landing

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31921
25 Miles to the Beach - A Cautionary Tale

NMERider - 2014/10/08 18:02:12 UTC

It is vital to be able to safely perform a nil or downwind landing on terrain that is difficult to run on if wide open X/C is the goal. It doesn't need to look showy. It needs to be safe.

I don't mean to get on a soapbox but showy landing can lead to serious injuries if executed improperly on unforgiving terrain. This is why I emphasize the preparation to go into a deep knee bend and also let the glider contact the terrain if necessary. Not pretty but safe. Just and FYI to pilots considering flying into terra incognita.

It is vital to be able to safely perform a nil or downwind landing on terrain that is difficult to run on if wide open X/C is the goal. It doesn't need to look showy. It needs to be safe.

In aviation showy and safe are - on the average - synonyms. This landing:

027-03123
http://live.staticflickr.com/5154/14422541620_a48c55b758_o.png

044-03623
http://live.staticflickr.com/2925/14422539820_074cff03b7_o.png

045-03625
http://live.staticflickr.com/3856/14607143664_5003d2e987_o.png

047-03703
http://live.staticflickr.com/5529/14422573378_5385a9a99a_o.png

053-03828
http://live.staticflickr.com/2928/14422781117_a4a3b72ee6_o.png


is both showier and safer than this landing:

04-2114
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5555/13939303701_9b9ab5e69f_o.png

07-2216
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7093/13939298491_84b8bab535_o.png

08-2301
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5285/13962452653_58aca0cbfc_o.png

09-2312
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7314/13939295211_823db11cca_o.png

10-2422
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7239/13939293361_34308bc220_o.png


The SCFR landing (in response to the Davis Link increasing the safety of the towing operation) is reasonably well under control - no sudden stop, hard impact, bonked nose, injury to the pilot, damage to the glider.

SCFR and Kagel landings. Twenty each. The SCFRs are all like that one. You nail nineteen of the Kagels and bonk one and bow a downtube. The SCFRs average out showier and safer. I'll take 'em anyway - always nice to be able to go back up without needing to straighten and/or replace stuff and/or heal.

I don't mean to get on a soapbox but showy landing can lead to serious injuries if executed improperly on unforgiving terrain.

The nineteen out of twenty that you pull off kind of showy. Or, more accurately...

15-3703
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3677/14267100052_9ba5bb5bdc_o.png


http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3786/14082586920_34b189f5c2_o.png
20-4106

...show-off. And, for the regular recreational pilot that this asshole sport pretends to be centered on and serving, it's more like one out of five. Yeah, showy/show-off bullshit is pretty much by definition dangerous as hell - times ten when you're fucking around with it at landing - ANYWHERE.

This is why I emphasize the preparation to go into a deep knee bend and also let the glider contact the terrain if necessary. Not pretty but safe. Just and FYI to pilots considering flying into terra incognita.

Bit of a mild controlled crash. Which is how REAL XC flyers flying REAL XC - 'specially on expensive gliders are ACTUALLY FOOT LANDING. And you go to:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26379
Landings

and listen to our Patron Saint of Landing, God's Gift to Aviation, giving us the benefit of his amazingly keen intellect and find him saying anything like that. And you go to schools and instructors and try to find ANYBODY teaching ANYTHING other than showy/show-off landings.

"Yeah, it's vital that you perfect this 'cause some day when you're flying XC you'll find your only landing option to be a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place. And this is the only thing that'll stand between you and a trip out in a medevac chopper." Let's combine the most dangerous landing option we can think of with the most dangerous landing technique we can think of. Should work out just fine.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25536
Whoops! Snapped another tip wand :-O

NMERider - 2012/03/14 15:17:14 UTC

Landing clinics don't help in real world XC flying. I have had the wind do 180 degree 15 mph switches during my final legs. What landing clinic have you ever attended that's going to help? I saved that one by running like a motherfukker. And BTW - It was on large rocks on an ungroomed surface.

Jim Rooney threw a big tantrum and stopped posting here.

His one-technique-fits-all attitude espoused on the Oz Report Forum has become tiresome to read. It does not work in the fucked-up world of XC landings and weary pilots.

I refuse to come in with both hands on the downtubes ever again. I have had some very powerful thermals and gusts kick off and lost control of the glider due to hands on the downtubes. I prefer both hands on the control bar all the way until trim and ground effect. I have been lifted right off the deck in the desert and carried over 150 yards.

I like what Steve Pearson does when he comes in and may adapt something like that.

Christopher LeFay - 2012/03/15 05:57:43 UTC

January's canonization of Rooney as the Patron Saint of Landing was maddening. He offered just what people wanted to hear: there is an ultimate, definitive answer to your landing problems, presented with absolute authority. Judgment problems? His answer is to remove judgment from the process - doggedly stripping out critical differences in gliders, loading, pilot, and conditions. This was just what people wanted - to be told a simple answer. In thanks, they deified him, carving his every utterance in Wiki-stone.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31948
Underground Landing Approach @ Crestline

NMERider - 2014/10/15 14:11:23 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEyeGGK8tnI

Dustin works his magic.

Well yeah, Jonathan. But in a Joe Junik scenario...

http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_3186ac10-4975-11e4-ad71-001a4bcf6878.html
Cold Spring hang-gliding crash claims Minnesotan - Daily Jefferson County Union: News

Ryan Whisner, Union regional editor
2014/10/01 09:14 | Updated: 2014/10/02 08:48

At about 100 feet, Julik's glider caught a wind shear, which caused the glider to pitch to one side and take a nosedive. That led to the aircraft violently overturning, driving the pilot into the ground.

"One of our guys out here loves to say, 'if we could see the wind, we would probably never fly," Lange said. "In this particular case, it would have been nice to see that because it didn't matter what your skill level was, when you get into something that can toss you around like a leaf, it's pretty sad."

...he'd have ended up just as instantly dead. Nuthin' you can do when your glider catches a wind shear. No advantage whatsoever to burning it down through the pattern into ground effect, bleeding off speed, keeping both hands on the basetube until trim and five seconds before touchdown. When your number's up it's up. Right?

Here's Niki...

23-10629
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1843/44410454212_5ffcaa5588_o.png

28-11505
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4231/34683464104_88bfcfd2b1_o.png

34-12413
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4216/34683462724_74534af232_o.png


...working pretty much the same "magic". Really amazing the kind of magic one can work flying and landing an aircraft the way it's designed to be flown and landed.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31546
Wheel Landings: Broadening the Window

michael170 - 2014/07/10 21:17:17 UTC

Hang Gliding - 2004/11
Executive Director Speaks Out
Wheel Landings: Broadening the Window

Jayne DePanfilis

A pilot who doesn't need to transition to the downtubes during approach won't stall the glider during that moment of transition.

Jason Boehm - 2014/07/10 22:01:35 UTC

in 14 years and hundreds if not thousands of flights, I've never "stalled in transition"

http://www.rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5545
"Jedi" Joe Julik - Gone But Never Forgotten

Tiffany Smith - 2014/09/30 15:28 UTC

Joe had been at Whitewater, MN all weekend, towing and flying his happy head off. Sunday night he made a deal to purchase a Topless glider.....he was landing his first flight on it Monday morning when he stalled after transition and couldn't recover....landed hard.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31989
Bonk!

Jorge Zingg Jorge - 2014/10/24 12:35:58 UTC
Switzerland

Friend of mine, some mistakes...

One fundamental mistake.

...fun to watch...

Yeah. Compare/Contrast to this boring shit:

23-10629
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1843/44410454212_5ffcaa5588_o.png

28-11505
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4231/34683464104_88bfcfd2b1_o.png

34-12413
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4216/34683462724_74534af232_o.png

...nothing scary...

Probably was for Joe Julik a bit under a month ago when his wing got caught in that wind shear.

Enjoy

I ALWAYS enjoy watching people doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

Crash Compilation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokyiLXWxFM
Beppu75 - 2014/10/21
dead

trnbrn - 2014/10/24 23:10:23 UTC
Rindge, New Hampshire

LZ's were too big, flat, perfectly mowed and green.

They all are.

endoxon - 2014/10/25 06:33:42 UTC

"funt to watch, nothing scary"... well, i see it the oposite way:

He was quite lucky his gliders nose didn't hit his neck during these impacts.

Well, at least he was TRYING to fare...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31979
To toss silk....Or not???

Jeff Heiss - 2014/10/23 17:53:31 UTC

Why aren't the students being taught to how to land? (pull in, round out, fare)? Can you find a video where a student fares?

The way he was taught to land as a student.

Rodger Hoyt - 2014/10/26 06:54:57 UTC

Another flier jinxed by the camera!

No.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.rmhpa.org/messageboard/viewtopic.php?p=22846
"Jedi" Joe Julik - Gone But Never Forgotten

Fred Kaemerer - 2014/10/07 16:10 UTC

I attended the funeral with JZ, Tiffany, Larry, Craig Austin and over 200 of Joe's friends and family. It was a wonderful tribute to a very special person and Larry, in particular, had wonderful words to say in the evening as we all gathered to honor Joe's memory and his spirit.

I was given the video of the final seconds of his flight...

From his camera, no doubt.

...ending just before impact.

Three seconds before impact? Like this:

20-30326
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2860/13650864904_5d87fcc970_o.png


one?

It captures the causes of his crash.

Great. But we already know the causes of the crash...

http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_3186ac10-4975-11e4-ad71-001a4bcf6878.html
Cold Spring hang-gliding crash claims Minnesotan - Daily Jefferson County Union: News

Cold Spring hang-gliding crash claims Minnesotan

Ryan Whisner, Union regional editor
2014/10/01 09:14 | Updated: 2014/10/02 08:48

At about 100 feet, Julik's glider caught a wind shear, which caused the glider to pitch to one side and take a nosedive. That led to the aircraft violently overturning, driving the pilot into the ground.

"One of our guys out here loves to say, 'if we could see the wind, we would probably never fly," Lange said. "In this particular case, it would have been nice to see that because it didn't matter what your skill level was, when you get into something that can toss you around like a leaf, it's pretty sad."

Julik's death marked the second fatal incident that could be recalled as having occurred at Twin Oaks in its more than two decades of operation.

The prior incident is believed to have occurred around 2009 and involved a hang glider getting into a similar situation as Julik, only at the beginning of his flight as it was being towed.

"Occasionally something happens, the wind changes, switches, turns, rotates, and if you happen to be unfortunate enough to be right there ...," Lange said. "Even airlines run into severe turbulence sometimes.

Lange said that in this case, it was the unseen, but aptly named, dust devil that was to blame.

Glider caught a wind shear, unseen dust devil, just like Roy Messing.

I'm going to meet with Mark to discuss what happened and I'd then like to share the video in a group setting...

Which group? I thought his death was a Sad Loss to the Entire Free-Flight Community. How come the Entire Free-Flight Community isn't gonna get privileged with this evidence? How come it's just your crappy little local cult that's gonna enjoy this privilege? He got killed by an unseen Wisconsin dust devil. Doesn't that crowd have a better claim than you Colorado douchebags?

...there are lessons to be learned.

1. No there aren't. Didn't you hear Danny say it didn't matter what your skill level was, there was nothing that could be done, shit just happens sometimes, when your number's up it's up?

2. Yeah. Don't fly in the wind. If we could see it we wouldn't fly, we know we can't see it, so only a total moron would fly in it.

3. Oh. There are lessons to be learned.

- The first one then is obviously that Danny Lange is a lying piece of shit - as if that weren't blindingly obvious to anyone with an IQ better than fifteen.

- The others only you goddam Colorado pieces of shit get to learn.

Shove your video up your ass, Fred. We knew why he got killed with the first information that was blurted out:

Tiffany Smith - 2014/09/30 15:28

...he was landing his first flight on it Monday morning when he stalled after transition and couldn't recover...

There wasn't and isn't a goddam thing to be learned. In strong air he put his hands at shoulder or ear height where he couldn't control the glider, stalled...

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.

...and got turned downwind. And not one single goddam thing is gonna change. All instructors are gonna keep teaching the exact same bullshit and all flyers are gonna keep doing it and expecting better results.

Fuck every single one of you miserable assholes. I'll be looking real forward to the next one - Tom Galvin with any luck.

[Steve Davy]

No. Instructors are gonna keep teaching the exact same bullshit and most flyers are gonna keep doing it expecting, and getting the SAME results.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96rQkGSjLyg


Well...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30929
Doh! My worst landing ever, caught on tape

Red Howard - 2014/03/24 21:51:44 UTC

Aiming for a spot usually means that you are in the correct LZ. Aiming for a field can put you into the next field, long or short, or assorted other more serious troubles. Assuming for a minute that you plan to cross the fence about five yards (meters) high, and you hit some heavy sink on final, then what do you plan to do, flap your wings?

The plan here is to minimize the danger. "Putting it on the numbers" is fine if you have an engine or dive brakes, but coming in too short (thus hitting the fence) can be 'WAY too short. Your body is breakable, and it is not always fixable.

At least he got it into the right field and didn't clip the fence on final.

And also, I note...

David Sparks - 2014/10/26

Hang glider crashing into building

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=20756
How is Zach Etheridge doing?

Bob Flynn - 2011/02/04 11:26:34 UTC

Lookout keeps this kind of stuff under their hat. You never hear of accidents there. But every time I go there, I hear about quite a few. Blown launches, tree landings, etc.

This is the only way we're ever gonna hear about shit like this. Good on ya, Dave, for posting it.

P.S. And...

David Sparks - Tennessee - 89058 - H2 - 2009/10/09 - Gordon Cayce - FL CL FSL

Give my best to your instructor.

P.P.S. Sorry 'bout your pretty glider.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=32009
Ouch

Brad Barkley - 2014/10/29 17:11:21 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96rQkGSjLyg


I hope the pilot...

Passenger.

...is okay.

Why? 'Cause he's not T** at K*** S******?

Jason Boehm - 2014/10/29 17:15:27 UTC

target fixation....

Alan Deikman - 2014/10/29 17:16:44 UTC
Fremont

Seemed like he set up ok, but just decided to stop flying the glider once he got close to the ground. Ouch indeed.

He flew it - just in the wrong direction. Of course he should never have gotten to that point in the first place but late in the game would've been a real good excuse to flare the crap out of it. So much for all that bullshit...

05-03223
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7411/14165628916_bbdc682e28_o.png


...upright "training" they do.

Tiberiu Szollosi - 2014/10/29 18:08:11 UTC

With a huge field like that there is no excuse .

Who signed him off? Everybody was gearing up to have Matt Philips tarred and feathered while watching HIS students - none of whom, to my knowledge, crashed - but Dave flies downwind into a building off the side of a flat putting green half the size of Nebraska and Matt Taber, Gordon Cayce, Lookout get free passes? He's got his main and backup and his carabiner's locked so not much else matters?

Brian Scharp - 2014/10/29 18:10:19 UTC

Over extended turn onto final and never established a good final direction. The first hand transition was a distraction and the second one was poorly timed with the oscillations while still holding pitch pressure.

And both were totally unnecessary - 'specially seeing as how he finished up on his wheels anyway.

What was wrong with all that wide open space behind him?

Maybe a dog took the Frisbee out of the middle of the field and he didn't have a good Plan B.

He'd do well to restrict himself to the downwind end of the runway where the penalties for errors are less serious.

Edit: My bad, that was the downwind end of the runway. He landed going downwind.

Yeah, but it wasn't that much wind and it shouldn't have been the factor that put him over the tipping point.

He's extremely lucky if he's not seriously hurt or worse. I'll hope for the best.

He's OK. The glider took all the impact and we'd have heard if he weren't.

Pedro Enrique - 2014/10/29 18:55:39 UTC
California

Looks like the wheels hit the ground before impact and rolled him into the wall...

Lot of that sorta thing...

18-1817


32-1901

...going around.

Hope he's ok.

Why don't you call up Lookout and ask 'em? Ask 'em to post something on The Jack Show.

Dave Jacob - 2014/10/29 19:37:38 UTC
Fremont

I think he just transitioned too low...

Why the fuck did he need to transition AT ALL? How did transitioning make that situation any better?

...got an asymmetric pop in the process and cross controlled a bit when he tried to correct.

Bullshit. He stopped flying the glider and went into brace-for-inevitable-impact mode.

But why the downwind approach? Is that something people practice at LMFP?

Why not? They practice all kinds of other stupid, useless, dangerous, counterproductive exercises at Lockout.

Either way, I hope he's okay, the beam behind the lattice seemed to be a bit close to his path.

Yeah, whenever you're crashing into buildings you don't want any beams close to your path.

Dave Pendzick - 2014/10/29 19:39:42 UTC

Looks like he was flying a wing that was way beyond his skill level.

Bullshit. He picked a section of the field that was beyond his skill level.

How many flights had he had on that wing ?

All of them.

Christopher Albers - 2014/10/29 20:04:17 UTC

Man, looks like he destroyed that glider...

Yeah, that's usually a good sign. When the glider's in pretty good shape...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bRrpHNa68iY/UQ6Pv9gRZyI/AAAAAAAAjTg/Hc22bx5122Q/s2048/20943781_BG1.jpg


...it's almost always the case that some other element of the system absorbed all the energy.

...at least he hit the lattice and there is nothing solid behind it. I hope he's ok.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=32009
Ouch

Mike Badley - 2014/10/29 21:03:33 UTC

If that was a downwind landing - then the problem began at the beginning of the video. Was flying his approach, realized he was TOO HIGH...

He wasn't too high. It's IMPOSSIBLE to be too HIGH for that field. He was too FAR down the fuckin' runway.

...thought he had room to do a 360...

Bullshit. He wouldn't have considered a 360 with a gun to his head.

...but halfway around said to himself 'not gonna make it' leveled out on final in a downwind config...

What's a downwind config? Sounds to me like Dennis Pagen's "wingover maneuver" or "Joe Gregor's "lockout attitude" bullshit.

...and never did get himself discombobulated.

Combobulated. Idiot

I thought he was gonna be OK - but he was crabbing left to avoid those tugs (I think).

Bullshit.

Then those trailers just jumped out into his flight path and ate him up. Not his fault..... pesky trailers. Give 'em a wide berth.

Hope he posts here - or somebody presents a write up on it.

Yeah, that's what we ALL hope. So how come with Lockout's huge staff of top notch, safety minded, conscientious, hang gliding professionals not one of those sonsabitches has posted a single sentence on this one anywhere? Bear in mind that this one could easily have been fatal while you're thinking about a response.

Tiberiu Szollosi - 2014/10/29 21:18:24 UTC

Dave Jacob - 2014/10/29 19:37:38 UTC

...and cross controlled a bit when he tried to correct.

Yep

30-3304
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/65535/51886986992_e415e511ca_o.png

http://forum.hanggliding.org/download/file.php?id=24973

Yeah. That's smoking gun PROOF that he's trying to turn away from the cottages but can't because he's "cross controlling".

Fletcher - 2014/10/29 22:12:59 UTC

Clearly this person needs to be under strict guidance by a local instructor.

CLEARLY. No fuckin' way this four year Hang Two with a double surface glider will be able to avoid flying into buildings off the side of the LZ unless he's put under strict guidance by one of the local instructor assholes...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=32007
Increase in lousy instruction?

...who signed him off in the first place.

Also restricted to radio guidance until better judgement is proven.

Get fucked.

I saw no reason not to roll in on wheels in the center of field.

I'll bet in retrospect - meaning while he was watching the buildings rushing up at him - he didn't either.

Luckily that was a building and not a group of spectators

DAMN LUCKY!!! A group of spectators would've just stood there spectating to totally unaware of the danger a glider coming straight at them at thirty miles an hour would've presented.

You people get stupider by the week.

davedpilot - 2014/10/29 22:22:14 UTC
Alabama

This happened on Saturday...

2014/10/25

...as I was standing in the breakdown area after my second ever flight off the mountain and watched the whole thing. The wind was blowing down the LZ opposite the direction of the launch.

Which is why the Dragonflies were taxiing to the other end of the field?

I don't know if it caught people off guard...

Sure caught Dave off guard.

...but several pilots landed downwind as I stood there waiting to bum a ride back up the mountain. It looked to me that he flared with too much speed and a low wing, but after seeing the video I realize he actually touched down and bounced.

He was Ok BTW.

I hope this isn't out of line to pat myself on the back, but on my first flight I noticed the wind sock and streamers were blowing in the opposite direction from the flight plan I had gone over with my instructor so I adjusted and landed into the wind. When I finally arrived back at the launch site my instructor was not happy with me because he thought I landed downwind. It was not until another student that DID land downwind vindicated me that he realized I was paying attention.

Maybe your idiot instructor should invest in a pair of binoculars to help him stay current on what the fuck's going on down there.

Tom Lyon - 2014/10/29 22:33:11 UTC

I accidentally landed downwind once at Lookout. I'm a VERY low-time H2 and checked the wind direction when I arrived at the field very high and assumed that this would be the direction when I landed two or three minutes later.

Two or three minutes? Let's say 250 feet per minute. So you arrived at the beginning of final approach at 500 to 750 feet?

It wasn't.

The wind wasn't strong (just lightly switching as the day began to turn on in the morning), but the fact that I was landing downwind when I thought I was landing into the wind caused me to have a very scary landing.

Ever think about going onto final a bit lower?

The pilot after me did exactly the same thing.

Aren't all of our instructors the greatest!

To me (again, very low time), the turn to downwind and final looked like a good height.

Yeah...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30722
What happened to JD?

Tom Lyon - 2014/02/04 07:55:19 UTC

That's what I was referring to when I commented on turns near the ground elsewhere. I see so many landings where a low turn from base to final is just standard. And almost all of us have either seen, or know of someone who caught a wingtip or otherwise landed while in a turn. It's so dangerous.

In learning to fly the sailplanes, I had it drilled into me that below 200 feet, my options did not include anything more than maybe a very slight turn to avoid hitting an obstacle. Like 30 degrees from my heading may. A slight bank.

I see hang gliders make 90 degree turns from base to final at maybe 50' - 75' AGL fairly often. And I always cringe. Turns down low definitely appear to be something (from my very limited experience) that our sport needs to take more seriously in terms of avoidance.

No shit.

He just appears to fixate on the cottage when he had an opportunity to gently turn away from it.

He's been conditioned, just like you, never to bank the glider more than one and a half degrees below two hundred feet. So when he suddenly realizes that he's screaming off the side of the field in ground effect and a tailwind he doesn't have a good Plan B.

I sure won't judge, though.

I will. But not Dave.

Just try to learn.

Unless my student is capable of doing THIS:

05-2704-c
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1525/26167489042_9f5e5af537_o.png


I don't sign his Two.

That stuff happens fast and is very stressful to us low-time pilots.

That's why you don't sign Twos who can't conceive of banking their gliders more than one and a half degrees below two hundred feet.

The towplanes may have made him nervous too...

Maybe the trees on the other side of the field did too - 'cause that's where the relevant Dragonfly was when he was on final.

...but they are super-diligent about watching for gliders.

I'm absolutely POSITIVE that they're super diligent about EVERYTHING!!!

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18777
Accident - Broken Jaw - Full Face HG Helmet

Keith Skiles - 2010/08/28 05:20:01 UTC

Last year, at LMFP I saw an incident in aerotow that resulted in a very significant impact with the ground on the chest and face. Resulted in a jaw broken in several places and IIRC some tears in the shoulder.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TTTFlymail/message/11545
Cart stuck incidents

Keith Skiles - 2011/06/02 19:50:13 UTC

I witnessed the one at Lookout. It was pretty ugly. Low angle of attack, too much speed and flew off the cart like a rocket until the weak link broke, she stalled and it turned back towards the ground.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Jim Rooney - 2011/09/02 19:41:27 UTC

Why is the devil always in the fine print, and incidentally in the things people *don't* say.

Yes, go read that incident report.
Please note that the weaklink *saved* her ass. She still piled into the earth despite the weaklink helping her... for the same reason it had to help... lack of towing ability. She sat on the cart, like so many people insist on doing, and took to the air at Mach 5.
That never goes well.
Yet people insist on doing it.

Davis Straub - 2011/09/03 01:39:55 UTC

I think that I know the one that is being referred to.

The problem was an inexperienced female student put on a cart that had the keel cradle way too high, so she was pinned to the cart. The folks working at Lookout who helped her were incompetent.

I told one of the pilots that I was so grateful that they waited for me to land before moving and he told me that they are really careful about that. I have the giant wheels on my Falcon, too.

Mike Lake - 2014/10/29 23:31:50 UTC

Look at the hang strap it is clearly shifted to the correct side regardless of the pilot's body shape.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=32009
Ouch

Mike Badley - 2014/10/30 00:14:09 UTC

You'd think they would have a nice sock or streamer in that field (obviously they do). So..... why get complacent?

Yeah. That happened 'cause he was COMPLACENT. Just too cool to adhere to the fundamentals. Not 'cause he made a mistake or anything.

Just because the 9 guys ahead of you took one direction doesn't mean you should be a lemming and follow.

I did the same thing at launch. Cost me a badly broken foot that will affect me for the rest of my life. I made a MISTAKE.

There are lots of ways of checking wind - and you should KNOW.

Yeah. Thanks. Both of us do. And did.

Arriving at an LZ on a long glide with no altitude can be a recipe for a down-winder.

So can any landing if the conditions and timing are just right.

Nobody out west here takes wind direction, velocity, rotors or gradients for granted.

'Course not. All you California guys are fuckin' amazing! The ONLY thing you guys take for granted is...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5492/14666057035_1786a4e18c_o.jpg


http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5566/14704620965_ce30a874b7_o.png

...hook-in status.

Too many of our fields are switchy and turbulent during the afternoon. Many wait until later in the day to take off, just to be sure that they don't have to land in too much trash or with a thermal popping your left wing on final.

Dave - good for you that you paid attention. You are learning!

Totally awesome.