Inappropriate Pattern or Preparation for Landing

Mid Summer on the South-side, mid-morning, with light winds, an H0 pilot under instruction flew off course of the the planned approach to the lower LZ and struck a vehicle parked near or possibly in the LZ. 

Mistakes happen and getting off course was a mistake.  The crash, as with most crashes, was caused by multiple mistakes.  The pilot’s second mistake was inflexibility in reacting to getting off-course.  At the time the pilot realized the mistake the pilot was fixated on landing in the designated LZ.   As a result the pilot was not able to recognize that better options existed for a landing point outside of the park.  This same fixation resulted in a crash on the North-Side this year and a PG mid-air.  

Practicing flexibility might help.  Ken HudonJorgensen teaches a mental drill wherein you stop in random places and devise a landing approach for that location.  This drill could also be adapted for designated LZs.  Walk to a spot away from the normal pattern and devise a landing patten to land form that spot and altitude.  This would be a great drill for instructors to do with students.  It not only teaches mental flexibility; but, also the skill of devising landing approaches.  

From the Book of Risk:

How to avoid it.

• Study good landing pattens.
• Learn to judge angles over distances.
• Arrive over your LZ with enough altitude to make at least one full 360 and to begin the patten form any direction.
• Always keep a safe lZ within reach.
• Do not get downwind of your LZ in strong winds.
• Practice flexibility by randomly stopping at any location and devising a landing pattern for that location with existing conditions. Also do this exercise around your designated LZ from points outside of the normal approach (include looking for other places to land outside the designated LZ, but safer from the unusual point or unusual conditions.

Published with permission of the pilot.  By Ian Brubaker

The hang gliding accident that occurred on August 16th, 2020 at the Point of The Mountain, North Side had several key decision making factors that ultimately left the pilot in a position where he had no outs and crashed breaking his femur, and breaking both downtubes. The following is an analysis of his flight.

The pilot is a H2 rated pilot and has held his rating for many years. On his most recent trip to The Point, he was getting back into hang gliding not having flown in some time, though he had flown the site years ago. The pilot flew a similarly rated site the previous day, Crafwords Ridge, without issue.

Upon launching, the pilot remained low on the ridge, as it was late day and the lift was becoming light. The pilot set up an approach after making a couple passes along the ridge. He was heading Eastbound along the ridge and turned once he reached the East corner of the lower LZ. He traveled away from the ridge before heading Westbound towards the pond. The pilot continued this path until almost reaching the farthest West end of the LZ, and attempted a left 180 degree turn back towards the hill. During that

turn he was downwind, entering a severe wind gradient, and had little airspeed left due to his lack of altitude at that point in the approach. He completed about 150 degrees of the turn before impacting, stating that he had “no airspeed” despite looking like the glider was diving fast towards the ground.  The pilot also stated that he did not realize how low he was until already in the turn.

There are three main factors that contributed to this accident: Lack of a proper flight plan, lack of currency, and misjudged altitude cause by not looking back at the desired landing zone. These are the factors that lead up to the accident, but the final cause of the accident was a low turn to the ground, combined with lack of airspeed near the ground, exacerbated by a strong wind gradient. 

A flight plan was not formulated before takeoff, as reported by the pilot. Such a plan is imperative in each flight, and planning for different outcomes, alternative flight paths, and emergency procedures are as important as the original flight plan.

The pilot had many opportunities to land in other LZ’s, but was unaware of the risky situation building because he was not looking back on his desired landing target. His focus remained ahead on his downwind leg, causing him to incorrectly judge his altitude for landing. The base turn had a steep bank angle. Then, 90 degrees into the turn, the glider slowed down, likely due to the pilot realizing he was low to the ground. Finally, the glider appears to have stalled in a turn into the ground as confirmed by the pilot reporting he had “no airspeed” all the way to the ground. It should be noted that where the pilot was turning to land, a consistently strong wind gradient exists there, especially in Northeast winds.

While proper planning, pilot decision making, and pilot currency are important takeaways from this

accident, the most critical error was not looking back at the desired target for landing, and insufficient airspeed when approaching the ground. Though sometimes unnerving, it is imperative that pilots constantly look back at their desired landing target to judge their angles of approach and adjust their approach as necessary. Had the pilot looked back at the target, realizing how low he was, he may have initiated the turn sooner and kept more airspeed throughout the base to final turn.  

Below is a visual depiction of the flight path (red), possible alternatives (blue), and alternative LZs (yellow).

The random factor. Lack of physical or mental preparedness

An experienced P4 XC pilot flying tired in very strong thermic conditions was slow catching a forward surge of his glider resulting in a full frontal collapse.  The glider, a two liner, recovered aggressively from the collapse again catching the fatigued pilot off-guard resulting a late block of the surge.  This time the glider dove horizontal with the pilot and twisted three times.  

The pilot attempted to clear the twists with the brakes resulting with tendencies to spin.  The pilot then threw his reserve.  

The reserve was a rogallo attached to the rear attachment points.  The pilots head was forced down by the rogallo risers which deployed twisted making steering control difficult resulting in brushing against a tree damaging his equipment slightly.

Recommendations:  First, keep in mind that the glider here was a two liner.   Two liners often react very unpredictably in a non flying configuration.  Even advanced pilots will find them hard to bring under control during a cascade.

With that in mind, avoid flying strong conditions fatigued.  Almost always, even in strong conditions, you can avoid a frontal collapse with timely and adequate brake or B-line inputs.  

Even if you cannot fully prevent a collapse, strong inputs at the time of collapse pull the trailing edge down preventing cravats and keeping the tips of the glider apart.  

Experience is necessary to time the release of the glider to recover flight with a controlled surge.  Too late and the glider can deep stall; not enough control of the surge and the glider frontals again resulting in a possible cascade.

When your glider is cascading you have to kill its energy.  Locking the brakes in down low below your chest might be enough.  If not a stall and back fly will kill the energy and allow you to assess your altitude and or throw your reserve.  This works even with twists.

If you are already too low you must throw the reserve before the energy builds.  Whenever you are below 500 feet consider already making the decision to throw immediately upon losing control of the glider or entering a configuration you are not familiar with; again before the energy builds.  

If you allow the energy to build the glider could interfere with your reserve deployment or cause you to black out.  

From the Book of Risk:  Lack of physical or mental preparedness.

How to avoid it.

Learn to recognize it.

Separate your ego from the decision to fly.

Stand down and fly another day.

Practice the above at least once by repacking your glider on launch and standing down with out explaining why.  Just say something vague such as “I’m just not feeling it today.)

From the Book of Risk:  The random factor.

How to avoid it. 

The random factor cannot be avoided.

Acknowledge that with the safest practice paragliding carries a higher level of risk of death or injury than most other activities.

Flight in known/knowable turbulence

In Early July at about 0900 an intermediate rated paraglider pilot impacted the ground on the east end of the South Side soaring ridge.  The pilot reported that earlier the wind meter behind and above the ridge reported 20-25 SSE.  The pilot was flying a 13 meter zero for the first time.  The pilot was flying east of the main gash and turning to the west when a large collapse occurred on the left side of the glider.  Despite weight shifting to the open side the collapse rotated the pilot around and into the hillside.  After the incident the trimmers were found to be set differently with the right trimmer at trim and the left fully let out.  The pilot reported that other pilots also concurred that the conditions were “weird.”

Strong winds from the east (20-25 SSE) have long been known to cause turbulent conditions at the South Side.  Even before construction of all of the homes in front of the ridge this has been the case.  If you look SSE of the ridge you will see small hills not too far away out in front of  the ridge.  They are far enough away to be overlooked by most pilots.  Nonetheless, mechanical turbulence is known to reach as far as 10 times the height of objects downwind of those objects.  The stronger the wind the farther the turbulence reaches.  Turbulated winds in excess of 20 mph is more than enough to cause a serious collapse in even a mini wing. 

The wind meter at the south side is more that 50 feet above the ground and does not measure the compressed wind speed found just out from the edge of launch.   It is likely that the wind that collapsed this glider was in excess of 25 mph. 

Flying in strong winds is an advanced skill.  Many advanced pilots will not fly when conditions are as strong as cited in this incident.

From the UHPGA website safety briefings for the South Side:

Known Hazards:

Strong east wind rotors off the hills south-east of launch and become turbulent enough to collapse paragliders.

From the Book of Risk:

How to avoid it.  (Flying in known turbulence)

Study the weather a lot, read a lot of books about weather especially related to paragliding and hang gliding:

Understanding the Sky by Dennis Pagen

Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens

Mastering Thermaling by Kelly Farina

Weather for Dummies

Talk about the weather to other pilots you fly with.

Violation of Traffic Norms. Pilot Vigilance (mid-air collision).

At the South Side, a newly passed off P2 pilot was flying the eastbound ridge soaring pattern followed by another pilot also flying eastbound but against the pattern and close to the ridge.  Two other pilots flying westbound turned left to avoid the pilot flying eastbound close to the ridge.   The P2 pilot felt cut off by the left turning westbound pilots and made a hard turn to the right followed by an attempt to immediately regain the ridge by flying between the other eastbound pilot and the ridge resulting in the mid-air collision.  

The following steps could have avoided this collision.

1.  When the green flags are up do your best to fly the pattern. 

2.  Use common sense and be flexible.  

3.  If you see someone not flying the pattern, learn the colors of the glider and stay clear of it. 

4. When westbound, avoid trouble by keeping right or top-landing or side-hill landing and not by flying through opposing traffic.   

5. When eastbound, avoid trouble by keeping right and flying away from the ridge.  Keep right to avoid others cutting you off from these options (read number 2). 

6.  If you leave the pattern to avoid trouble, or for any reason, be very careful reentering; land out and get a ride up if you cannot safely reenter.  

7.  Look around constantly and look as far ahead as possible to anticipate trouble.  If it feels crowded to you, go land until traffic lessens.  

8.  Clear your turns. 

From the Book of Risk:

Get competent instruction to lean to fly.

Study and learn how to fly in various circumstances.

Mentally review potential patterns before launching.  If you are in doubt ask an 

instructor or competent pilot

Report of Object Fixation included as reported by Steve Mayer

Early June:

I was instructing a P2 pilot on day two of mini wing instruction. Day one went flawless with 6-7 excellent flights. Pilot is an experienced sky diver and we spent a lot of time reviewing bad habits sky divers often make, mostly over controlling and being "heavy handed". Instructions were to fly like "a little old lady" and make slight turns and always go back to hands up as your "get out of jail". On day this day we moved down in size from a "mini wing" to a "Hybrid" so 18 meters to a 16 meter. Instructions were to have a first flight like yesterday, nothing new and get used to new wing and feel., I wish I'd stressed the little old lady thing and not being heavy handed again.  

Pilot kited a while and launched without incident, went right and got close to the hill. He started pulling harder and harder turns towards the hill then away (I was saying MOVE AWAY) and think he would pull away and then correct back the other way. There were quite a few students on the lower hill and all saw him look right at them and pull HARD toward them and the hill where he banked up and slammed into the hill. We have video of the incident and it appears he looked and flew right at them.  

Pilot was conscious and alert complaining of back pain. Emergency services were called. We stabilized the pilot. Several EMS trained people were on the scene as well as myself. He was evacuated by ambulance and taken to an ER where he was released several hours later with fractures to his lower back but no long term damage and was told he could fly in 4-6 week's. He kept a great attitude and is planning on finishing. up soon.

Lessons learned... slow down on progression down to smaller wings.  

Don't assume a pilot can handle something smaller without more education

Remind all pilots about object fixation and how real it is.

Remind all pilots that when in doubt or in trouble look toward the LZ and SLOWLY turn that way.  

Remind pilots that Pilot Induced Ocolations are real and happen.

Take extra time to work with sky divers and drill in these points and the bad habits and trends we see.

a similar accident happened to another of my students 10 years ago. Also a sky diver, also day two where day one went great. I didn't spend the time reminding them how fast things go bad and he did similar and got LEFT, Right, Left, Right, trying to correct and actually went upside down in a barrel roll and slid into the LZ and was lucky enough to walk away. I often talk about this story with my sky divers as a "no way, that could never happen to a pro sky diver" and now I'll be adding this second story to help drill in the point. I've taught over 100 mini wing courses and still believe mini wings are far safer to fly than even paragliders but special precautions need to be observed.

I also recognize and know that hearing a radio is often difficult as the speeds are high and the timing is critical. In this latest incident the pilot did hear he but panic's and really doesn't remember why or how he turned to hard into the hill but after reviewing the video it seems he looked and steered at exactly what he was trying to avoid.

Final lesson is that I will never let a speed flying student fly under my supervision without an airbag harness. I follow this myself and am a huge fan of airbags for this reason but still the majority of mini wing pilots and harnesses do not have an airbag. I will preach the savings grace that back protection of any kind can help if the worst case happens. We now have replaced all our speed flying training harnesses with new updated airbag models. I am not sure if the outcome would have been any different but it's possible.  

Humbly,
Steve Mayer
Cloud 9 Paragliding

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks. 

In early May a novice pilot was preparing to launch when another pilot saw that the novice pilot's chest strap was not buckled and one riser was attached backwards.

From the Book of Risk:

What is it: (distracted pre flight)

Anything that distracts your metal focus from preparing your equipment for safe flight.

  

Having conversations with others during the set up or preflight of your equipment.

Motivational talk, “GO FOR IT,” “LET’s GET SOME,” “KICK ASS.” 

Loud music on launch.

How to avoid it:

First of all, you can’t fix stupid and people around you are just going to do these things; accept it and don’t further distract yourself by arguing with them.  AVOID CONFRONTATION ON LAUNCH.  

Focus is the key, practice mindfulness.

  

Use checklists.  If you notice your mind has wandered at any point during a checklist start over form the beginning.  Starting over helps to increase mindfulness by practicing noticing that your mind has wandered.

 

Let people who are trying to talk to you know that you need to concentrate on your preflight.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

In early May an intermediate rated mini wing pilot hiked the POM North Side to the lower launch by the windsock.  Winds were strong.  The pilot put the wing in a rosette intending to walk down from the saddle to a lower section of the side-hill. The wind inflated the glider ripping it from his hands.   As the glider inflated the pilot noticed that his risers were twisted.  Due to a lot of practice ground handling the pilot was able to untwist the risers just before he was plucked from the ground.  

In this case the pilot’s preflight was distracted/interrupted by the strong wind conditions.  Obviously, anything including strong winds that interrupt your preflight checks increases your risk. 

Regardless the size of glider, launching in strong winds is an advanced skill that even advanced pilots avoid when possible.  In this case the pilot was intermediate and accepted risks avoided by some advanced pilots. 

Flight Outside of Conservative Weather Parameters. Flight Outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters.

Flight Outside of Conservative Weather Parameters

Flight Outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters

In early May a speed wing pilot impacted the ground at the top of the back upper bench of the North Side.  Conditions were strong with winds gusting to approximately 25 mph.  The pilot was reported to have been doing spirals and barrel rolls too close to the ground for the pilot’s level of experience.  The pilot was also flying a mini wing he was not experienced with.  The pilot was able to relaunch and continue his flight to the LZ.

Lessons to be learned here involve the pilot flying in extreme conditions and on wing he was not experienced with.  Witness reports indicate that the pilot was flying maneuvers beyond his level of experience and ability.  

From the Book of Risk:

With the aid of counseling, mindfulness meditation, religion or whatever means of your choice, understand your ego.

Flight outside of conservative weather conditions

Flight outside of conservative weather conditions

In early May an advanced rated pilot was flying a C rated glider for the first time in strong wind conditions at the North Side POM.  The pilot reported using the speed bar frequently during the flight presumably to keep the glider from being blown over the back of the upper ridge.  After more than an hour of flying, in which the pilot said he felt comfortable with the conditions, the pilot found himself descending in the compression zone behind the upper ridge unable to penetrate to the front of the ridge.  Use of bar at that point just increased the rate of decent.  Fearing descent into the mechanical rotor behind the ridge the pilot turned south, flew to the south behind and away from the ridge and landed in strong surface winds on a small hill near a housing development.

In this case the pilot seems to have turned directly downwind from the point he determined he could not penetrated the headwind head on.  Another strategy is to first crab to the west.  Crabbing is flying crosswind so you are not trying to penetrate the full strength of the wind.  Moving west in this fashion can also increase your ground clearance because the ground’s elevation is dropping away.  If you still cannot penetrate forward of the ridge you will have more clearance fly over the back nearer or over the South Side.  Don’t try to land at the south side, rather land as far south as you possibly can.  Mechanical turbulence can propagate as far as 10 times as far behind the ridge as the ridge is high.   

From the Book of Risk:

As you fly continually assess the wind strength and cloud development.

Know how to get down quickly.  If you see a weather risk you do not wish to accept fly out away from terrain.  Find the greenest most obstruction free landing area you can and land as far away from even the smallest obstacles as possible. 

From the UHGPGA website safety briefings for the North Side:

1. While benching up at the north side fly to the front occasionally to check penetration.
2. If you are above the back ridge and cannot penetrate forward get as high as possible and fly to the west end.  Fly over the south side and land in the fields well south of the south side.

 

Flying in strong winds always increases pilot risk.  The stronger the wind the higher the risk.  There are strategies to mitigate those risks.  At the North Side, those would include staying well out in front of the back ridge.  All of the wind piling up from the bottom of the ridge to the top must combine to make it over the top.  As a result the winds will always be considerably stronger over the top of the ridge.  The depth of this compression zone changes with wind conditions.  

With stronger wind comes stronger turbulence everywhere those stronger winds exist.  

Always weigh your risks against your rewards.  Is moving slowly, or sitting parked in high winds at the edge of being blown back over the back ridge worth the added risk?

Flight (kiting) in known/knowable turbulence.

Flight (kiting) in known/knowable turbulence.

Mid Spring, a pilot was kiting on the Grass at the North Side LZ in strong, gusty, turbulent conditions. Pilot was kiting in the mid-section of the LZ nearer the sidewalk than the launch area. A strong gust picked up the pilot off the ground pushing him backward toward the parking lot. Pilot struck a parked vehicle in the parking lot, but never stopped flying the wing. He was able to safely bring the wing back down and disable the wing in the middle of the parking lot. No known injuries to the pilot, but damage to the struck vehicle did occur.

From the Book of Risk:

Don’t fly (kite) closer than 500 feet to the ground (thinks you don't want to hit), except at take off and landing, anywhere that turbulence might be present. 

This type of kiting is valuable to improving a pilots handling skills for in the air or on the ground.  The lesson is obviously to do it with a safe margin. 

Flight outside of conservative weather parameters.

Flight outside of conservative weather parameters.

In late winter, a speed wing pilot crash landed on the North Side of the Point of the Mountain.  By his own report the winds were switching at the time of launch and landing.  The pilot forward launched in a Southwest wind running down the road at the top of the back ridge.  The pilot soon encountered significant lift that did not make sense in his mind so he turned to the west to leave the lift.  At this time the lower wind sock was showing wind from the north northeast. Setting up for landing the pilot noticed his ground speed was excessive.  And he planed to skid the fast landing out on his butt.  At 20 feet AGL the pilot felt himself drop suddenly to the ground causing some injury.  

The pilots description of switching light winds combined with thermic winds indicates complicated wind gradients.  When a glider transitions from one air parcel to parcel moving slower or in a significantly different direction the glider’s air speed can be affected.  If the glider’s air speed is lowered it will immediately dive to regain its airspeed.  When this happens close to ground it feels as though you drop to the ground like a rock.   Lesson learned here is that even with light winds, switching conditions close to the ground increases your risk level.

Changing weather conditions increase our risk because it is possible that conditions can switch form safe to unsafe or the transition can be momentarily unsafe.  XC flying by its nature is flying in changing conditions.  When we are high this is less of a problem than when we are low.  Speed flying and ridge soaring cause us to spend a much greater amount of time close to the ground and therefore it is wise to be even more conservative in the weather we choose to fly in.  Just waiting for conditions to stabilize after a change can decrease our risk.

From the Book of Risk:

Begin your day early studying weather forecasts.  Learn to read them and what they mean.  Watch the wind, clouds and birds as you travel to and set up on launch.  As you fly continually assess the wind strength and cloud development.  

We had an accident today at the Y.  No reports have been filed and we don't know much.  What we do know is that the winds aloft forecast for the area was 21mph at 12k ft.  Measured winds at Baldy (11k ft) between 7AM and 5PM were consistently between 22mph and 29mph with gusts in the low to mid 30s.  By 6PM winds were 38mph gusting 54mph.

From the Book of Risk:

Mechanical turbulence and rotor downwind of obstacles start with winds at about 9 miles per hour.  At 12 miles per hour that turbulence has the strength to collapse a paraglider.  At 15 miles per hour the collapses become difficult to block.  At 18 miles per hour even the very best among us will begin to lose their wing. 

Conservative winds aloft numbers for intermediate pilots for the the Wasatch are 

12 mph at 12K ft.
  9 mph at 9K ft
  6 mph at 6k ft

Flight in known/knowable turbulence

On February 5, 2020 an intermediate pilot landed downwind through a switching wind directions and hit the ground hard enough to cause serious bruising.

The pilot hiked to the top of the North Side and noticed the wind at the top had switched from 4mph out of the northwest to 3mph out of the Southwest.  After kiting along the road at the top the pilot launched downwind.  Soon after launching the pilot encountered leeside thermic lift.  Not expecting lift the pilot turned west.  The lower wind sock was showing light northeast wind.  Despite the lower wind sock direction the pilot noticed his approach landing speed was above 30mph.  Suddenly the pilot's glide angle dropped more quickly the last 20 feet and unable to complete a flare he hit the ground hard.

Switching base wind with leeside thermals pulling localized wind toward the thermal core made a complex mix of convoluted air for the pilot to fly through.  From his description it is likely that he was flying in zero to light downwind air into stronger down wind air with the transition causing the sudden drop similar to flying through a wind gradient.

Strong thermals will always mess up what we believe the local wind direction to be.  Nonetheless, the safest conditions are with base winds consistent in both strength and direction or no wind at all.  The highest risks come with high winds followed closely by switching winds.

From the book of risk:

Turbulence can be knowable with some education in weather and wind effects.  Study the weather a lot, read a lot of books about weather especially that related to paragliding and hang gliding:

Understanding the Sky by Dennis Pagen

Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens

Mastering Thermaling by Kelly Farina

Weather for Dummies

Flight Outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters

This Spring between 5PM and sunset in mild conditions:

A P2 Novice pilot flying an EN C glider crash landed on the face of the lower ridge of the North Side.  Although the impact split the pilot's helmet, no immediate medical attention was required.

The apparent factor involved in this accident is equipment choice.  Higher classes of gliders spin and stall more easily than lower classes of gliders.  Many hours of flying are required to develop the muscle memory required to keep higher-aspect gliders open under duress.  

From the Book of Risk:  (Flight outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters). 

Problematic equipment choice involves flying an EN class paraglider without adequate education, experience or annual flight hours to prepare for the challenges of flying that class.

Experience recommendation for the EN C class:

500-1000 hours EN C 

Annual flying hours recommended for the EN C Class:

150 hours EN C (wear this glider out)

Flight in known/knowable turbulence.

On about March 10 an intermediate pilot attempted to launch from an unfamiliar nontraditional location.  Due to strong turbulence the paraglider collapsed and the pilot sustained serious leg injuries.  

The pilot was alone with no way to call for help.  As a result the pilot endured a long, life threatening self extraction.

Lessons learned;

See the Book-of-Risk paragraph under "Flight in knowable turbulence"

How to avoid it.

     Study the weather a lot, read a lot of books about weather especially related to                 paragliding and hang gliding:

     Understanding the Sky by Dennis Pagen

     Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens

    Mastering Thermaling by Kelly Farina

    Weather for Dummies

    Talk about the weather to other pilots you fly with.

How to mitigate the consequences.

     Don’t fly closer than 500 feet to the ground, except at take off and landing, anywhere that turbulence might be present.  See Thermic Scratching above.

     Learn and follow set guidelines for throwing your reserve.  See Late or no reserve    deployment in the Book of Risk.

     Always fly with a satellite tracking device, example Spot or Garmin in reach, whenever flying alone.