A seasoned P3 on a familiar wing was landing at the bottom of the north side. He was carving a turn to final when he felt something on the right side. He immediately thought it was an asymmetric deflation and leaned opposite and pumped the right brake.
What he really felt was the wing starting to spin which was likely due to not enough weight shift and too much brake. The left lean and right brake that he mistakenly exercised served to fully manifest the spin. He subsequently stalled the wing completely and landed on his back protection. He suffered a non surgical fracture of his pelvis.
Know your emergency procedures but try not to confuse them. A glider will not deflate on the side you are turning toward ( for sure there are exceptions to this < thought I can't think of any> ).
If you feel a spin start to manifest, let off ASAP - like you touched a hot stove. Then, fix your posture. Legs together and elbows in. manage any resulting surges and heading issues. Resist the temptation to default to the overwhelming desire to seek equilibrium by putting your hands out.
This is a new phenomenon re: confusion of recovery techniques between spin and asymmetric. We find ourselves quite sympathetic to this pilots situation knowing that this was an innocent mistake by a pilot who was fundamentally in the moment and current on his recovery techniques. Interesting case. Lots to learn from this.
Paraglider wings want one thing one second and another thing the next. They want one response to a certain malfunction and a completely different one to a malfunction that is quite similar ref: asymmetric vs. frontal recoveries.
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