far...

Or not far enough.

...too big, too rough...

Too rough is bullshit. We're not trashing people because the air they're flying in is too rough. We're trashing them because they're coming into smooth fields in configuration to practice landing for the kinds of rough fields they're not and shouldn't be landing in.

...rather than 'too high'.

There's no such thing as too high.

It may not hurt to site...

Cite.

...a few examples of accidents...

Examples of whats?

...newer pilots...

Why do hafta limit it to the newer guys?

...have had on Sport 2s, (again that are no fault of the glider).

Assuming you're hooked in two seconds prior to launch.

Practicing dangerous landings in safe or dangerous conditions in safe fields for landing in safe or dangerous conditions in dangerous fields.

Placing release actuators within easy reach.

Using Rooney Links as backup and emergency releases.

Using tow drivers keyed to fix whatever's going on back there by...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7462005802_bbc0ac66ac_o.jpg


...giving you the rope.

At any rate this is what I suggest from my antique, armless swivel chair with two pennies by the monitor.

Tell ya sumpin' else, Jonathan...

We now have a pretty good idea that he clipped with the nose to kingpost wire a powerline that he either didn't see until it was too late or at all. If he's:
- still proned out with his hands on the basetube and sees the wires he's in A LOT better shape to dive under the wires
- on a topless he MAY overshoot the field, BUT...
---
Edit - 2013/06/27 01:33:32 UTC

Oops. Brain shorted out again. A year plus a week between Terry Mason and Kevin.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29372
Death in Texas

Casey Cox - 2013/06/26 10:36:56 UTC

I'm not suggesting it was the glider. I was just saying that the video was his first solo and on a single surface glider. I did not see a video of him flying his Sport 2 where I would expect better landings and more confidence.

Lemme tell ya a few things, Casey...

- Kevin's landing:

http://vimeo.com/69056841


was a LOT better than this guy's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuMxK9PadzA


- Both Kevin's first and last solo aerotow flights were a lot better controlled, longer, higher, more successful than a certain Currituck tandem aerotow instructor's last aerotow flight at Quest on 2013/02/02.

- Confidence ain't necessarily a good thing in aviation. This guy:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8696380718_787dbc0005_o.png


DIED from confidence poisoning. And all the other assholes continuing to configure the same way he was are BEGGING to die in the same manner.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29372
Death in Texas

Erik Boehm - 2013/06/26 12:34:28 UTC

Overhead Power lines... I'm glad they are so rare here.

They're only overhead if you fly under them.

This situation also makes me wonder under what conditions it would be best to just toss a reserve and deal with the extreme inconvenience (and potentially cost?) that results... rather than trying to attempt a dangerous landing approach into a small field.

1. Good luck with that strategy.
2. How 'bout we talk about drag chutes before we throw the reserve.

I think it would be pretty difficult to judge when one becomes safer than the other.

If your judgment is that good it's WAY better than what you need not to get into a situation in which you're evaluating whether it's better to land or throw your reserve.

Dave Hopkins - 2013/06/26 13:39:17 UTC

Kevin's death was a kick in the gut for me. RIP
I lost a friend many yrs ago also leaving 2 children and a young wife also from hitting a power line.

A problem I see is that most of our intermediate gliders today have a broader performance range then old wings. Young pilots can handle the launch, landings but the glide, higher speed range and VG use can get young pilots in trouble. Young pilots today are no more ready to handle more performance and stronger conditions then pilots of 20 yrs ago.
I think many are stepping up too quickly. The rash of incidents shows this. Also I think there are a lot of new pilots coming into the sport ( that's good) so there are more pilots with H3 syndrome.
We have had lots of H3 incidents here in the NE in winter and spring. lets be better mentors and instructors. keep radios on our young pilots and help them progress at a safe rate.

1. If I take up choppers can I convert from being an almost sixty year old hang glider pilot to a twenty year old helicopter pilot? If that's an option please let me know yesterday.

2. What the fuck does this hafta do with better performance gliders? He didn't use performance to get downwind of the airport and he could've used it to either get back or bail with a better margin.

3. He flew into a fucking powerline that he didn't see in time. There are other issues here but they wouldn't have been worthy of the discussion we're having except for the main one.