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"Conditions were a little punchy. Plenty of lift in tight places. Decided to come back in and let my buddy know that I thought he might want to wait out the sporty conditions.
Made my approach from the west end. Descended under big ears to about 100 feet. Ears reinflated fine and I leaned right to begin final to the west edge of the park when the glider very suddenly experienced a significant asymmetrical deflation. Flip, pitch, spin, aerial bugaloo, reinflated low and I hit the dirt with an indirect lateral impact. Probably looked a lot more dramatic than it really was.
No injuries.
No loss of consciousness.
No damage to glider. Helmet a little scratched. Harness, socks, shoes, shorts, face, hair and mouth full of Utah dirt.
Summary:
I suspect that I was beginning my turn to final on the up-wind side of a nasty thermal blowing across the bench, causing the deflation. Too low to throw, too quick for any meaningful reaction. Lucky to walk away."
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Notes:
Without getting excessively deep in the brakes, we should all "feel the brake" actively when top landing the north side in strong conditions. Deflations are 1:1000 back there but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't totally be on the defense against them. To be clear: pulling brake prevents deflations - in case you didn't get the memo. Some areas are better than others for avoiding deflations back there. Too far behind the outhouse is bad - too close to the houses is bad ( especially if it is strong east ).
Here is what an eyewitness described:
"Northside approach from way too far back. Took an asymmetric at like 50', turned 90 degrees, reopened, spun, collapsed negative, riser twist, glider reopened and put him on the airbag pretty hard. He hit on the dirt road an got up immediately. Just dusty, will probably be sore in the morning."
If the eyewitness report is accurate then the pilot took a deflation on one side and the over braked the opposite side such that he spun the opposite way of the deflation and even suffered riser twists.
We all need to be reminded that it is a fine balance between pulling enough brake on the open side and not pulling too much. Both extremes can be catastrophic.
I believe I was benching when this happened. I saw it from above. Looked like he was making pretty sharp s turns when something folded his wing over. Not sure he had a lot of choices other than what he did, to fly on half a wing. He ended up landing straight downwind. Luckily the landing was in soft dirt between the 2 roads west of the LZ. Perhaps longer s turns (not exposing the side of the wing to gusts) not so far back on the bench could have helped. The pilot got up right away. Good to see that!
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