North Side Blow Back PG Injury

A seasoned P2 pilot was flying the north side on a strong evening. He was flying a glider that he had never flown before. He had flown for more than an hour and completed a few circuits in which he had flown out front etc. To his credit, he was out in the direction of Lone Peak where the wind is known to be much lighter than above the parking lot.

 Late in the evening, he flew back to the upper hill toward the North East end. He apparently went a bit too far back toward the hill all at once because when he turned into the wind, he wasn't going forward.

Normally a pilot could slide toward the South Side while maintaining position in front of the hill and then turn toward the south once clearing the end of SW end of the north side. The prescribed technique would be to fly south bound over the south side and then down I-15 before finding a field and turning into wind. This is North Side blowback technique. Blowback avoidance is a different subject. Get trained on that if you are not up to speed.

This pilot had the unusual experience of blowing back at the other end of the hill with very little altitude. Efforts to use the speed bar to go forward were not fruitful. The pilot was in the rotor at less than 100 feet AGL. He perceived this as being too low for the reserve and tried to "fly the glider." He suffered some deflations and before he landed there was a big surge.

He suffered a broken femur. Pilots are reminded that there is basically no such thing as too low to throw. You can even throw the reserve and then go back to flying your glider ----> see which one works first/ best.

Pilots are reminded that just because some people bench up to the upper hill, it doesn't mean that it is a good idea. On a strong night. Don't bench up. Most nights, it gets lighter as it gets later. This doesn't always happen. On the night in question, it may have even gotten stronger as it got later in the evening.

Also, if you do bench up then test how far out an front you can soar. Do this first thing. IF you choose to drift back to the hill to gain more altitude, then do it slowly. Fly back toward the hill or do some mellow circles way out front and check out your drift. Take opportunities to point into the wind and check out your forward speed.

Recite your understanding of strong wind flying techniques on the North side to your instructor to check and make sure that you have all of the pieces of the puzzle.