http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33544
Student Pilot Ridge Soaring Crash - Watch & Learn
Earth Magnet - 2015/10/22 17:07:23 UTC
Central Pennsylvania
Looks like he might have had a good five seconds or more to correct for getting pushed over the back and did nothing to fix it (starting at 1:06).
Fuck 1:06. Here's close to 1:09:
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http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5814/22513281242_1ae2e02389_o.png
Close to 1:12:
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http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5742/22526771755_a32eba9d7f_o.png
And he had options up to about HERE:
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http://c1.staticflickr.com/1/779/21904017094_5df657af28_o.png
nineteen seconds after your figure, to mitigate the push. Here's the last frame - close to 1:14 - in which he has both hands on the control tubes connector bar:
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http://c1.staticflickr.com/1/622/22500796736_7d9fb54c35_o.png
He still owns the fuckin' world at this point. He can maybe dive it and skim the top and fly back into the lift band, belly in if that doesn't work, or even do a touch and go. We didn't see him zip up his pod and I don't think he did. Note there's no effort to unzip during the "landing" sequence.
Not bashing the pilot...
Passenger. Stunt landing fanatic.
...but what's the reason?
How can the reason be anything other than shit training?
Or does it just look easier to correct in hind-sight?
No. It's a fuckin' slow motion self inflicted train wreck.
I've seen this many times, where things start going wrong and nothing is done to correct for it until the situation is beyond saving.
Did you see it at Hyner three Sundays ago?
What causes this? Inattentiveness?
Inattentiveness to what? Flying the glider in deference to setting up for a stunt landing?
Inexperience?
Inexperience doing what? Joe Julik was a Four when he died thirteen months ago tomorrow setting up for his stunt landing one too many times.
Complacency?
Complacency about what?
Distraction?
Hell yes. Having trouble understanding what the distractions were?
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Not knowing you're in a bad way in the first place?
He was in a bad way on Day One, Flight one when his douchebag instructors started teaching him how to land safely.
Ken Howells - 2015/10/22 17:25:20 UTC
San Bernardino
That's Bradwell Edge, in the Midlands, England. I flew there once, 16-17 years ago. Nice little ridge soaring site. Wind was moderate, coming from just right of perpendicular to the cliff.
What cliff?
Managed to get up and top land.
What? There were no narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place down in the valley to practice in?
Got well back and pointed straight into the wind. Coming down smoothly, had one of those rock walls to clear before landing in the designated paddock. The rotor surprised the hell out of me and pushed me down so I landed before that wall. Lots of sheep droppings on the ground but just my shoes got it
Oh. That's probably why they're so insistent on perfected flare timing over there.
Jonathan Boarini - 2015/10/22 17:44:55 UTC
Las Vegas
Shit. It takes balls to publicly admit your mistakes.
Yeah. That's why you don't hear any of his instructors posting in this thread.
NMERider - 2015/10/22 18:37:10 UTC
Only the locals even know who the pilot is.
Was.
The video is hosted by a third party who also happens to be an active Org member.
Useless twat in good standing.
It was good of the now fully-recovered...
The flu is something from which one can fully recover. This guy is NOT fully recovered.
...pilot...
Pilot?
...to permit the use of his footage to help others see just how easy it is to get in over one's head and not know what to do next.
1. What? The fourteen fatalities we've had this year so far weren't doing the trick?
2. How good was it of the local motherfuckers who witnessed and knew about this near fatal and the instructors who set him up for it to put a total lid on this one? He's now "fully recovered" and not one motherfucker whispered a single public word about during and after the recovery period - how the hell ever long that's been?
3. Rafi Lavin got in over his head a helluva lot easier and faster than Brad did and there were no options for doing anything next. Name one person who started doing preflight sidewire stomp tests in response to the postmortem discussions and what's written in the fuckin' manual - and has been since the beginning of time.
4. What's the response been from the instructor community, schools, dealers, u$hPa, local clubs?
This is far from the only accident this year where a low-hour pilot was scratching in otherwise benign conditions.
That's not what did him in.
I'm not familiar with the rules in the UK...
You should be. They have the safest weak link standards on the planet.
...but somehow I don't get the impression that there was anything stopping this student pilot from acquiring more advanced equipment...
How was any equipment the least bit relevant? Tell me how he'd been better off with a Falcon and a forced upright training harness? Show me the frame in which the glider's not doing exactly what he wants it and is telling it to. He aimed it downwind and downhill on a course for a couple of stone walls and that's where it went.
...and then flying unattended.
The assumption being that if he'd been "attended" this wouldn't have happened. So when was it that we lapsed into the mindset that it's OK to put someone up into a ridge soaring situation as long as he's "attended"? He's not really qualified and safe but he'll be OK as long as there's somebody talking into a radio or yelling instructions from launch?
I have talked many pilots out of, or delaying the move up to needlessly-advanced equipment.
Show relevance.
Hang rating has less to do with it than just knowing each individual and assessing the risks versus the benefits for that pilot and considering the conditions he flies in as well as the weather and flying sites.
Then what's the purpose of a rating system supposed to be? When I sign a Two I'm saying that this person is qualified to fly Two sites under Two rules in Two conditions. And if he does that and launches unhooked, goes into the trees, overshoots the LZ then I bear a great deal of the responsibility.
And note that Two rules often include a higher rated sponsor for a high site to help him evaluate conditions and maybe coach him on a few particulars. And if the Two eats it on relevant issues then it's primarily the sponsor's responsibility.
One reason I like flying X/C on my Sport 2 155 with a cocoon harness is to remind folks that racing equipment isn't the be-all, end-all that we imagine it to be but that's just human nature and I fall into the same traps as everyone else.
Completely irrelevant.
NMERider - 2015/10/22 20:02:59 UTC
Just learned the following:
the glider is an airwave Calypso (foreunner the the pulse) which is a good beginners glider with an excellent reputation here in the uk. The glider performance is not the issue, but performance is similar to a falcon4 or malibu anyway.
1. Excellent literacy.
2. So how come the privileged information decimator isn't publicly decimating the information and identifying himself?
