landing

[Steve Davy]

Any rumors about if he had both hands up high on the control tubes for maximum control of the glider when he crashed and broke a few vertebrae in his back?

[Steve Davy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhvv5b3QJ4


I wonder why Simon didn't go for the parachute option when he had the opportunity rather than risking a wheel landing.

[<BS>]

It could be, that like the velcro option with the zipper, he simply wasn't aware of it.

[NMERider]

.....I wonder why Simon didn't go for the parachute option when he had the opportunity rather than risking a wheel landing.

Why didn't he 'put on his big boy pants on land a no-stepper' on his harness boot?

[<BS>]

Or he could've potato sack hopped it out like...
A One-Footed Landing
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26378

[<BS>]

Cross wind landing
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?p=150338#150338

That wing drop bit is not due to cross wind. It is due to you adjusting to the effects of cross wind.... normally, it's trying (often unconsciously) to fly straight down a path. In simpler terms, you're wings are not level.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?p=397691#397691

* On the other hand if the pilot is making steering inputs as needed to stay on a linear ground track, he'll cause the glider to turn upwind-- the heading will change in the upwind direction. Some amount of bank in the upwind direction will be required to make this happen.

* This may be the explanation for an observed tendency for the upwind wing to drop during the flare-- the glider was already slightly banked when the flare was initiated, because the pilot was consciously or unconsciously trying to keep the glider flying along a linear ground track as the airspeed decreased.

Explanations for...
http://www.kitestrings.org/post8893.html#p8893

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=5606
Sticky Fingers

Steve Murillo - 2017/03/29 22:59:29 UTC

I was out last Sunday, flying around in some excellent spring air conditions. After about 45 minutes of flying I decided to head in. The usual pattern, etc, but on final I was higher than normal.

As I honked it in on my right down tube, my glove slipped off the aluminum tubing. I'm using some motocross gloves that have a smooth, pitted cloth across the palm and fingers. That's never happened before. Time lost, I immediately switched to both hands on the control bar and brought it in to my waist. I landed without incident.

Sure, but you weren't hit by an invisible dust devil - the way Joe Julik was.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=35270
Help!!! I need excuses

Jason Boehm - 2017/04/16 01:02:42 UTC

Help!!! I need excuses

Just go with stupidity and arrogance.

Well, a couple hours ago I did something that I havent done in the 17 odd years i've been flying.......

Posted something at a minimum third grade level of competence in grammar, spelling, punctuation?

Came in to land at lookout after a short flight in some funky air with strong south. Got a few turns in something a little ragged about 100 over, and then it fell apart and I commited to...

...stunt...

...landing. Came in fast lined up right where I wanted to be, then I...

...moved my hands to the control tubes between shoulder and ear height where I couldn't control the glider...

...had nothing flared and couldn't even get my feet beneath me. pancaked in fairly gently...

...on my wheelless control bar...

...and get up to discover I bent the left downtube.......

so........knowing that any bad landing comes with a plethora of excuses on how its not my fault, i need some........

Gil Dodgen - 1995/01

All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."

also i need a new downtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKwyv2HABKA

Would've been a no brainer for any halfway competent Hang One staying prone and rolling it in. So thank you God for this one.

P.S. If you watch carefully you'll notice him giving himself a false sense of security just prior to launch by snatching his wing up to flying height and into the turbulent jet stream. (I strongly suspect that a snatch like that would work for pilot/glider combos unable to smoothly lift the wing to tug height in light air.) So toss him a bone for doing that and another for posting the video.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7286
Learning from a HG accident

Walt Melo - 2017/06/12 17:20:50 UTC

Dear friends,

Not just your friends reading this, Walt.

I am writing this message to talk about my experience regarding the hang glider accident...

Nope.

...this Saturday, and discuss potential lessons learned.

Since nothing like this has ever happened anywhere ever before.

As you may already have been informed, a HG pilot...

Now be very careful not to name him or the instructor who signed his current rating.

...had a landing accident this Saturday @ Pulpit, and ended up being air lifted to a hospital in PA after being attended by EMS. I was the 1st to attend the pilot...

Good job. Keep it up.

...since I was already in the LZ. Another HG pilot, Antonie -- who assisted the pilot to take off as a wire crew --, quickly drove down the mountain and tremendously assisted the pilot, and helped with logistics, i.e., securing the glider and the pilot car, and driving the car and glider to hospital so the injured pilot could take care of his belongings when he leaves the hospital.

Yesterday, I received news that the pilot is recovering. He did not need a surgery, but he will need some time to fully recover from his back injury.

This unfortunate experience made me assess our protocol as active member of this small community.

Small community. What a pity.

Those are some of the lessons I learned that I would like to share with this community...

Since the issues are only pertinent to THIS (small) community.

...start a dialog, and hopefully come out with better procedures that could help us better address future accidents since they will happen again!

No shit.

a) Pilots shall always check the LZ before flying.

Same way we all do when we're going XC.

The main LZ was not good for landing due to the high grass and crops.

Why is that relevant? We all start training on Day One for landing in...

10-12926
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2919/14039022660_d24ac7c976_o.png


...high grass and crops - NEVER for rolling it in at a Happy Acres putting green.

Unfortunately, although Antonie proposed, we did not visit the secondary LZ. This is especially important to visiting pilots who may not be familiar with our sites. Although, we cannot impose, we should strongly encourage pilots not familiar with a site to visit the LZ (s) before flying.

My take... Anybody qualified to fly a high site unsupervised should be able to make safe decisions at an altitude at which he still has options.

As a community, we should take ownership in these cases, and do our best that this protocol be followed: mea culpa I did not do it!

How 'bout:
- instructors?
- flight parks?

b) Pilots shall exchange contact information with the association and with pilots flying the same day. As member of the association, we have filled documentation indicating points of contact in case of emergency. However, this information may not be easily available to pilots on the site.

Put it online.

I would recommend that:
a. We share our contact info with other pilots before flying including emergency information and health insurance information

Good freakin' luck.

b. We implement a simple way that pilots (visiting or not) could inform this type of information to the association (perhaps, a simple web page linked to our web site)

c) Pilots shall fly with a radio. Although each HG 3 pilot shall be able to fly without assistance, the accident this Saturday may have been avoided if the pilot had received flying instructions via the radio. Since it was the 1st time he landed in the secondary, a more seasoned pilot could have provided lifesaving instructions if the pilot was in contact with others via radio. Most importantly, a more seasoned pilot may act as an "observer" (even a HG3 does not require an observer).

Which is another way of saying this guy wasn't very well checked out for high flight. (And note we're not hearing anything about a wind shift.)

I remember that once Bacil gave me instructions via radio that helped me tremendously when I was in trouble deciding to go to the main LZ or land somewhere in the middle (no man land).

d) Pilots shall have a plan in case of accident. The same way we talk before flying about who will rescue who after a XC, we shall also define a protocol in case shit happens. We are a very small community...

1. Yeah, you said that already.
2. You wouldn't be such a small community if such an overwhelming percentage of it weren't constituted by incompetent sleazy shits.

...and therefore we shall be better prepared. After the pilot was air lifted to the hospital, Antonie and I started brainstorming...

After somebody's been airlifted to the hospital. Always a great time to start brainstorming.

...about what to do with the pilot car and glider. Although things can change, we should define our roles and responsibilities in the case of a fellow pilot has a serious accident as it was the case this weekend.

Thoughts? Guidance? Recommendations?

1. Go fuck yourselves.
2. This one wouldn't have happened in the aerotow environment you motherfuckers lost two seasons ago.

Tim Bowen - 2017/06/12 21:45:59 UTC
Finksburg

Walt,

Just as an FYI, while you and Anthony were brainstorming what to do with the pilot's glider and vehicle, we (Bacil, Charlie, Rich Bloomfield and myself) already had a plan in place. We spoke with Rich and he was going to stow the vehicle and glider at his house in McConnellsburg . When you spoke with Bacil later, you had already decided to take his vehicle and glider to the hospital.

In regards to some of your concerns, I think everyone acted quite responsibly. On launch, we noticed that he had a bad landing. We were in phone contact with you from launch almost immediately. Bacil made the strong recommendation that 911 should be called, even though the pilot was conscious and walking around. In addition, it was wise that we did not have a mass of pilots in the LZ while EMS was tending to the pilot.

Rubbish.

Kudos to you and Anthony for the extra effort in this matter.

And thanks for giving us all such a good inkling of what went wrong with this one.

Walt Melo - 2017/06/12 22:35:24 UTC

Thank you for your input.

I am glad a plan was being made when the injured pilot was being attended by the EMS. It was a good plan, but pilots in the field didn't know about it.

My point is that it would be better if we have a plan in place before an accident happens, as we do when XC is the goal of the day. Plans of course can change, but it would be less stressful if we have a "draft" plan.

BTW, the pilot was not walking around. He was breeding with great difficulty...

Gotta admire his dedication and feel for priorities.

...& could not walk.

Bummer. Maybe he'll need to consider...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29884
Hat Creek Power Whack

Mike Bilyk - 2013/09/07 17:07:26 UTC

Wheel landings are for girls!

...wheel landings as he starts getting back into things.

People in the property initially thought I was the pilot, since they saw me running they initially thought everything was ok.

They were right. Otherwise we'd be having a discussion about what "the pilot" did wrong.

Learning from a HG accident

Nope. And the fact that you're referring to it as an "accident" is a real strong indication that no learning is possible.

Ward Odenwald - 2017/06/13 01:54:39 UTC

Walt et al., have raised important issues concerning last Saturday’s Pulpit crash that we need to act on! Forum exchanges are good and, in addition, I believe that personal/group discussion(s) will also enhance our chances of making a lasting safety difference. To this end, I suggest that we meet at my place (Woodbine, MD) to help define the best-safest way forward. We can get together on June 23rd (Friday evening) if we have a consensus among interested pilots (HG and PG). I’ll follow up with more details once we agree to meet.

And the really important thing is to not reveal any information on what caused the crash in any public venue or any private venue in which there's any risk of it being made public.

Please post if you can participate.

Get fucked.

[<BS>]

Gotta admire his dedication and feel for priorities.

Inspirational.